Background Checks wouldn’t have stopped any Mass Shootings in Past: Trump

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The U.S President Donald Trump has claimed background checks on gun buyers would not have stopped any of the mass shootings to have devastated America over the past half-dozen years. Trump’s statement came a day after at least 7 people were killed and more than 2 dozens injured in a shooting in the Texas cities of Midland and Odessa. The President said many in the U.S Congress were looking to stop such incidents. He insisted the universal background checks being demanded by gun safety activists and many Democrats would not have prevented any of the mass shootings in the past. Trump informed reporters, “For the most part, sadly, if you look at the last 4 or 5, even going back further 5, 6, 7 years, as strong as you make your background checks, they would not have stopped any of it”.

Trump was talking with reporters when he returned to the White House from Camp David to monitor the response to Hurricane Dorian. He also said, “It’s a big problem. It’s a mental problem, it’s a big problem”. At least 7 people were killed on Saturday and a 29-year-old postal worker Mary Granados was also among them. The incident happened when a white male opened fire in West Texas and embarked on a shooting rampage than ended with him being cornered by police in the parking lot of a cinema complex in Odessa.

People died in this incident ranged in age from 15 to 57. There was also a 17-month-old toddler among injured. The police officers shot and killed the gunman. The FBI said there was no apparent link to domestic or international terrorism. Police said the shooter used an AR-style weapon. The president of the Brady campaign, Kris Brown said: “Yet again, our communities suffer a mass shooting while senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and Senator John Cornyn continue their congressional breaks. Today, it’s in Odessa, Texas. Yesterday it was in Alabama. Before that, it was Dayton, El Paso, Brooklyn, Gilroy, and San Fernando Valley. That’s just in the past month alone”.