Presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) kept his comments on the shooting in Charleston, S.C. brief on Thursday, saying that the “sickness” in America that gives rise to such killings cannot be solved by government.

“What kind of person goes into a church and shoots nine people?” Paul said in the middle of his speech to the Faith & Freedom Coalition Policy Conference, broadcast by C-SPAN.

“There’s a sickness in our country,” he continued. “There’s something terribly wrong, but it isn’t going to be fixed by your government.”

“It’s people straying away, it’s people not understanding where salvation comes from,” he added.

One of his Republican rivals, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), opened his own speech to the gathering with a moment of silence for the victims, and noted that the gunman targeted a “historically black congregation.”

This post has been updated.