Taken out of context in an Internet meme. Two sources for the original quote are:
 • "At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency." (2015-06-18), Statement by the President on the Shooting in Charleston, South Carolina
 • "We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months." (2015-10-01), Statement by the President on the Shootings at Umpqua Community College, Roseburg, Oregon
• Cf. Obama in Paris on December 1st, 2015: "I say this every time we've got one of these mass shootings; this just doesn't happen in other countries." (Paris itself had just been "hit with a series of simultaneous terrorist attacks. The majority of 130 deaths were in mass shooting attacks, where the ISIS-affiliated terrorists attacked public places with automatic rifles." — as reported in Alex Griswold (2015-12-01), "Obama Speaking in Paris: Mass Shootings ‘Don’t Happen in Other Countries’", mediaite.com ).

These types of mass shootings don't happen in other countries.

— Barack Obama

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "These types of mass shootings don't happen in other countries." in the context of "Taken out of context in an Internet meme. Two sources for the original quote are:
 • "At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency." (2015-06-18), Statement by the President on the Shooting in Charleston, South Carolina
 • "We are the only advanced country on Earth that sees these kinds of mass shootings every few months." (2015-10-01), Statement by the President on the Shootings at Umpqua Community College, Roseburg, Oregon
• Cf. Obama in Paris on December 1st, 2015: "I say this every time we've got one of these mass shootings; this just doesn't happen in other countries." (Paris itself had just been "hit with a series of simultaneous terrorist attacks. The majority of 130 deaths were in mass shooting attacks, where the ISIS-affiliated terrorists attacked public places with automatic rifles." — as reported in Alex Griswold (2015-12-01), "Obama Speaking in Paris: Mass Shootings ‘Don’t Happen in Other Countries’", mediaite.com )." to mean that wisdom is timeless.

Source: Wikiquote: "Barack Obama" (Misattributed) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed February 05, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
Barack Obama

About Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States of America from 2009 to 2017. Born in Hawaii, the son of a Kenyan father and a mother from Kansas, he won the 2008 presidential election and was re-elected president in November 2012. A member of the U.S. Democratic Party, he was the first African American president. Before becoming president, he represented the 13th district for three terms in the Illinois Senate from 1997 to 2004 and served as United States senator from Illinois between January 4, 2005 and November 16, 2008. While president, he was the recipient of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.