Hillary Clinton says the US has to face "hard truths" about guns and race in the wake of a shooting at a black church in South Carolina.
"How many innocent people in our country, from little children to church members to movie theatre attendees, how many people do we need to see cut down before we act?" the Democratic presidential candidate said during a speech in Las Vegas.
Clinton was speaking at a meeting of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials, an event that afforded her the opportunity to campaign before a largely supportive crowd of Hispanic politicians.
But campaign politics were overshadowed by the slaying of nine people at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston.
Clinton had campaigned in Charleston earlier on Wednesday, and said she learned of the attack after she landed in Las Vegas.
Echoing earlier comments by President Barack Obama, Clinton said the shooting required a reckoning with the country's history of gun violence.
"In order to make sense of it we have to be honest," she said.
"We have to face hard truths about race, violence, guns and division."
The suspect in the shooting, Dylann Storm Roof, 21, was described as an apparent "disaffected white supremacist" by the Southern Poverty Law Center.
The Justice Department said it had started a hate crime investigation.
The prospect that race played a role in the shooting hung over Clinton's remarks.
Speaking of critics of immigrants, Clinton said: "When I hear words of hatred and anger directed at any of our fellow human beings I ask myself, 'What is motivating that?"'
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