Unfortunately Simon, what you said about the Confederate Flag, also applies to the current flag- Afghanistan and Iraq being notable examples of failed wars and America's desire to force our ideas of democracy on other cultures.
The president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis was never convicted of any crime and all charges were abandoned years later, when the Federal government could not prove their charges in a court of law. This information is not found in regular school history books, either. I'm a born yankee, but facts are facts. It was technically legal for them to succeed from the union, but Lincoln started a war. I believe a new Washington DC corporate UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION ( all caps- different from the original one) enacted about 10 years after the Civil war has closed that loophole.
The Charleston shooter, Dylann Roof, had been arrested months earlier and was caught with powerful prescription drugs-- drugs that can cause a person to act out violently.
Many of the mass killers have that in common- using psychiatric drugs with known violent side effects- this doesn't fit the liberal media playbook, so you must dig for that info, Simon. had he not been using those drugs, it is very likely there would have been no mass murder-- big pharma has major blame here, IMO.
http://www.wnd.com/2015/06/big-list-of-drug-induced-killers/
We had 2 mass shootings this past weekend- but they were black on black and not of any interest to Obama.
http://www.truthrevolt.org/news/philadelphia-detroit-suffer-mass-shootings-over-weekend