Trump blames everything but guns for US shootings
He points finger at internet and mental illness
DOnALD Trump blamed everything but guns yesterday for two mass shootings in 13 hours that left more than 30 people dead.
The US President said that mental illness, social media, the internet and video games were responsible for massacres in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio.
In comments likely to fuel further the fury among victims and their families, he named the wrong city when issuing his condolences – referring to Toledo, Ohio. El Paso killer Patrick Crusius had posted a white supremacist rant online before gunning down shoppers in the border town, where 80 per cent are of Latino descent. In his ten- minute address from the White House, Mr Trump condemned white nationalists by name for the first time but refused to acknowledge the role of his own inflammatory rhetoric in stoking racism.
Instead he put the blame on the internet, claiming it ‘ provided a dangerous avenue to radicalise disturbed minds’.
He called for a reform of mental health laws and an end to the ‘glorification of violence’ in video games. In his only reference to guns, Mr Trump said: ‘Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun.’
Since the shootings, a video of Mr Trump talking about immigrants at a rally in Florida in May has gone viral.
He had asked, ‘ How do you stop these people?’ when an audience member shouted back: ‘Shoot them!’.
Mr Trump laughed and joked that ‘only in the [Florida] Panhandle you can get away with that statement’.
The massacres that left 22 dead in El Paso and nine dead in Dayton, with a total of 53 wounded, mean the US has seen 251 mass shootings in 216 days.
Crusius, 21, had vowed to ‘lead the fight to reclaim my country’ on Saturday before storming a Walmart, gunning down shoppers before he was arrested.
Some 13 hours later, Connor Betts, 24, killed nine people, including his sister, outside a popular bar in Dayton before being shot dead by police.
Crusius, who has been charged with murder, has shown no remorse and no regrets, police said. An officer who arrested him said the killer had a ‘stone cold look’ in his eyes. Mr Trump called mass shooters ‘mentally ill monsters’, he added: ‘We must shine light on the dark recesses of the internet and stop mass murders before they start.’ He previously talked about tougher gun control but backed off under pressure from the gun lobby.
He admitted that the El Paso attack was ‘domestic terrorism’ and referred to the killer’s manifesto – which told of a Hispanic ‘invasion’, a term the President has himself repeatedly used – as being ‘consumed by racist hate’. He added: ‘In one voice our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy… Hate has no place in America.’
Democrats criticised Mr Trump and said that his failure to blame guns was a ‘slap in the face’ for victims’ families.
Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential front-runner, said: ‘When you give a safe harbour to hate from the Oval Office, it gives licence to extremism all across the country’.
Former El Paso mayor Beto O’Rourke, who is also running for the Democratic nomination, said Mr Trump’s ‘open racism is an invitation to violence’.
Mr Trump also attracted criticism for spending the weekend golfing and making a surprise appearance at a wedding instead of flying to the scenes of the massacres.
Before his rampage, Crusius had been living with his grandparents, Larry and Cythia Brown, near Dallas, 650 miles from El Paso, but moved out about six weeks ago.
The Browns said in a statement: ‘We are devastated by the events of El Paso and pray for the victims of this tragedy.’
‘Hatred pulls the trigger’