President Obama responds to San Bernardino shooting

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- President Obama says the American people should not become complacent in the face of mass shootings, such as the incident that unfolded on Wednesday in San Bernardino, California.

In an interview with CBS News, Obama had this to say:

"Obviously, our hearts go out to the victims and their families.

"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.

"There are some steps we could take - not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings - but to improve the odds that they don't happen as frequently. Common sense gun safety laws, stronger background checks.

"For those who are concerned about terrorism, some may be aware of the fact that we have a no-fly list where people can't get on planes, but those people we don't allow to fly could go into a store right now in the United States and buy a firearm and there's nothing that we can do to stop them. That's a law that needs to be changed.

"My hope is we are able to contain this particular shooting, and we don't yet know what the motives of the shooters are. What we do know is that there are steps we can take to make Americans safer, and that we should come together in a bi-partisan basis on every level of government to come together to make these rare as opposed to normal.

"We should never 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."