“This is a political choice that we make, to allow this to happen every few months in America,” he said.

Speaking in the White House briefing room to respond to a mass shooting for what US news outlets reported was the 15th time of his presidency, a visibly angry Obama took legislators to task for failing to enact laws to help keep guns out of the hands of killers.

He said anti-gun control positions taken by politically powerful gun lobbies are out of step with public opinion, and said the notion that the US constitution prohibits any regulation of guns “doesn’t make sense”.

He called on voters to demand change: “We collectively are answerable to those families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction.”

Ten people were confirmed dead and seven wounded after a 20-year-old man opened fire on the campus of Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon, authorities said.

Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said the gunman was dead, too, after a shootout with “two heroic officers” who responded to an emergency call at 10:38 (1738 GMT) am Thursday. Oregon State Police are investigating the shooting of the suspect.

Police special tactics and bomb squads have cleared the campus, while crime scene investigators were continuing to process the area for evidence, Hanlin said.

Authorities believed the gunman acted alone.

Hanlin said 10 people were confirmed dead and seven wounded, after previously conflicting casualty reports.

A candlelight vigil was held late Thursday in Roseburg to mourn the dead.

Douglas County Fire Marshal Ray Shoufler told broadcaster CNN that the shooter had apparently opened fire inside a classroom in a science building on the isolated, hilltop campus. News reports said that dead and wounded were found in multiple classrooms.

Cassandra Welding, a student at the college, told CNN she was in a morning class when she heard “a popping noise, almost like a balloon”
in a classroom next door.

A classmate opened the door to see what was happening and was shot in front of her, she said.

“We locked the door, turned off the lights,” she said. “We called 911 and called our parents and loved ones, just saying I love you. We didn’t know what was going to happen, whether those were our last words or not.”

Roseburg is 287 kilometers south of the state capital Portland, in rural Douglas County.

Umpqua Community College is the county’s only college-level educational institution, Hanlin said. The timber-logging region is a “peaceful community,” Hanlin said.

“This is a huge shock to the entire community, to have this level of crime,” he said.

Umpqua Community College’s website appeared to be offline Thursday after the shooting. State authorities listed its enrollment at more than 4,600 in 2013.

Hanlin said authorities believe they have identified the gunman, and the medical examiner would eventually release his name to the media.

“Let me be very clear: I will not name the shooter. I will not give him the credit he probably sought prior to this horrific and cowardly act,” Hanlin said.

He urged media to avoid repeating the gunman’s name “or engaging in any glorification and sensationalization of him. He in no way deserves it. Focus your attention on the victims and their families.”

The shooting was the 45th time a gun was fired in a US school since the beginning of 2015, according to gun-control group Everytown.

Young men with guns massacred 13 people at Columbine High School in Colorado in 1999, 32 people at Virginia Tech in Virgina in 2007, and
26 people including 20 small children at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.

ANA