Donald Trump is fast becoming the massacre president. Mass shootings have soared during the first year of his administration, with no end in sight. (Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
Donald Trump is fast becoming the “massacre president.” The number citizens killed or wounded in mass shootings is skyrocketing under his administration, putting it on a pace to become one of the bloodiest in modern political history.
Trump’s latest reaction to the mass shooting at a Texas church suggests he has no plans to address the problem.
The issue was brought home during a presidential news conference today (Nov. 7) in South Korea.
Trump was asked whether he would consider applying the same “extreme vetting” to gun purchasers that he has vowed to apply to Muslim immigrants.
He answered with basically a National Rifle Association (NRA) talking point.
“If you did what you’re suggesting 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 rifle in his truck, go out and shoot him and hit him and neutralize him,” Trump said.
“I can only say this, if he didn’t have a gun instead of having 26 dead, you would have had hundreds dead. And that’s the way I feel about it,” the president added.
The idea that only a good guy with a gun can stop a bad guy with a gun was first suggested by the NRA following the 2012 massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.
It’s as meaningless now as it was then.
Stanford Law professor John Donahue, who studied gun violence in America, found “not even the slightest hint” that right-to-carry laws reduce overall violent crime, according to CNN.
Citizens are at a higher risk for homicide, “particularly firearm homicide” in homes, cities, states and regions in the United States with a high incidence of gun ownership, according to the Harvard University School of Public Health.
Meanwhile, Republican Congressional leaders have only offered “prayers” for the victims and warned, once again, against “politicizing” the shooting.
With nearly eight weeks still to go, Trump’s first year in office is already the deadliest year for mass killings in more than a decade, according to USAToday.
The First Baptist Church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, left 26 people dead, bringing the total number of people killed in mass shootings to 208 this year, according to the newspaper. Last year, 188 people died in similar attacks.
The mass shooting in Las Vegas in October left 58 people dead and 546 injured. It raised alarm bells about so-called “bump-stocks.” The shooter used such a device to turn a semi-automatic assault rifle into an automatic weapon.
Through all the carnage, however, neither the president nor the Republican Congress has taken any steps to address the issue. Bump stocks still remain legal throughout the United States.
Trump’s hyperbolic rhetoric about making the nation safe again was directly mainly at threats from terrorists. But the overwhelming number of mass shootings are perpetrated by U.S. citizens who own assault rifles.
Poll show that the majority of U.S. citizens want Congress to do more to curb gun violence in the United States.
The sister of church shooting victim implored Trump to act. “Anybody can carry a gun now, even crazy people. Tell the President… No more guns,” she said.
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