Just hours after the horrific and apparently racially motivated killings at a Charleston, S.C., church, a gun control group headed by former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords seized on it to champion its cause against guns.

Giffords and husband Mark Kelly, cofounders of Americans for Responsible Solutions, issued a statement decrying “gun violence” involved in the death of nine blacks at Emanuel A.M.E. Church. A white man, Dylann Storm Roof, 21, has been identified by police as the alleged shooter.