Condemning the senseless gun-violence massacre at the historic Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal [AME] Church in Charleston, S.C., leaving nine dead Thursday, June 17, 2015, President Barack Obama pointed to the nation’s failing gun laws. Barely drinking age, 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof of Columbia, S.C., walked into 41-year-old Pastor and State Senator Clementa Pinckney’s bible study, listened for an hour, then opened fire killing Pinckney and eight other innocent victims. “You rape our women and are taking over our country,” Roof said before opening fire. “And you have to go.” What makes this massacre different from the Dec. 14, 2012 carnage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in New Town, Conn., where 20-year-old Adam Lanza killed 28 children and teachers, including himself, are undeniable racial overtones, stating for the record he had “to kill black people.”
Captured without incident today 14 hours after the incident on a “routine” traffic stop in his black Hyundai sedan escaping state lines some 240 miles from Charleston in Shelby, N.C, Roof was taken into custody with a birthday gift from his father Ben—a .45 caliber semiautomatic handgun. Whether that gun was the murder weapon he reloaded five times is anyone’s guess. Unlike the typical spates of murder-suicides, Roof had the presence to mind to escape the crime scene and flee across state lines. “We had a number of tips that were coming in,” said Charleston Police Chief Greg Mullen. “I am so pleased that we were able to resolve this case quickly . . . so that nobody else is harmed by this individual,” said Mullen, aware that two killer-inmates remain at large after a week, escaping Upstate New York’s Clinton Correctional Facility with the help of a female prison employee.
Pieces of the Loof’s picture are morphing into an unmistakable hate crime with Facebook photos released by Radar Online of Roof sitting atop the hood of his Hyundai sedan with license plates showing Confederate States of America. His friend Derrick “D-Gutta” Pearson posted a photo of Roof in a jacket featuring flags from the South Africa or Rhodesia’s Apartheid movement. Roof’s own words during the melee admitted, “he was there to kill black people,” attesting to his racist motives. Obama said the incident “raises questions about a dark part of history,” referring to past and lingering racism from the once Confederate South. “I’ve had to make statements like this too many times,” said Barack, referring to the government’s inability to stop the senseless gun violence sweeping the country. Obama blames the GOP-controlled Congress to stalling new gun control legislation.
Establishing unambiguous racism sheds light on the latest Charleston Church massacre but doesn’t change mentally ill perpetrators having easy access to handguns. “Communities like this have had to endure tragedies like this to many times. Once again, innocent people were killed because some who wanted to inflict harm had no trouble getting their hands on a gun,” said Obama, blaming yesterday’s tragedy on failed gun control legislation. Like Sandy Hook’s Lanza, Aurora Colorado’s 25-year-old James Eagan Holmes July 20, 2012 when he killed 12 in dark movie theater, 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner Jan. 22, 2011 when he shot former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) and killed six bystanders, mentally ill killers aren’t screened for buying handguns. When Virginia Tech Korean senior Seung-Hui Cho massacred 33 April 16, 2007, mental health finally came into focus.
However oblivious Roof’s parents to their son’s mental illness, giving him a handgun for his birthday should come with draconic consequences. Lanza’s mother Nancy gave him a gun for his birthday too before Dec. 14, 2012, the day of school massacre, where he shot her between the eyes before his rampage. While fought tooth-and-nail by the National Rifle Association and pro-Second Amendment states like South Carolina, it’s long overdue for gun control laws to ban firearms from the mentally ill, regardless of Second Amendment rights. For parents ignoring their kid’s problems, they need to be held accountable for gun violence. However estranged Roof’s parents, his father Ben made an inexcusable mistake giving his sick son a handgun for his birthday. If gun laws held parents accountable for acts of their dependent children, parents would think twice about birthday gifts.
When Roof is debriefed by the Charleston police and the FBI, it won’t take long for his mental illness to come out. Interest or affiliation with racist groups doesn’t rule out that the person isn’t mentally ill, regardless of the police or media seeking one motive for the killings. Even if the Attorney Gen. Loretta Lynch and the Justice Department determine Roof’s mass murder a hate crime, it doesn’t rule out his mental illness. “There is no greater coward than a criminal who enters a house of God and slaughters innocent people engaged in the study of scripture,” said NAACP President Cornell Brooks, expressing appropriate outrage over Roof’s crimes. Whether or not Roof committed mass murder in a church or any other venue, it’s still mass murder performed with a handgun. If gun laws held parents or gun stores accountable for selling to the mentally ill, lives could be saved.
