President Obama urged a room of Hollywood executives and employees on Tuesday to “think long and hard” about the messages gun violence in movies sends.
“We gotta make sure that we’re not glorifying it,” Obama told the crowd at DreamWorks studio, adding that movie executives had a “big responsibility” to the viewing public. “Because the stories you tell shape our children’s outlook and their lives.”
{mosads}Obama, who has sought to push tougher gun measures after a string of mass shootings across the country, briefly touched upon meetings Vice President Biden had with Hollywood executives earlier this year. “Those conversations need to continue,” he said. “The stories we tell matter,” he continued.
On the final day of a three-day trip to the West Coast, the president trumpeted the uptick of the economy, touting the entertainment industry as “one of America’s economic engines.”
“Entertainment is one of the bright spots of the economy,” he said.
Obama sought to pivot away from the rash of negative headlines that have plagued his administration’s botched HealthCare.gov website. He blamed Congress for “all the dysfunction and obstruction in Washington.”