Trump: School shootings unique to US

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump has said that school shootings are “unique” to the United States.

“We have millions of sick people all over the world,” he told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Friday, but added that “this is sort of unique to our country — the school shootings.”

His remarks came after the deadly rampage at a college near Roseburg, Oregon on Thursday killed nine people and injured seven others.

The gunman, identified as Chris Harper Mercer, opened fire inside a classroom at Umpqua Community College and was later shot and killed by police officers in firing exchange.

“You’re always going to have problems,” Trump said, noting “that’s the way the world works. For the next million years, people will slip through the cracks.”

However, he rejected the idea that the US gun laws should be blamed for the Thursday’s shooting and other similar incidents.

“The gun laws have nothing to do with this,” Trump told ABC News on Friday, opposing the notion of imposing stricter gun laws in the US.

“This isn't guns, this is about really mental illness. And I feel very strongly about it,” he added.

Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama expressed his anger and sadness over the deadly incident and made another impassioned plea for gun control legislation.

He blasted Congress for refusing to change the country’s gun laws in response to a series of mass shootings across the United States.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also warned on Friday about the high death toll that US gun violence is inflicting on American lives, asking the US to take measure to reduce gun violence.

According to the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC), firearms are the cause of death for more than 33,000 people in the United States every year, a number that includes accidental discharge, murder and suicides, which are on the increase.

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