US President Barack Obama has again urged for changes to gun laws in America in an emotional press conference in Washington.

The calls come after at least 10 people were shot at the Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Oregon about 10.40am on Thursday October 1 (American time).

A 26-year-old man, believed to be responsible for the shootings, later died in a shootout with police.

Seven people were also reportedly wounded in the incident – three critically – and Mr Obama’s frustration spilled out during the press conference.

• Mass shooting at US Community College
• Muslim boy, 14, arrested in US for making clock
• Three dead in University shooting 

“This is a political choice that we make to allow this to happen every few months in America,” he said.

“We collectively are answerable to these families who lose their loved ones because of our inaction.

Mr Obama said polling showed the majority of Americans wanted changes to gun laws.

“We have a Congress that explicitly blocks us from even collecting data on how we could potentially reduce gun deaths,” Mr Obama said.

“How can that be?”

Mr Obama said the United States was the only advanced nation to do nothing to change gun laws in the face of so many mass shootings, saying Great Britain and Australia had done so and almost eliminated such incidents.

“But, as I said just a few months ago, and I said a few months before that and I said each time I see one of these mass shootings – our thoughts and payers are not enough,” he added.

“It’s not enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel and it does nothing to prevent the carnage from being inflicted some place else in America – next week or a couple of months from now.”

Mr Obama said people who perpetrated the mass shootings, like Oregon, had a mental illness.

“It cannot be this easy for someone who wants to hurt people to get their hands on a gun.”

Mr Obama added that there were enough guns for every American man, woman and child and they were doing nothing to make the country safer.

Watch Mr Obama’s speech below