What's left unsaid is "right now".

Obama seeks to allay fears: 'I actually don’t think we should ban handguns'

The man has an adversarial relationship with the truth.

His goal isn't to reduce gun violence. If so, by his logic, the focus would have to be handguns. They're the weapon of choice for criminals. Rifles, and the subset, scary black rifles, are used rarely in crime. Hammers are used more often. In truth, Obama believes in the insurrectionist interpretation of the Second Amendment and the rifle is the weapon of choice for the insurrectionist. His current focus on "assault weapons" isn't about mass killings. It isn't about reducing gun violence. It isn't about reducing crime. It's about removing a threat to the progressive agenda. So handguns aren't so important now. They'll come later.