President Obama made his first public comments on the tragic shooting deaths of two journalists during a live TV broadcast outside of Roanoke, Virginia, Wednesday.
"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 is that the number of people that die from gun-related incidents around this country dwarfs any deaths that happen through terrorism," he continued.
Obama was spoke with Monica Malpass of WPVI, ABC's Philadelphia affiliate as part of a wider-ranging interview set to air tomorrow.
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.
Wednesday morning, reporter Alison Parker and her cameraman Adam Ward were shot dead while doing a live report. Both worked for WDBJ7, Roanoke's CBS affiliate. A third victim, who was being interviewed at the time of the shooting, was also shot but survived.
The suspect, Vester Flanagan, later died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Flanagan had previously worked at WDBJ7 where he had been frequently reprimanded before being fired in early 2013.
Earlier Wednesday, White House press secretary Josh Earnest called the shooting "another example of gun violence that is becoming all too common" in America.
"While there's no piece of legislation that will end all violence in this country, there are some common sense things that only Congress can do that we know would have a tangible impact on reducing gun violence in this country," he added.