Trump claims mental illness causes shootings. Can you guess which prez helped the mentally ill acquire guns?
- Aug 7, 2024
- 1 min read
Updated: Aug 8, 2024
August 8: On This Day In 2019
Trump thinks gun laws are irrelevant. In a 2015 mass shooting in Oregon, a man packing six guns killed ten people and wounded seven more. The next day, Candidate Donald Trump earned his NRA medal-of-honor by informing ABC News that lax gun regulations had “nothing to do” with the mass murder.
“This isn't guns this is about [but] really mental illness. And I feel very strongly about it.” He told George Stephanopoulos that blaming permissive gun laws was nothing more than the “politically correct” thing to do.
As president, Trump doubled down on his weird theory. “Mental illness and hatred pulls (sic) the trigger,” he said in 2019 about new mass shootings which occurred a day apart in El Paso and Dayton.
OTDI 2019, Fierce Healthcare responded by noting that only 4% of violence in the U.S. is committed by the mentally ill.
But, regardless….if "mental illness pulls the trigger," should the mentally ill be buying guns? YES OF COURSE, says Donald Trump. In fact, just a month after taking office, Trump specifically signed a new law which rolled back a piece of Obama’s violence-related legislation.
What was the intention of Trump’s new law? To make it easier for the mentally ill to purchase firearms.
Get Weirder; Dive Deeper
The New York Times’ reported on the Oregon shooting
ABC News conveyed Trump's weird theories
Fierce Healthcare has the 4% stat here
NBC News reported Trump’s revocation of Obama’s gun regulation
On This Day In The Trump Administration: Trump makes it easier for mentally ill to buy guns