Trump: Thank heaven for guns
PRESIDENT TRUMP has long praised the protections afforded by “extreme vetting” – but he claims the practice would have done little to stop a mass shooting at a Texas church.
Trump bristled on Tuesday when asked about tightening gun control laws, claiming they would have made “no difference” in Sunday’s bloodshed — and could have made matters worse.
“There would have been no difference three days ago, and 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. And I can only say this: If he didn’t have a gun, instead of having 26 dead, you would have had hundreds more dead. So that’s the way I feel about it,” Trump said during a press briefing in South Korea. “Not going to help.”
Devin Kelley, 26, killed 26 people and injured at least 20 more when he opened fire during a church service Sunday in the small town of Sutherland Springs. The dead ranged in age from 1 to 77 years old.
Kelley was a former airman with a history of violent behavior, including spending 12 months in military lockup for assaulting his wife and infant son.
He killed himself after he was shot and chased by Stephen Willeford, who had run home and gotten his rifle out of a safe in his home when the gunfire in the church began.
Experts disagreed with Trump’s dismissal of strengthening gun control laws.
“More vetting of the shooter would have revealed his disqualifications,” said Adam Winkler, a law professor at UCLA and the author of the “Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America.”
“There was information available that could have been used to stop this shooter from easily getting these guns.”
As for the assertion that Willeford, a former National Rifle Association shooting instructor, would have been barred from owning a gun with tougher background checks, Winkler said that was strange.
“The President seemed to suggest that extreme vetting would not have taken the gun out of the hands of the killer, but out of the hands of the man who stepped in,” Winkler said. “Which is just bizarre.”
Trump also revived a discredited claim about gun violence in Chicago to argue against tougher gun laws.
“I mean, you look at the city with the strongest gun laws in our nation, is Chicago, and Chicago is a disaster. It’s a total disaster,” Trump said.
But while Chicago has been plagued by gun violence — there have been over 2,400 people shot there so far this year — the bulk of the guns used have come from outside the city, because other states have less-strict gun laws.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel slammed the President’s comments, accusing him of “pointing fingers” rather than showing real leadership.
“You would think that after Las Vegas and after Texas, President Trump would actually see the responsibility he has as a President to lead,” Emanuel said.
The Washington Post pointed out that, similar to the “iron pipeline” that feeds guns into New York from the South, the majority of guns recovered in Chicago come from outside of Illinois.
Trump also echoed a common refrain used by many Republicans in the wake of mass shootings, saying it was too soon to talk policy.
“You’re bringing up a situation that probably shouldn’t be discussed too much right now,” he told a reporter who asked him about “extreme vetting” for guns.
His reaction was a far cry from the harsh words he had immediately after last week’s terror attack in lower Manhattan.
Hours after a 29-year-old from Uzbekistan killed eight people on a bike path with a rented truck, the President called for increased scrutiny of immigrants.
“I have just ordered Homeland Security to step up our already extreme vetting program. Being politically correct is fine, but not for this!” Trump tweeted.
In Japan on Monday, Trump — who has repeatedly called for repealing Obamacare — said the issue in Texas was mental health.
“We have a lot of mental health problems in our country, as do other countries,” he said. “But this isn’t a guns situation.” THE DEVICE that helped the Las Vegas mass shooter rain death on scores of concertgoers will be available for sale again soon.
If (the hero) didn’t have a gun, instead of having 26 dead, you would have had hundreds more dead. PRESIDENT TRUMP