IN PHOTO: A police officer continues to stand guard during a vigil outside Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, June 20, 2015.
IN PHOTO: A police officer continues to stand guard during a vigil outside Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, June 20, 2015. The church will reopen tomorrow for its first service since Dylann Roof, a 21-year-old with a criminal record, is accused of killing nine people at a Bible-study meeting in the historic African-American church in Charleston, South Carolina REUTERS/Carlo Allegri

U.S. President Barack Obama has applauded Australia’s gun laws while contemplating on his country’s tolerance for mass shootings. Mr Obama spoke to comedian Marc Maron about the recent shootings in Charleston.

Dylann Roof, 21, has reportedly shot and killed nine people. Roof spent an hour with a Bible study group before pulling a gun out of his backpack and began shooting. He was charged with nine counts of murder. U.S. authorities said Roof has been linked to online racist manifestos supporting white supremacy. Mr Obama declared that there was “no other advanced nation on Earth” that tolerated frequent mass shootings, reports The Guardian.

“The truth of the matter is this doesn’t happen with this kind of frequency in other countries,” he told Maron. Mr Obama recalled that Australia had a mass killing 25 years ago. “It was just so shocking the entire country said, ‘well we’re going to completely change our gun laws’ and they did. And it hasn’t happened since,” added the U.S. president.

Following the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, then prime minister John Howard had pushed laws prohibiting automatic, semi-automatic and pump action guns, and enacted a comprehensive gun buy-back scheme. Parts of the Australian community had opposed the move but the gun ban laws still pushed through.

Mr Obama was not optimistic about similar changes in the U.S. He said he does not think any legislative action would be taken in Congress. The president believes unless the American public “feels a sufficient sense of urgency,” change will not happen.

CNN reports that the U.S. has been shaken by several high-profile mass shootings in the last few years. Unlike the U.S., Australia has implemented tight gun controls for almost two decades. The gun culture in the U.S. is a significant factor that must be considered before imposing a similar ban.

Howard admitted that Australia had a lower gun death rate in an interview with CNN in 2013. He said the country does not have constitutional guarantees but it did not change the fact that the murder rate using guns has dropped.

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