In a recent interview with BBC, President Obama identified his lack of success instituting tight gun control laws as that which has caused him the most frustration throughout his time in the White House.
"That is an area where if you ask me where has been the one area where I feel that I’ve been most frustrated and most stymied it is the fact that the United States of America is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun-safety laws," Obama said when asked by reporter Jon Sopel about his "unfinished business" regarding gun control.
"Even in the face of repeated mass killings," the president added.
Obama went on to contrast the number of U.S. citizens killed by terrorism since the fateful September 11, 2001, terrorist attack with the count of those killed by gun violence to emphasize the latter and suggest that gun violence is a more timely issue than terrorism.
"If you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it’s less than 100. If you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it’s in the tens of thousands," Obama alleged. "And for us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing. But it is not something that I intend to stop working on in the remaining 18 months."
The president has been ruthless in his pursuit of strict gun control laws. This year, the Justice Department plans to press forward on over a dozen new gun regulations it intends to enact before the president leaves office in 2017.
Most recently, the Obama administration started pushing to block certain seniors receiving Social Security benefits from owning firearms if they are deemed no longer able to handle their affairs.
Amid his gun control campaign, firearm production in the United States has seen a 140 percent under the Obama administration.
Meanwhile, the administration has been less forceful in its efforts against Islamic State (IS, also known as ISIS or ISIL) terrorists in the Middle East. Earlier this month, Obama insisted that there are "no current plans" to send more troops overseas to fight IS despite the fact that the strengthening terrorist organization is on its way to becoming a functional state.
Moreover, the U.S. Army is planning to cut 40,000 troops and lay off 17,000 Army civilian employees over the next two years, a move that Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ray Odierno said will prompt our enemies to "question" the United States’ ability to respond to conflict.
The Army has endured a 14 percent reduction in troops since 2010.