Please spare us from the shock and dismay being voiced by those in the political establishment of South Carolina. That state insists on flying the Confederate flag, a symbol of white supremacy, over the grounds of the state’s Capitol. It is a state with among the highest gun death rates, yet one that does not require background checks before an individual can buy a gun.

Take down that flag and strengthen your gun laws, South Carolina. Perhaps then, the condolences voiced by those who have defended the status quo will have real meaning, rather than serve as the empty gestures they appear.

Two months ago, in celebration of his 21st birthday, Dylann Roof walked into a South Carolina store and bought a .45-caliber Glock handgun. It did not matter that he had an arrest record or that he had run-ins with police that suggested this was a troubled young man.

He appeared to be a proud racist, posing for a photo in front of a car with Confederate plates. In another, he sports the flag patches of the former regimes of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa, when white minorities through racist laws ruthlessly governed them.

On Wednesday, that racist used that gun to murder nine African-American citizens inside the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, most of them pastors or elderly women.

Can tougher gun laws save lives? They certainly can. Mr. Roof would not have obtained that gun in Connecticut. Can acceptance of an historic emblem of racial hatred contribute to a culture in which the twisted views of someone like Mr. Roof find fertile soil? It certainly can.

According to the Center for American Progress, every 14 hours a person is killed by a gun in South Carolina, making it the seventh-deadliest state for gun homicide. Between 2002-2011, 16 police officers were murdered by guns, fourth highest nationally. It also ranked fourth in the number of women murdered by guns. Guns purchased in South Carolina end up being used in crimes in other states at more than twice the national average.

After the tragedy of the Sandy Hook shooting, Connecticut strengthened its gun laws. What will South Carolina do? History suggests nothing, so ingrained is devotion to the Second Amendment that even reasonable restrictions aren’t entertained.

That is why federal legislation is necessary to require universal background checks, mandatory cooling-off periods, ownership transfer limits and restrictions on automatic weapons.

Don’t let more innocents die without a response.