After a gunman opened fired on a Oregon college campus killing 9 and wounded many more, President Obama was quick to reaffirm the need for stricter gun control laws, and admitted he was politicizing this tragedy.
Donald Trump who refers to the 2nd Amendment as “America’s First Freedom” told ABC News that our current gun laws have “nothing to do” with the Umpqua Community college massacre.
“Well the gun laws have nothing to do with this. This isn’t guns this is about really mental illness. And I feel very strongly about it.”
Trump went on “You’re always going to have difficulties, no matter how tight you run it. Even if you had great education having to deal with mental illness. You educate the community – you’re going to have people that slip through the cracks.”
Moments after the Umpqua shooting, Donald Trump tweeted Philip Bump of the Washington Post
Happened to get a call from Donald Trump a moment ago. Asked him about his thoughts on the Oregon shooting. Quote: pic.twitter.com/i9ytO9i67j
— Philip Bump (@pbump) October 1, 2015
Other GOP candidates support Donald Trump’s stance on gun control and mental health
- Chris Christie told ABC News that the U.S. should get tougher on mental health issues regarding the mass shootings in Roseburg. “I think it’s about the mental health issue,” Christie said. “I don’t think we’re as aggressive as we should be.”
- Mike Huckabee told the Washington Times the media always wants to talk about the what kind of weapon was used, but that “we’ve got a human behavior problem. We’ve got a problem with uncivilized savages.”
- John Kasich told NBC News “You can strip all the guns away but the people who are going to commit crimes or have problems are always going to have the guns and more and more people feel like I’d like to be able to protect myself.”
- Ben Carson told talk show Hugh Hewitt “Gun control only works for law-abiding citizens. It doesn’t work for crazies.” Carson went on to comment about enacting additional gun control legislation “Obviously, that’s not the issue. The issue is the mentality of these people.”
Will more presidential candidates following Trump’s lead?
(h/t ABC News)
