‘Too many times’: Obama makes gun control plea after church killings

Barack Obama has told Americans the time is approaching when they will have to face up to their country’s record on gun crime. The U.S. President (pictured) was speaking after nine worshippers at a black church in South Carolina were shot dead by a young white man. The suspect, Dylann Roof, an admirer of white supremacist regimes, was arrested in a neighbouring state after fleeing the scene. “I’ve had to make statements like this too many times,” Obama said, referring to a series of mass murders in the United States in recent years. “Once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun.”

Let’s be clear: At some point we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.

President Obama

Obama has repeatedly called for a review of U.S. gun laws but his pleas have fallen on deaf ears in Washington. Roof, 21, was taken into custody in Shelby, North Carolina, after being stopped by police who were tipped off by a member of the public. A manhunt had earlier been launched for a white male who is thought to have sat with worshippers at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal church in downtown Charleston for an hour before opening fire. County Coroner Rae Wooten said the killer was accepted by the group before becoming aggressive and violent. A relative of Clementa Pinckney, a pastor and state senator who was killed in the massacre, said she was told by one of the survivors that the gunman had said: “You rape our women and you’re taking over our country and you have to go.” He is said to have reloaded his weapon five times.

It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.

President Obama

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