Trump vows to tackle mental health but doesn’t say a word about gun laws

DONALD Trump ducked calls for tougher gun control yesterday, promising instead to work to ‘tackle the difficult issue of mental health’.

The President, who has previously declared himself a ‘true friend and champion’ of the powerful gun lobby in the US, ignored questions about gun laws as he responded to the school massacre.

Students and parents at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School made impassioned pleas for tougher legislation to end the pattern of bloodshed.

Teenager Morgan Williams, a student at the school in Parkland, Florida, tweeted: ‘There is no reason why I should have had to run past deceased friends and classmates to get to safety because there isn’t a control on how easy it is to get a gun.’

Mr Trump focused on reports that the gunman had been treated at a mental health clinic and had shown signs of being disturbed. ‘We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health,’ he said.

But supporters of gun control reacted angrily. Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, said: ‘Every nation is home to disturbed teenagers who have been expelled from school. Only America gives them easy access to tactical gear, semi-automatic rifles and bulk ammo.’

Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat who represents Connecticut, the state where 20 children were shot dead at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012, blamed politicians’ inaction for ‘this epidemic of mass slaughter’. He said: ‘We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens nowhere else other than the United States of America.’