Obama is near the fourth quarter of his presidency, and he's been making serious moves to change some of the problems in America.

In July, he pardoned 46 nonviolent drug offenders. He reestablished a diplomatic relationship with Cuba. Now, he's spoken out against gun violence, stating that his inability to affect necessary change in gun violence has been the most frustrating aspect of his presidency.

"As I said a few months ago, and a few months before that, our thoughts and prayers are not enough," Obama said.

Have we become numb to these tragedies? Have those of us who oppose gun laws finally grown apathetic about the tragedies that just continue to wreck American communities? 

Thirteen people were killed at the Washington Navy Yard, three were killed at Fort Hood in Texas, nine were killed in a church in Charleston, South Carolina. 

On Thursday, 10 people were killed at Umpqua Community College in Oregon.

"Are we really prepared to say that we're powerless in the face of such carnage, that the politics are too hard?" Obama asked after 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012.

After the tragedy in Oregon on Thursday, after Obama's gun control agenda was rejected by Congress in 2013, after mass shooting after mass shooting, Obama's admitted his frustration in his inability to make this change alone. So he's calling on us to mobilize ourselves.

[anad]

"The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun," said Wayne LaPierre, the Vice President of the N.R.A. after Sandy Hook.

Isn't it about time we stopped accepting that rhetoric? 

"I'd ask the American people to think about how they can get our government to change these laws, and to save these lives and let these people grow up," Obama said. (You can watch the rest of his speech on Thursday below, courtesy of The New York Times.) 

Mr. President, we should-- and will-- do that. 

Check out 7 People Died in Gun Violence This Past Weekend. 

[via The New York Times]