President Barack Obama addressed the nation Thursday in the wake of the tragic shooting at a predominantly black church in Charleston, S.C., that killed nine people.
Speaking from the White House, Obama expressed "deep sorrow" over the senseless act of violence which took place Wednesday inside Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church.
"Any death of this sort is a tragedy. Any shooting involving multiple victims is a tragedy," said Obama. "There is something particularly heartbreaking about a death happening in a place in which we seek solace and we seek peace, in a place of worship."
"To say our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families and their community doesn't say enough to communicate the heartache, sadness and anger that we feel," he said. "I don't need to be constrained about the emotions that tragedies like this raise. I've had to make statements like this too many times. Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this too many times. We don't have all the facts, but we do know that once again innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun."
"Now is the time for mourning and for healing," he continued. "But 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. It doesn't happen in other places with this kind of frequency, and it is in our power to do something about it. I say this recognizing the politics in this town foreclose a lot of those avenues right now, but it'd be wrong for us not to acknowledge it, and at some point it's going to be important for the American people to come to grips with it, and for us to be able to shift how we think about the issue of gun violence collectively."
"The fact that this took place in a black church obviously also raises questions about a dark part of history," Obama went on. "This is not the first time that black churches have been attacked, and we know that hatred across raises and faiths pose a particular threat to our democracy and our ideals."
"Mother Emmanuel is in fact more than a church. This is a place of worship founded by African-Americans seeking liberty. This is a church that was burned to the ground, because its worshippers worked to end slavery...this is a sacred place in the history of Charleston and in the history of America."
U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch confirmed earlier this morning that Dylann Roof, the 21-year-old white man suspected as the shooter in what has been labeled a "hate crime," is in custody.
(Originally published June 18 , 2015 at 9:47 a.m. PT)