President Barack Obama addressed the mass shooting at a South Carolina church on Thursday, suggesting that tinkering with the gun laws in this country is in order after 21-year-old Dylan Roof fatally shot nine individuals Wednesday night at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.
“I don’t need to be constrained about the emotions tragedies like this raise,” the president said. “I’ve had to make comments like this too many times. Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times.”
“Now is the time for mourning and healing, but let’s be clear: At some point as a country, we have to reckon with the fact that this type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries,” Obama continued. “It is in our power to do something about it… I say this knowing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those opportunities.”
Gun control advocacy groups also called for action and an examination of the country’s gun laws Thursday.
“While the details are still unfolding, nine innocent lives were taken and others were injured as a result of last night’s horrific mass shooting,” said Sylvie Dessau, the volunteer chapter leader for Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. “South Carolina needs to focus on keeping guns out of dangerous hands, which would help prevent future tragedies. It’s time we stand up for the safety of South Carolinians and work to reduce gun violence that continues to claim too many lives across the state.”
Dan Gross, the president of the Brady Campaign also said tougher gun laws would help prevent future mass shootings.
“The facts of this tragedy remain under investigation, and there is still a lot that we don’t know. What we know is that every day, 88 lives are lost in shootings across our nation,” said Gross in a statement. “Most of these tragedies are preventable through sensible solutions that just keep guns out of the wrong hands: solutions like expanding Brady background checks on all gun sales, and shutting down the small number of ‘bad apple’ gun dealers that supply almost all crime guns.”
What’s painfully obvious is that both Obama and these gun-control organizations are pivoting away from the individual responsible for the attack and focusing on firearms and the Second Amendment. Hopefully the non-gun owning public is intelligent enough to see through the smoke and mirrors and rejects the notion that more laws would stop a determined sociopath from taking lives.
So, if I understand what I have heard so far correctly, this guy had felony drug convictions, and was on psychotropic drugs for mental illness?
If that is the case he should not have been able to legally purchase a firearm after a background check.
If a dealer sold him this firearm then that dealer should be heavily fined, shut down and have potential charges brought against him if they didn’t perform due diligence.
It sounds like the shooter broke the law before he ever pulled the trigger.
Just like sandy hook.
Obviously breaking the law is not an issue to these types of people.
More restrictive gun laws won’t fix the problem, but public hangings might slow them down.
Wolfpack-bravo out.
This person probably stole the firearm or perhaps acquired it from the black market. You know that illegal gun runners are partners of illegal drug runners. I would say this is one more good reason to really secure the borders. President Trump is absolutely correct isn’t he!
I don’t see Obama’s logic in trying to disarm the victims of mass shootings. You know, the responsibly armed civilian citizens. Won’t that serve to escallate mass shootings when the drug industry and distribution of the drugs that appear to be a catalist in each of these cases isn’t abolished. Isn’t it too easy to assume the drugs didn’t have anything to do with any of it because of their above the table status? It seems to me the drugs are a lot more dangerous than the guns. The guns have been around for decades if not hundreds of years and senseless mass shootings are a relatively new problem. So, what’s different? What’s changed? The new danger in the neighborhood isn’t narcotics and I really don’t think its guns. Its the drugs and our leaders failure to identify and see that target to stop the mass shootings.
0bama can try it, and probably will, but thank God that the 2nd Amendment gives us the right and the means to stop him. Mostly the means, because that right comes from God anyhow.
Ever notice that Obama has weighed in on issues only for which blacks have a gripe against whites and NEVER when the reverse is true.. I for one will NOT be lectured, scolded or brain-washed by that ignorant piece of shit!
bravo!
Well said , well said.
Imagine if rather than going at the 2nd Amendment, Obama went after what is likely the real cause behind this tragic shooting…the drug industry. This racist nut was on psychotropic drugs. As Obama makes hay from this tragedy on his anti-2nd Amendment agenda, just replace the word “guns” with “drugs” when he makes his monarchial pronouncements on steps he is going to take with his magic pen to castrate the right to keep and bear arms. The overreach that is coming always punishes law-abiding citizens. Will Obama use his pen to harm the drug industry? Why doesn’t he focus more on mental health, prescription drugs and abusive parents?
This murderer’s gun didn’t make him hear voices. His psychotropic drugs and probable schizophrenia did. But let’s just punish all the legal, law-abiding gun owners anyway because that’s fit the agenda.
Imagine if rather than going at the 2nd Amendment, Obama went after the what is likely the real cause behind this tragic shooting…the drug industry. This racist nut was on psychotropic drugs. As Obama makes hay from this tragedy on his anti-2nd Amendment agenda, just replace the word “guns” with “drugs” when he makes his monarchial pronouncements on steps he is going to take with his magic pen to castrate the right to keep and bear arms. The overreach that is coming always punishes law-abiding citizens. Will Obama use his pen to harm the drug industry? Why doesn’t he focus more on mental health, prescription drugs and abusive parents?
This murderer’s gun didn’t make him hear voices. His psychotropic drugs and probable schizophrenia did. But let’s just punish all the legal, law-abiding gun owners anyway because that’s fit the agenda.
he is good. he didn’t even crack a smile about this tragedy when he know damn good and well that it is his people who prompted and put this kid up to killing.
come America, wake up. since obama has been in office doesn’t it seems like these kinds of disasters have increased many fold?
what better way to promote an agenda of gun grabbing(obama and clintons desire) than to make there be more mass gun killings?
remember, both espouse communism, were is the ruling class(them) and the rest of us. do you want to be subservient? do you want to work the gulags? starvation and death await those who do not or will not “pull their own weight”. that friend is the change you are going to get not all the freebies that were promised in exchange for your vote.
Guns don’t kill people ( people do). I’m tired of hearing take firearms away from every law abiding people. When you take our rights away the criminal will always have weapon. This is like Johnny was a bad boy so you all have to be punished for what Johnny did. But that’s our leaders, instead of using there brains they use there ass to think. That’s why our great country is falling apart ( sorry but true) sad, sad.
The punk kid that did this horrible act with a gun, bought the gun on his 21 birthday
Kids today are too immature to drive at 16 or own a gun at 21 just my opinion.
But this kid was on drugs and if he was drug tested before hand the dumb kid would have not gotten the gun as easy.
Plus he had all kinds of hate pictures and words on blogs he started this also should have been checked into before hand and this could have been avoided.
Maybe we should be asking ourselves with some serious honesty why are children so immature at 21 years old in our day, when “children” at 14 years old used to be having families or very close to it a century or two ago. Now they can pay taxes, vote and go to war at 18 y.o. but are too immature to have a weapon, or function in life. Seems like the answer to this question is what needs to be talked about, NOT any thing related to weapons or even violence.
My bet, is that is has everything to do with the destruction of the family (no more mothers or fathers who stay together) and then those who do raise children don’t do this:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-06-19/last-rebels-25-things-we-did-kids-would-get-someone-arrested-today