As the president wrapped up his speech Sunday night, several opinions followed suit, including some here in Tulsa.
President Obama’s speech definitely started up several conversations. 2 Works For You hung out at the “R” Bar earlier in Brookside, where some of the people said, ultimately, they stand behind him and our government.
Even in a place where many were geared up for Sunday Night Football, all eyes were on the president as he mapped out how the U.S. would respond to ISIS.
“It’s just … unbelievable, ” said Blake Hoster.
Obama touched on gun safety for all Americans—a hot button issue for the country, one that can sometimes be even hotter for Oklahoma.
“We’ve reached the point where we’ve got to do something. Tens of thousands of people die every year from gun violence … I mean , we got a mass shooting problem,” said Lance Polk.
“It doesn’t matter what laws you impose. I mean, the gun laws aren’t going to keep terrorist attacks from happening, ” said Hoster.
But most appreciated that the president told everyone that Muslim-Americans deserve better than to be judged by their most extreme.
“There’s bad apples in the bunch, cops, different races, dogs, you can’t judge everybody by a couple people, ” said Robert Smith.
And, ultimately, when it comes to homeland security,they say, Oklahoma and all of the U.S. are in good hands.
“When you have these mass shootings I understand that it can be hard to combat those because they’re so random,” said Polk. “If there’s one thing I do have faith in it’s our military.”
Local group, CAIR, sent a statement regarding the president’s speech Sunday saying, “The Oklahoma chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-OK), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today welcomed President Obama’s rejection of Islamophobia during last night’s prime-time address to the nation on his plans to combat terrorism and to defeat ISIS. In his address, President Obama repudiated the view that there should be a war on Islam, acknowledged that the vast majority of the victims of terrorism are Muslims and that extremists are a “tiny fraction” of Muslims worldwide, and rejected both discrimination against American Muslims and a religious test for those admitted to this country.”