President Donald Trump has argued new gun laws would not have halted America’s latest mass shooting, saying such measures are “not going to help”.
Devin Kelley strode into a small church in Texas this weekend and mowed down dozens of parishioners.
The President argued that tougher vetting would have led to more bloodshed, echoing a common argument by gun-rights supporters that arming citizens can halt mass shootings. A bystander opened fire on Kelley after he exited the church where he conducted his massacre.
After first saying even with more restrictions “there would have been no difference three days ago”, Mr Trump added that “you might not have had that very brave person who happened to have a gun or a rifle in his truck go out and shoot him, and hit him and neutralize him”.
“If he didn’t have a gun, instead of having 26 dead, you would have had hundreds more dead”, Mr Trump told reporters in Seoul. So that's the way I feel about it. Not going to help”.
The latest bloodletting has prompted calls for tighter restrictions on buying guns - a goal complicated by the fact that Kelley was legally barred from buying guns but was able to do so because the Air Force did not report his name to a database that would have prevented purchases.
Asked by interviewer Laura Ingraham “what should be done so this never happens again”, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan said it was “frustrating” that the alleged shooter “wasn’t supposed to get a gun in the first place”.
“We have laws on the books that prevent people like that from getting guns. That's what's frustrating about this - the laws are there on the books, but you’ve got to execute the law. You’ve got to follow through the law. You’ve got to apply the law”, the Wisconsin Republican said.
