Guns don’t kill people — mentally ill people kill people.
President Trump on Monday said the horrific shooting at a small Texas church isn’t a “guns situation” — it’s only about mental health.
“This was a very, based on preliminary reports, a very deranged individual. A lot of problems over a long period of time,” Trump said Monday during a joint news conference in Japan. “We have a lot of mental health problems in our country, as do other countries. But this isn’t a guns situation.”
Gunman Devin Kelley, decked out in tactical gear, on Sunday used an assault rifle to kill 26 congregants of a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, authorities said. His victims ranged in age from 18 months to 77.
Kelly was a former airman who was booted in 2014 after serving a one-year confinement after being court-martialed for assaulting his wife and child.
An armed neighbor of the church spotted Kelley as he tried leaving the scene, and managed to shoot him twice.
Kelley later killed himself.
“Fortunately, somebody else had a gun that was shooting in the opposite direction, otherwise it (wouldn’t) have been as bad as it was. It would have been much worse,” Trump said.
“But this is a mental health problem at the highest level,” he continued. “It’s a very, very sad event.”
Vice President Pence tweeted that he will visit Sutherland Springs on Wednesday. “We are with you Texas,” he wrote.
It was one of the worst mass shootings in American history — coming roughly a month after the worst, when Stephen Paddock rained carnage down on an outdoor concert in Las Vegas, killing 58 and injuring hundreds.
He carried out the slaughter with the assistance of a device called a bump stock that Congress initially expressed interest in outlawing or regulating — but they have yet to take any action.
“More than a month after Las Vegas, we still can’t even tackle the most obvious fixes — like banning bump stocks. Plain and simple, Americans are being slaughtered, and Congress is refusing to stand up for them,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said during an impassioned speech on the Senate floor Monday.
But it didn’t appear the Republican-controlled chamber was interested.
“It’s hard to envision a foolproof way to prevent individual outrages by evil people,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told CNN.
Texas Sen. John Cornyn told the network, “We need to know the answers before we know how to act.”
In her speech, Gillibrand said, “We should be fixing the holes in the system — whatever is necessary — not just shrugging our shoulders and saying there’s nothing that can be done.”
Gov. Cuomo — who like Gillibrand, has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2020 — also urged Congress to act.
“Over and over and over, the federal Republicans offer their thoughts and prayers,” Cuomo said. “Thank you, but we have rabbis and priests and ministers and clerics who offer thoughts and prayers. They’re there to do something. They’re there to take action.”
Noting that President Trump described the Texas church shooting as a “mental health problem,” Cuomo said federal lawmakers should follow the example of New York’s SAFE Act, which includes provisions intended to prevent dangerously mentally ill people from purchasing guns.
“We’ve taken action in New York with the SAFE Act, and we have made this state safer,” Cuomo said. “We have banned purchases from mentally ill people, which is what the President says the problem is.”
Adopted after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the SAFE Act, among other things, requires mental health professionals to report any patients likely to engage in conduct “that would result in serious harm to self or others.” That information is then passed on to the state’s director of Criminal Justice Services.
“Do what we did in New York and ban purchases by mentally ill people, but do something,” Cuomo said. “We don’t need the thoughts and prayers of the congresspeople. We need action.”
Trump didn’t offer any solutions beyond looking into the mental health situation.
When a deranged Uzbek immigrant killed eight people in lower Manhattan with his car last week, Trump called for, within hours, a massive overhaul of how U.S. visas are distributed, and urged more “extreme” vetting.
In the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 1 shooting in Las Vegas, the White House said it was inappropriate to consider a policy response so soon after the bloodshed.
Despite days later suggesting openness to outlawing the bump stock device that allowed Las Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock to fire at near-automatic rates, the Trump administration has shown no signs of urgency.
The President “has asked that that process be reviewed, and we’re waiting on some of the details of that to take place,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Oct. 27 when asked about bump stocks. “But a decision hasn’t been finalized on that.”
In February, Trump signed legislation reversing an Obama-era regulation that would have made it harder for Americans with mental illnesses to buy a gun.
Trump was endorsed by the NRA in last year’s presidential election, and earlier this year became the first sitting President to speak at the gun group’s annual convention in three decades.
With News Wire Services