Fiery Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump weighed in on the gun control debate Thursday when he said that the solution for curbing public gun massacres is through addressing mental health issues in lieu of regulating gun ownership.
Trump spoke with CNN‘s Chris Cuomo on the network’s “New Day” news segment. During the interview, the politician offered his perspective on the WDBJ (Va.) shooting this past week, in which a disgruntled former employee shot and killed a cameraman and reporter while the pair were doing a live interview.
Trump was quoted as saying that the shooting and similar events were “not a gun issue, but a mental health issue.”
He went on to say that the government should devote “more resources” to “addressing mental health.”
He suggested more resources should be devoted to addressing mental health — hoping to prevent shootings like the one in Virginia, which (Trump) called ‘really, very sad.’
Furthermore, Trump was quoted as saying, the shooter should have been “institutionalized.”
A Yahoo Politics story offered a more balanced view of the CNN interview, publishing several quotes in their full context.
In discussing why mental health is the problem instead of guns, Trump said that in eras past the shooter would have been admitted into an institution because he was “definitely borderline” and that the people closest to the shooter “should have seen it.”
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.
The shooter, Vester Flanagan, had no prior history of mental illness.
The Hill emphasized Trump’s pro-gun stance, noting that even though Trump said the WDBJ tragedy was terrible, individual citizens should still have the right to bear arms whether for recreation or safety.
