A man who claims to be the leader of an Alabama Ku Klux Klan group condemned Wednesday night's racially-motivated mass shooting in Charleston, S.C., and said he does not believe violence is the right way to express views.

However, an organization that monitors hate groups questions whether nonviolence is truly the KKK's platform.

Charleston police say a white man entered a historically black church in Charleston Wednesday night and shot and killed nine people. Jeremy Jones, the Grand Dragon of the Alabama Loyal White Knights, said Thursday that the KKK would "never condone violence." Jeremy refused to give his last real name, but he goes by Jeremy Jones in KKK circles.

"When innocent people are killed like that, it's going to tarnish somebody's name, and it absolutely gives (the KKK) a bad name," Jones said. "Hell, if I was the judge, I would say to get the victims' families up there and let them hang his ass. It'd be the same way if my child went in there and did that. My child better hope I can't get my hands on him because it's wrong. Everybody has family. You can't do stuff like that."

Jones said the Loyal White Knights do not promote or condone violence or illegal activity. Instead, the group aims to "educate the country and to show how certain things have changed the country."

But Mark Pitcavage, the director of the Center of Extremism at the Anti-Defamation League, a national organization which tracks extremist groups and advocates for human rights, said Jones' comments might not necessarily portray how the group truly feels.

"Certainly, a lot of what they do is to quote, unquote educate by spreading their propaganda," Pitcavage said. "Explicitly, to the public, an awful lot of hate groups would say they're against violence because they want to sustain their existence. Behind closed doors, though, some of them might have different opinions."

Just before opening fire inside the historically black church this week, 21-year-old Dylann Storm Roof reportedly told those inside the church: "I have to do it. You rape our women and you're taking over our country. And you have to go."

Roof's Facebook page showed photos of him wearing a jacket with patches of flags associated with modern-day white supremacists. CNN reported that investigators are trying to determine if Roof was affiliated with any hate groups, although authorities have not associated him with any extremist group.

There are 18 active hate groups in Alabama, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Montgomery-based organization which focuses on civil rights issues.

"KKK groups in Alabama and across the country are not doing well," Pitcavage said. "What most of the groups do today is focus on distribution of fliers filled with their propaganda."

KKK groups have not been linked to major acts of violence in recent years, SPLC spokesman Alex Amend said, and there are no active threats in Alabama. But many of the chapters are occasionally active in Alabama communities, and members have been prosecuted recently for various crimes.

In May 2014, the former leader of the Ozark, Ala., chapter of the International Keystone Knights of the KKK was sentenced in federal court after a 2009 cross burning in Ozark. Two others admitted group members were sentenced in the same crime.

In March, the Loyal White Knights chapter admitted to distributing recruitment fliers in Selma during Bloody Sunday commemorative events, and other KKK groups in the state have distributed fliers in other cities in the state in recent months.

Earlier this week, two city of Anniston police officers, Lt. Josh Doggrell and Lt. Wayne Brown, stepped down over allegations that they belong to the neo-confederate group, League of the South, which is not affiliated with the KKK but listed as an active hate group by the SPLC.

"It's important to note that most white supremacists in the country are not affiliated with any organization," Pitcavage said. "And most of the time, if certain groups grow, it's because they are poaching members of other white supremacist groups."