Obama says Americans blind to ‘unique mayhem’ by gun violence
President Barack Obama has once again called for action against gun violence in the United States during a funeral ceremony held for slain black South Carolina state senator Clementa Pinckney.
Pinckney, who was also a pastor, was killed along with eight other black people during a shooting incident in a historic church in Charleston, South Carolina, last week.
"We've been blind to the unique mayhem that gun violence inflicts upon this nation," Obama said on Friday.
"The vast majority of Americans, the majority of gun owners, want to do something about this," Obama added.
Dylann Roof, 21, killed the nine black worshippers and he has been charged with nine counts of murder and could face the death penalty.
Delivering a eulogy for Rev. Pinckney, the US president said the country should address issues such as racism and gun violence.
“As a senator, he represented a sprawling swath of the Low Country, a place that has long been one of the most neglected in America, a place still wracked by poverty and inadequate schools, a place where people can still go hungry and the sick can still go without treatment,” Obama said.
"Whatever solutions we find will necessarily be incomplete. But it would be a betrayal of everything Reverend Pinckney stood for, I believe, if we allowed ourselves to slip into a comfortable silence again," he said.
Meanwhile, President Obama called for an end to the display of the Confederate flag to acknowledge the wrongs of slavery and violations of civil rights in the country.
He called the battle flag “a reminder of systemic oppression.”
The Charleston church killer, who was seen displaying the flag in photos, has been linked to an online diatribe professing allegiance to white supremacy.
AGB/AGB
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