Obama says church shooting shows need for reckoning on guns

US President Barack Obama delivers remarks in reaction to the shooting deaths of nine people at an African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina, from the podium in the press briefing room of the White House in Washington June 18, 2015. {photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama said Thursday the church shooting that left nine people dead shows the need for a national reckoning on gun violence. He acknowledged, though, that there's no appetite in the US Congress for tighter gun laws.

Obama, who knew the pastor killed in the attack, said he has been called upon too often to mourn the deaths of innocents killed by those "who had no trouble getting their hands on a gun."

"Now is the time for mourning and for healing," the president said. "But let's be clear. At some point, we as a country will have to reckon with the fact that this type of 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."

Those killed in Wednesday night's shooting by a white man at the historic black Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, included pastor and state Sen. Clementa Pinckney. Obama and first lady Michelle Obama got to know Pinckney during the 2008 presidential campaign, when the pastor was an early Obama supporter. They knew several other members of the church as well. The president referred fondly to "Mother Emanuel" as more than a church, calling it "a sacred place in the history of Charleston and in the history of America."

And while Obama said that because the shooting is under investigation, he was constrained from talking about details of the case, he added with clear frustration and anger, "I don't need to be constrained about the emotions that tragedies like this raise."