Donald Trump: Hundreds would have died at Texas shooting if there had been tighter gun controls

Hundreds more people would have been killed in the Texas church shooting if America had tighter gun control laws, Donald Trump has said.  The US president said the massacre was only not worse because someone was able to get their own gun from a truck and take on the killer. The comments indicate Mr Trump will not attempt to force through new gun laws in the wake of the fifth worst mass shooting in American history. Twenty six people were murdered when Devin Kelley attacked the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, a small rural town in Texas. Kelley should not have been allowed to buy a gun after being jailed for spousal and child assault in 2012, a crime which saw him dishonourably discharged from the air force. It also emerged that Kelley was in a mental health facility in New Mexico and briefly escaped in 2012. Stephen Willeford, a former National Rifle Association instructor, has been hailed as a hero as it emerged he grabbed his own gun from a pickup truck to chase the attacker.  Who was the Texas gunman who shot dead 26 church goers? 01:41 Asked during his South Korea visit about whether there should be “extreme vetting” for gun purchasers after the Texas shooting, Mr Trump referenced the intervention. "If you did what you're suggesting there would have been no difference three days ago,” he said. “And you might not have had that very brave person who happened to have a gun in his truck and shoot him, and hit him and neutralize him. “And I can only say this. If he didn't have a gun, instead of having 26 dead, you would have had hundreds more dead. So that’s the way I feel about it.”

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