Barack Obama said that thoughts and prayers are no longer enough as Americans respond to another mass shooting. The US president addressed the nation from the White House after at least nine people were killed by a gunman at Umpqua Community College in Oregon. As he noted, he's done this before. Mass shootings have become embedded in the arc of his presidency. He's travelled to Aurora, Colorado; Tucson, Arizona; Charleston, South Carolina, and numerous other cities to mourn victims of gun violence.

In responding to the shooting, Obama asked how anyone with a straight face can make the argument that more guns will make people safer. "I'd ask the American people to think about how they can get our government to change these laws and to save lives and to let young people grow up, and that will require a change of politics on this issue."

Obama, with anger in his voice, said the nation has become numb to such shootings and the response has become routine. "I hope and pray that I don't have to come out again during my tenure as president to offer my condolences to families in these circumstances," Obama said. "But based on my experience as president, I can't guarantee that. And that's terrible to say."

The fatal shootings at the Oregon community college are the latest of many deadly rampages in the United States. IBTimesUK looks at some of the worst shooting incidents in recent years.

20 April 1999: Two heavily armed teenagers went on a rampage at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado, shooting 12 students and a teacher and wounding more than 20 others before taking their own lives.

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6 March 1999: Eric Harris points out a sawn-off shotgun held by Dylan Klebold at a makeshift shooting range in Douglas County, Colorado. Approximately six weeks after this video was made, Klebold and Harris killed 13 people at Columbine High School Jefferson County Sheriff's Department via Getty Images

October 2002: Two men ambushed 13 people, killing 10 of them, in a string of sniper-style shootings that terrorised the Washington DC area.

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19 October 2002: A woman peers out from behind a petrol pump in Fairfax, Virginia, as the search for the Washington area sniper continues Reuters

16 April 2007: A gunman slaughtered 32 people and himself at Virginia Tech, a university in Blacksburg, Virginia.

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17 April 2007: A student cries during assembly a day after student Seung-Hui Cho killed 32 people at Virginia Tech Reuters

3 April 2009: A Vietnamese man opened fire at an immigrant services centre in Binghamton, New York, killing 13 people and wounding four. He then killed himself.

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6 April 2009: Flowers decorate a sign in front of the American Civic Association building in Binghamton, New York, after gunman Jiverly Wong killed 13 people Reuters

5 November 2009: A gunman opened fire at Fort Hood, a US Army base in Texas, killing 13 people and wounding 32. The gunman, an Army major and psychiatrist, was sentenced to death for the rampage.

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5 November 2009: People take cover as shots ring out from Fort Hood's Soldier Readiness Processing Center Reuters

8 January 2011: Then-US Representative Gabrielle Giffords was the target of an assassination attempt by a gunman in Tucson, Arizona, in which six people were killed and 13, including Giffords, were wounded.

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9 January 2011: Flags fly at half mast in front of the US Capitol dome in honour of the victims of the shooting in Arizona that injured US Representative Gabrielle Giffords Reuters

2 April 2012: A former student killed seven students at Oikos University, a small Christian school in Oakland, California. The suspect is awaiting trial.

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2 April 2012: Police officers cordon off the scene of a shooting at Oikos University in Oakland, California Reuters

20 July 2012: A masked gunman killed 12 people and wounded 70 when he opened fire at a midnight premiere of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises in Aurora, a Denver suburb.

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James Eagan Holmes, the man accused of shooting dead 12 people in a cinema during a midnight screening of a Batman film, makes his first court appearance in Aurora, Colorado Reuters

5 August 2012: A white supremacist walked into a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, shot six worshippers and wounded four others, including a policeman. The gunman killed himself after being shot by a police officer.

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7 August 2012: Sikhs attend a vigil in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, after six worshippers were killed at a Sikh temple Reuters

14 December 2012: A gunman killed 20 children and six adults and himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut.

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18 December 2012: Children look through the windows of a school bus in Newtown, Connecticut after a gunman killed 26 people at Sandy Hook Elementary School Reuters

26 July 2013: A man went on a shooting spree at an apartment complex in Hialeah, Florida, killing six people. The shooter was killed by police.

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26 July 2013: Two women grieve after a shooting incident that left seven people dead, in Hialeah, a suburb of Miami Reuters

16 September 2013: A former Navy reservist working as a government contractor killed 12 people at the Washington Navy Yard. Eight people were injured. The gunman was killed by police.

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16 September 2013: A helicopter pulls what appears to be a shooting victim up as it hovers over a rooftop on the Washington Navy Yard campus Reuters

17 May 2015: Rival motorcycle gangs killed nine at a restaurant in Waco, Texas. More than 170 people were arrested.

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18 May 2015: Police officers monitor the scene of a shooting from the roof of the Twin Peaks Restaurant in Waco, Texas, after a shoot-out among motorcycle gangs Reuters

17 June 2015: A white supremacist gunman killed nine black churchgoers during a Bible study session at a historic, predominantly black church in Charleston, South Carolina. The suspect is awaiting trial.

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18 June 2015: Police lead suspected shooter Dylann Roof, 21, into the courthouse in Shelby, North Carolina Jason Miczek/reuters

1 October 2015: A gunman burst into a community college in southwest Oregon and opened fire, killing nine people and wounding seven others before police shot and killed him.

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1 October 2015: People take part in candlelit vigil following a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon Reuters

Obama called for changes in the nation's gun laws, though it's unclear whether the changes often proposed would have prevented the latest massacre. The White House's failed push for gun control legislation after the 2012 Newtown, Connecticut, shooting — in which 20 children and six adults were killed at a school — deeply frustrated Obama.