--- description: President Obama delivered a statement Thursday on the Wednesday night shooting at a South Carolina church title: President Obama Calls for Reflection on Gun Control After Charleston Shooting image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4521b5f67a91f6bb/6988552e0b72e32cbf6e48a3/obama5.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [White House](/tag/white-house/) ## White House Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # President Obama Calls for Reflection on Gun Control After Charleston Shooting by [Maya Rhodan](/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 18, 2015 4:57 PM CUT  President Barack Obama pauses while speaking in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, June 18, 2015, on the church shooting in Charleston, S.C. President Barack Obama pauses while speaking in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington, June 18, 2015, on the church shooting in Charleston, S.C.Susan Walsh—AP by [Maya Rhodan](/author/maya-rhodan/) ## Maya Rhodan Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jun 18, 2015 4:57 PM CUT President Obama called for Americans to think hard about gun control in the country as he addressed [Wednesday night’s massacre at a historically black South Carolina church](http://time.com/3926149/charleston-shooting/ "undefined"), which left nine people dead. Too many times, Obama said Thursday, he has had to speak in the aftermath of the murder of innocent people at the hands of a gunman. “At some point we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of violence doesn’t happen in other advanced countries,” Obama said, speaking for several minutes from the White House press briefing room. “It doesn’t happen with this sort of frequency.” “There’s something particularly heartbreaking about \[this\] happening in a place in which we seek solace, in which we seek peace,” Obama added of the shooting at the [historic Emanuel AME Church ](http://time.com/3926257/charleston-church-emanuel-african-methodist/ "undefined")in Charleston, S.C. “This is a sacred place in the history of Charleston, in the history of America.” Shortly before the president spoke, news broke that authorities had captured the suspect the shooting, 21-year-old Dylann Roof. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the case as a hate crime, Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a press conference earlier Thursday. “Acts like this one have no place in our country and no place in a civilized society,” Lynch said. In his remarks, Obama also offered condolences to the victims’ families and said he and the First Lady personally knew several members of the Emanuel AME Church community. The fact that the church is historically black and located in the South “raises questions about a dark part of our history,” Obama said. Yet in noting the adversity the church has faced in its past—from racial injustice to natural disaster—Obama he is confident that the church will “rise again now as a place of peace.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3926543/president-obama-charleston-shooting/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3926543/president-obama-charleston-shooting/"},"headline":"President Obama Calls for Reflection on Gun Control After Charleston Shooting","datePublished":"2015-06-18T16:57:19.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T08:20:03.744Z","description":"President Obama spoke after the shooting at a South Carolina church","url":"https://time.com/3926543/president-obama-charleston-shooting/","keywords":["White House","Barack Obama","Obama","Charleston shooting"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4521b5f67a91f6bb/6988552e0b72e32cbf6e48a3/obama5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Maya Rhodan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/maya-rhodan/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4521b5f67a91f6bb/6988552e0b72e32cbf6e48a3/obama5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Barack Obama charleston shooting","caption":"Barack Obama charleston shooting","creditText":"Susan Walsh—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3926543/president-obama-charleston-shooting/","name":"President Obama Calls for Reflection on Gun Control After Charleston Shooting"}}]}] ```