Obama meets with Michael Bloomberg about gun violence
President Obama on Wednesday met with former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to discuss gun violence, the White House said.
Specifically, they discussed ways to keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have access to them and how to help state and local officials address gun violence.
Immediately following the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California -- before it was clear it was an act of terrorism -- Mr. Obama forcefully condemned the "pattern" of mass shootings in the United States.
"The one thing we do know is that we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world," the president said in an interview with CBS News' Norah O'Donnell,. "We should never that think this is something that just happens in the ordinary course of events because it doesn't happen with the same frequency in other countries."
Mr. Obama also thanked Bloomberg on Wednesday for the role he played as U.N. Special Envoy for Cities and Climate in helping to secure the global climate agreement reached in Paris earlier this month. The two discussed the importance of state and local actions in implementing the agreement as well as the president's Climate Action Plan.
Mr. Obama's senior adviser Valerie Jarrett also attended the meeting.