WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama says the issue that has left him “the most stymied” is the debate over gun control.

Obama tells the BBC he is “frustrated” that the US does not have “commonsense gun safety laws, even in the face of repeated mass killings.”

Obama says that while fewer than 100 Americans have been killed by terrorism since September 11, 2001, tens of thousands have been killed by gun violence.

He says the nation’s inability to resolve the issue is “distressing” but that he intends to keep working on it.

Obama’s interview with the BBC was recorded Thursday afternoon, hours before a deadly shooting at a Louisiana movie theater.