TRUMP FOCUSES ON POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Pushes reform of mental health laws, background checks
President Trump is calling for a reform of mental health laws, a nationwide “red flag” law and stronger background checks in the wake of two mass shootings that have stunned the nation.
In Trump’s comments about the mass shootings that left at least 31 dead in Texas and Ohio over the weekend, the president said, “America will rise to the challenge. It is not up to mentally ill monsters, it is up to us.”
Trump also advocated for mental health legislation to “make sure those people not only get treatment, but, when necessary, involuntary confinement” to hospitals and treatment facilities.
“Mental illness and hatred,” he said, “pulls the trigger, not the gun.”
Trump’s words resonated with Massachusetts’ leading gun rights advocate, while the founder of Stop Handgun Violence criticized what he called a “sickening” response that failed to address assault weapons.
Jim Wallace of the Gun Owners Action League of Massachusetts on Monday said his group for several years has sounded the alarm on the mental-health aspect of mass shootings.
“Even when the Legislature passed the red flag bill, we were trying to warn people about this,” he said. “OK, you identified the next potential mass killer, so you’re just gonna take their legal guns away and send them home? That’s it? What else are you doing?”
Wallace said he hopes federal leaders will seriously address mentalhealth reform.
Trump also on Monday tweeted a call for legislation providing “strong background checks” for gun users, but he failed to touch on assault weapons, a key demand of gun-control advocates.
“Sickening. It’s everything but the gun for the president,” said John Rosenthal, the founder of Stop Handgun Violence. “The common denominator in all these mass shootings is assault weapons and large-capacity ammunition
magazines. The whole problem is unrestricted access to these militarystyle weapons that cause mass murder.”
Every country has mentally ill people but other countries don’t allow people to be armed with assault weapons, he added.
“Mental illness plays into it, but that’s secondary,” Rosenthal said. “You can’t get away with mass murder without the weapons.”
Trump also referenced the anti-immigration manifesto that investigators believe was posted by the suspected shooter in El Paso, Texas.
“In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry, and white supremacy,” Trump said.
The president said he has directed the Department of Justice to work with state and local authorities, along with social media companies, to identify individuals that may be on the way to committing atrocities and stop them before they act.
Some of the Democrats responding to Trump’s speech included U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren who tweeted, “White supremacy is not a mental illness. We need to call it what it is: Domestic terrorism. And we need to call out Donald Trump for amplifying these deadly ideologies.”
A federal prosecutor in Texas has said the alleged El Paso gunman will be charged with domestic terrorism.
U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark also tweeted in response to Trump, “Really?? Then why did you roll back an Obama-era regulation that made it harder for people struggling with mental illness to purchase guns? The American people don’t need hollow talking points. We need honesty and action.”