Obama on Charleston Shooting: ‘I Refuse to Act as if This Is the New Normal’

“[I was] simply making the point that we have to move public opinion. We have to feel a sense of urgency. Ultimately Congress will follow the people. We have to stop being confused about this. At some point as a country we have to reckon with what happens. It is not good enough simply to show sympathy. You don’t see murder on this kind of scale with this kind of frequency in any other advanced nation on Earth. Every country has violent, hateful, or mentally unstable people. What's different is not every country is awash with easily accessible guns. And so I refuse to act as if this is the new normal. Or to pretend that it's simply sufficient to grieve, and that any mention of us doing something to stop it is politicizing the problem.” (Applause)