Donald Trump On Virginia Shooting: ‘It’s Not A Gun Problem’


Donald Trump has insisted the Virginia shootings of two journalists on live television on Wednesday wasn’t because of a “gun problem,” but was instead the result of a “mental problem.”

While being interviewed on CNN, Trump, who is currently campaigning for President of the United States and is regarded as leading the Republican candidacy in some polls, was asked about the shooting of WDBJ’s Alison Parker and Adam Ward, as well as Vicki Gardner, by Bryce Williams.

“This isn’t a gun problem, this is a mental problem,” Trump told Chris Cuomo. “It’s not a question of the laws, it’s really the people.”

According to the Independent, Trump then added that guns and weapons shouldn’t be banned, because by doing that they would still remain in the hands of “bad guys.” This would then mean that good people wouldn’t be able to defend themselves.

Trump then underlined that he is completely opposed to tightening gun control laws in the United States, but he would like to address further ways to deal with mental health issues.

Donald Trump called Bryce Williams, who killed himself after shooting and murdering two of the aforementioned trio, a “very sick man,” before then declaring that mental illness “a massive problem” in the United States.

Trump didn’t actually provide any concrete plans for how he would deal with this mental health problem, but insisted that more resources should be provided to try and contend with it. Trump added that there are “so many things that can be done” before explaining that Williams should have been “institutionalized.”

Speaking to Cuomo, Trump continued, “In the old days they had mental institutions for people like this because he was really, definitely borderline and definitely would have been and should have been institutionalized. At some point somebody should have seen that, I mean the people close to him should have seen it.”

After the deaths of Alison Parker and Adam Ward, Andy Parker, the latter’s father, released a statement insisting that he wasn’t trying to take away guns, but that more needed to be done to make them harder for “crazy people” to get.

“I’m not trying to take away guns,” Parker declared. “There has to be a way to force politicians who are cowards and in the pockets of the NRA to make sensible laws so that crazy people can’t get guns. It can’t be that hard.”

President Barack Obama called these deaths “heartbreaking,” before adding that they were “one more argument for why we need to look at how we can reduce gun violence in this country.”

[Photo by Scott Olson / Getty Images]

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