bdmetronews Desk ॥ President Trump declared the two shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, that left at least 29 people dead within 24 hours a “mental illness problem.”
“We’re talking to a lot of people and a lot of things are in the works,” Trump said Sunday when asked by a reporter what he was going to do the country’s “gun problem.” “We have done much more than most administrations… but perhaps more has to be done. But this is also a mental illness problem. If you look at both of these cases, this is mental illness. These are people that are very, very seriously mentally ill.”
Officials have not conclusively determined the motives behind the attacks, or said anything about the alleged shooters’ mental state. The El Paso shooting is being investigated as a possible hate crime. An anti-immigrant “manifesto” has been connected to the shooter.
The first shooting occurred Saturday morning, when a gunman identified as Patrick Crusius, a 21-year-old from Allen, Texas, opened fire at a packed Walmart near the Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso with an assault rifle, killing 20 people and wounding dozens. Officials on Sunday declared the attack an act of “domestic terrorism.” Thirteen hours later, Connor Betts, 24, killed nine people, including his sister, with an AR-15-like assault rifle in less than a minute outside a bar in downtown Dayton.
The El Paso shooting was declared an act of “domestic terrorism” by the Justice Department.
White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney referred to the gunmen in El Paso and Dayton “crazy people” who “should not be able to get guns.”
“Sick people who are intent on doing things like this should not be able to buy guns legally,” he said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Mulvaney did not say how sellers could determine the mental health of customers or their intentions in buying a gun.
