In the wake of America’s most recent mass shooting, Republican front-runner Donald Trump said, “It’s not a gun problem, it’s a mental illness problem.”
In a one-on-one interview with Chuck Todd for “Meet the Press,” Trump said he watched and understands President Obama’s statement urging action to curb mass violence in the wake of the Oregon shooting. But he added, “Guns, no guns, doesn’t matter. You have people that are mentally ill and they’re going to come through the cracks and they’re going to do things that people will not even believe are possible.” Trump has previously iterated the message that mass shootings and gun violence are more the product of broken mental health systems than proof of the need for tighter gun control laws.
When asked why it seems these acts of mass violence are more prevalent in the United States than other countries, Trump responded, “I think what we have is we have copy cats. I think that they watch it and they see it here more than other places.”
More from Chuck Todd’s interview with Donald Trump will air Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
This article first appeared at NBCNews.com
