Obama: ‘We Don’t Know’ Gun Control Laws Would Have Prevented Church Massacre

‘No reform can guarantee elimination of violence’

“But as much as we grieve this particular tragedy, I think it's important, as I had mentioned at the White House, to step back and recognize that these tragedies have become far too commonplace. Few people understand the terrible toll of gun violence like mayors do. Whether it's a mass shooting like the one in Charleston, or individual attacks of violence that add up over time, it tears at the fabric of the community. And it costs you money, and it costs resources. It costs this country dearly.

More than 11,000 Americans were killed by gun violence in 2013 alone. Eleven thousand. If Congress had passed some common-sense gun safety reforms after Newtown, after a group of children had been gunned down in their own classrooms, reforms that 90 percent of the American people supported, we wouldn't have prevented every act of violence, or even most. We don't know it would have prevented what happened in Charleston. No reform can guarantee the 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… [But also without] suggesting that any debate about this involves a wild-eyed plot to take everybody's guns away.”

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