Excerpt:
Dylann Roof, 21, has been arrested and charged with shooting nine people at the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17. The response of president Barack Obama marks a contrast from the Fort Hood massacre in 2009.
In the wake of Charleston, President Obama issued a lengthy statement expressing "our deep sorrow over the senseless murders," adding "any shooting involving multiple victims is a tragedy." The FBI, the president said, is opening a "hate crime investigation." And it was "important for the American people to come to grips with it, and for us to be able to shift how we think about the issue of gun violence collectively." That differs substantially from the president's response to Fort Hood.
On November 5, 2009, U.S. Army major Nidal Hasan gunned down 13 unarmed men and women, including Francheska Velez, a 21-year-old private who pleaded for the life of her unborn child. The Muslim major killed two other women that day along with 10 men, more than twice as many victims as the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.