(MENAFN- The Peninsula) In the aftermath of the South Carolina shooting at a black church, President Barack Obama told US mayors yesterday that racism remains a "blight" the US has to "combat together".
He also reiterated support for gun control legislation, saying tragedies like the one in South Carolina call for a response beyond grief.
Obama voiced confidence that a "shocked and heartbroken" nation would tighten permissive gun laws, striking a more strident tone after the Charleston shooting. He said change would come one day, as he took on detractors who accused him of politicising the deaths of nine black worshippers. Describing gun crime as a crisis that "tears at the fabric of a community" and "costs this country dearly," he said: "More than 11,000 Americans were killed by gun violence in 2013 alone." He accused Congress of failing to act after a mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012 which killed 26 people, including 20 children, at Sandy Hook elementary school.
"We wouldn't have prevented every act of violence or even most," Obama said. "We don't know if it (gun reform) would have prevented what happened in Charleston. No reform can guarantee elimination of violence, but we might still have some more Americans with us. We might have stopped one shooter, some families might still be whole. You all might have to attend fewer funerals."
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