Trump says tougher gun laws would have made Texas church massacre worse
US President Donald Trump says that new gun laws would have made "no difference" in preventing the massacre at a church service in the state of Texas that left 26 people dead.
Speaking at a news conference on Tuesday in South Korea as part of his Asia tour, the president said more gun restrictions might have led to more casualties.
“If [the neighbor] 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. Not going to help,” Trump said.
At least 26 people died and 20 others were wounded Sunday when a gunman wearing a bulletproof vest opened fire at worshipers inside a church in Sutherland Springs, a small town near San Antonio.
“The city with the strongest gun laws in our nation is Chicago. And Chicago is a disaster. A total disaster,” he added.
Speaking a day earlier in Tokyo, Japan, Trump insisted the latest gun violence tragedy cannot be blamed on firearms and said mental health problems are the main culprit.
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The incident took place five weeks after the mass shooting in Las Vegas where 58 people were killed, the worst massacre in modern US history.
Read more:
- Trump rejects gun control debate in wake of Las Vegas massacre
- Trump meets with Vegas shooting victims, won't talk gun violence
Trump has been an outspoken ally to the gun lobby both as a candidate and president. In April, he told the National Rifle Association (NRA) that they had a "true friend and champion in the White House."
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 970,622 people in the US were killed or injured by a firearm from 2006 to 2014.
Gun violence is the third-leading cause of accidental death in the US, behind drug overdoses and automobile crashes.
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