WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama on Thursday expressed anger over the “senseless” shooting in a black church in South Carolina and said Americans had to confront the fact that frequent incidents of gun violence do not occur in other advanced countries.

Obama, in a statement to reporters at the White House, said he and his wife, Michelle, knew Reverend Clementa Pinckney, the pastor of the historic African-American church in Charleston, who was killed along with eight others on Wednesday night.

“To say our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families and their community doesn’t say enough to covey the heartache and the sadness and the anger that we feel,” Obama said, adding it was particularly heartbreaking that the incident occurred in a place of worship. Obama has had to play the role of consoler-in-chief after shootings repeatedly throu­ghout his presidency.

Published in Dawn June 19th, 2015

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