Obama on WDBJ Shooting: Gun Violence ‘Dwarfs’ Terrorism Deaths

“It breaks my heart every time you read about or hear about these kind of incidents”, he said during a planned television interview at the White House.

“What we know”, he continued, “is that the number of people who die from gun-related incidents around this country dwarfs any deaths that happen through terrorism”.

President Obama has called the shooting heartbreaking but even his words will have little comfort for the country that has seen countless headlines about gun violence in recent years.

The suspect posted video of the shooting on his social media account before reportedly shooting himself while being pursued by police.

Figures show more than 33,100 incidents of gun violence have occurred in the US so far in 2015, with 8487 deaths.

The station aired a clip of his comments on the shootings early – at time of writing, the president had not otherwise commented publicly on the attack.

President Obama on Wednesday said it “breaks my heart” to hear of another shooting tragedy, and seemed to argue that America is overly focused on terrorism at a time when more deaths are being caused by gun violence. The shooter, a former employee from the TV station they worked at, later died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. “I hope that that grassroots movement to say that people can have guns for hunting and for protection but that we can also have some common sense rules – like background checks – that those will make a difference”.

A Franklin County Sheriff said they could not confirm the motive but said they would continue with investigations.