Obama's biggest frustration: Gun control

David Jackson | USA TODAY

President Obama says the biggest frustration of his tenure is the lack of new gun control laws.

The one area "where I feel that I've been most frustrated and most stymied" is the fact that the United States "is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient common-sense, gun safety laws," Obama told the BBC in an interview.

"Even in the face of repeated mass killings," he added.

The president spoke just hours before a man opened fire with a handgun in a Louisiana movie theater, killing at least two people and injuring at least nine others.

During the BBC interview devoted mostly to his Africa trip, Obama said that "if you look at the number of Americans killed since 9/11 by terrorism, it's less than 100 -- if you look at the number that have been killed by gun violence, it's in the tens of thousands."

He added: "For us not to be able to resolve that issue has been something that is distressing. But it is not something that I intend to stop working on in the remaining 18 months."