Paso. The president also said he had spoken with attorney general William Barr, urging the US Justice
Department to implement the death penalty for hate-crime mass-murders.
“Mental illness and hatred pull the trigger, not the gun,” Mr Trump said from the White House. “In one
voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacism,” he added. The president talked
about the “glorification of violence” as he hit out at violent video games “that are now commonplace” and
that must be “substantially reduced”. Violence in video games has been a constant line of attack for
Republicans since the 1990s.
However, while Mr Trump called for “bipartisan solutions” over the shootings, he did not mention any new
restrictions on guns in this speech.
Mr Trump said he wanted legislation providing “strong background checks” for gun users, but he provided
scant details, having reneged on previous promises after mass shootings. “We vow to act with urgent
resolve,” Mr Trump said.
The weekend shootings left dozens dead and more than 50 wounded. The president suggested hours earlier
on Twitter that a background check bill could be paired with his long-sought effort to toughen the nation’s
immigration system, but offered no details. That drew a sharp rebuke from a number Democrats.
“What’s [the] connection between background checks and immigration reform? That we have to keep guns
out of the hands out of the invading hordes?” the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, said
in an interview with MSNBC. “That’s disgusting. It reminds me of the 1930s in Germany.”
Both shooting suspects were US citizens, and federal officials are investigating anti-immigrant bias as a
potential motive for the El Paso, Texas, massacre.
Mr Trump has frequently sought to tie his immigration priorities – a border wall and transforming the legal
immigration system to one that prioritises merit over familial ties – to legislation around which he perceives
momentum to be building.
In El Paso, where the death toll has risen to 22, there was condemnation for the president’s proposals.
Equating immigration and background checks had no logic, said Heliana Ramirez, 42, who visits El Paso
frequently from San Francisco to volunteer with community groups “The president is fomenting hate,” she
said. “Often the president will say something and you have to watch what his other hand is doing. I fear that
with all these people stockpiling weapons we’re going to have a civil war. I think he may have a point about
looking at mental health. I think we do have a lot of problems.”
Hillary Chan, 25, a volunteer from Oakland, said the president’s plan did “not make much sense”. “It was
not an immigrant who shot up Walmart. It was someone with deep seated racism,” she said. “Racism is a
learned thing. You are not born racist,” she added.
Nicolas Palazzo, a lawyer with the Las Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Centre, said it was very
interesting to him that a white supremacist came here and shot dozens of people in an act of hate. It’s a false
equation trying to tie this to immigration.” He also said he doubted the president would pass any
meaningful gun reform as the NRA “would not allow him”. He said: “Right now we’re seeing a lot of
policies from Republicans that are deeply dangerous.”
Over the weekend, Mr Trump tried to assure Americans he was dealing with the issue of gun violence and
defended his administration in light of criticism following the latest in a string of mass shootings.
“We have done much more than most administrations,” he said, without elaboration. “We have done
actually a lot. But perhaps more has to be done.”
Congress has proven unable to pass substantial gun violence legislation this session, despite the frequency