PRESIDENT Barack Obama has warned America has -become numb to the horror of mass shootings, holding -Australia up as a country that managed to get gun laws right after a single massacre. 
Mr Obama made the -impassioned plea for America to change gun laws just hours after yesterday's college slaying, saying it was a "political choice" the country was making to allow its citizens to be shot dead in large numbers every few months.
"We are not the only country on earth that has people with mental illnesses or who want to do harm to other -people," he said.
"But we are the only -advanced country on earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months.
"We know that other -countries, in response to one mass shooting, have been able to craft laws that -almost eliminate mass shootings.
"Friends of ours - Great Britain, Australia - countries like ours. "So we know there are ways to prevent it." Mr Obama - making the live address to the nation from the White House - accepted he would be criticised for politicising the -matter.
The president listed shootings after which he said America had gone through the same conversation.
"We talked about this after Columbine and Blacksburg, after Tuscon, after Newtown, after Aurora, after Charleston.
"It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun." He said the aftermath of the shootings had become routine - his comments, the conversations about the issues, the pro-gun lobby response.
"We've become numb to this," Mr Obama said.
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