President Barack Obama is highlighting Tennessee teenager Zaevion Dobson’s act of heroism in an effort to keep the pressure on Congress to act on gun control.
The president used a pre-holiday news vacuum to highlight the Dec. 17 shooting in Knoxville — even as the White House acknowledges that new gun restrictions on Capitol Hill are going nowhere soon, and Obama reportedly readying his own executive actions.
Obama tweeted from his @POTUS account: “Zaevion Dobson died saving three friends from getting shot. He was a hero at 15. What’s our excuse for not acting?”
He included a link to The Washington Post’s story about Dobson, who was shot and killed when he dove on top of three teenage girls to shield them after two men approached a group of his friends and — seemingly at random — began shooting.