--- title: Hillary Clinton Reacts To Charleston Murders, Calls For Action on Guns description: The Democratic candidate makes her first public comments since the attack canonical: https://time.com/3927143/charleston-church-shooting-hillary-clinton/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-06-18T20:13:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:59.215Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton Reacts To Charleston Murders, Calls For Action on Guns og:description: The Democratic candidate makes her first public comments since the attack og:url: https://time.com/3927143/charleston-church-shooting-hillary-clinton/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ca728f6d8bbe893/6988553d428a9e974dccdca2/hillary-clinton5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4230 og:image:height: 2379 og:image:alt: Hillary Rodham Clinton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton Reacts To Charleston Murders, Calls For Action on Guns twitter:description: The Democratic candidate makes her first public comments since the attack twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ca728f6d8bbe893/6988553d428a9e974dccdca2/hillary-clinton5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Calls for Action on Guns After Charleston Shooting > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: Second Amendment: The Origins of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms [Watch (HLS stream): Second Amendment: The Origins of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qZX90LbJ.m3u8) (3:22)  _Published 2011-06-30. Why did the framers of the U.S. constitution demand the right of the people to keep and bear arms?_  by [Philip Eliott / Las Vegas](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Eliott / Las Vegas Senior Correspondent Jun 18, 2015 8:13 PM UTC  Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a campaign stop in North Charleston, S.C. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a campaign stop in North Charleston, S.C. David Goldman—AP  by [Philip Eliott / Las Vegas](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Eliott / Las Vegas Senior Correspondent Jun 18, 2015 8:13 PM UTC Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton challenged the nation Thursday to take new actions to curb gun violence in her first reactions to the shooting inside a historically black Charleston, S.C., church that left nine dead. “How many people do we need to see cut down before we act?” she asked, during a summit of elected and appointed Latino politicians meeting in Las Vegas. She began by saying that her thoughts and prayers were with the victims and their families in the shooting, before turning to a broader discussion of police. “So as we mourn and as our hearts break a little more, and as we send this message of solidarity that we will not forsake those who have been victimized by gun violence, this time we have to find answers together,” Clinton said. Police said they had in custody suspect Dylann Storm Roof, a 21-year-old man who spent almost an hour inside the church Wednesday night before opening fire. Officials were not ascribing motives for Roof, who is white, and his killings inside one of Charleston’s most prominent black churches. “Cut down at prayer. Murdered in a house of God. It just broke my heart. That of course is the last place we should see violence. But we shouldn’t see it anywhere,” Clinton said. “In the days ahead, we will again ask what led to this terrible tragedy and where we as a nation need to go. In order to make sense of it, we have to be honest. We have to face hard truths about race, violence, guns and division.” Clinton visited Charleston on Wednesday before the killings. “I left feeling not only great about Charleston but also great about America,” Clinton said of the South Carolina city. When she landed in Las Vegas hours later, she learned of the killings. “The shock and pain of this crime of hate strikes deep,” she said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3927143/charleston-church-shooting-hillary-clinton/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3927143/charleston-church-shooting-hillary-clinton/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Calls for Action on Guns After Charleston Shooting","datePublished":"2015-06-18T20:13:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:59.215Z","description":"The Democratic candidate makes her first public comments since the attack","url":"https://time.com/3927143/charleston-church-shooting-hillary-clinton/","keywords":["Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Guns"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ca728f6d8bbe893/6988553d428a9e974dccdca2/hillary-clinton5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Philip Eliott / Las Vegas"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9ca728f6d8bbe893/6988553d428a9e974dccdca2/hillary-clinton5.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Rodham Clinton","caption":"Hillary Rodham Clinton","creditText":"David Goldman—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":"https://time.com/3927143/charleston-church-shooting-hillary-clinton/","name":"Hillary Clinton Calls for Action on Guns After Charleston Shooting"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Second Amendment: The Origins of the Right to Keep and Bear Arms","description":"Why did the framers of the U.S. constitution demand the right of the people to keep and bear arms?","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/qZX90LbJ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2011-06-30T16:09:26.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/qZX90LbJ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3927143/charleston-church-shooting-hillary-clinton/","duration":"PT3M22S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3927143/charleston-church-shooting-hillary-clinton/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```