Panelists on Fox News’ “Outnumbered” show dinged President Obama Thursday for suggesting during a press briefing that stricter gun control laws could have prevented a mass shooting this week in Charleston, S.C.
Fox co-host Andrea Tantaros complained that mass shooting events in the United States are almost always accompanied by “divisive, two-sided, nasty political debate.”
She added it was “surprising” Thursday to see the speed with which the president mentioned gun control, adding that it’s “a bit hyperbolic to come out and do this blanket declaration that all guns are bad.”
Fox contributor Judge Alex Ferrer suggested Obama’s remarks may have been a bit “opportunistic.”
The alleged terrorist, Dylann Storm Roof, 21, opened fire Wednesday evening on a group of parishioners who had gathered for a prayer meeting at Charleston’s historically black Emanuel AME Church, killing nine.
Roof allegedly prayed with the parishioners for an hour before announcing that he had come with the explicit intention of killing black people. He was later apprehended Thursday morning by police officials.
At around the time of Roof’s arrest, Obama addressed the nation on the shooting.
“Until the investigation is complete, I am necessarily constrained to the talk about the details of the case, but I don’t have to be constrained to talk about the emotions that the tragedies like this raise,” he said. “I have had to make statements like this too many times. Communities have had to endure tragedies like this too many times. We don’t have all of the facts, but we do know that, once again, innocent people were killed in part because someone who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun.”
He added that now is the time for “mourning” and “healing.”
Obama added, however, Americans “have to reckon with the fact that this mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries. It doesn’t happen in other places with this kind of frequency. And it is in our power to do something about it.”
“At some point, it’s going to be important for the American people to come to grips with it,” Obama continued. “And for us to be able to shift how we think about the issue of gun violence collectively,” he said.
