Politics

‘Would Not Have Stopped Any Of It’: Trump Appears To Back Away From Background Check Legislation

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President Donald Trump expressed skepticism that stronger background checks would have “stopped any” mass shootings over the past several years.

The president’s Sunday comments to reporters on the White House lawn came after a mass shooting in Odessa, Texas left seven people dead and over 20 injured.

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“We’re looking at a lot of different bills, ideas, concepts,” the president told reporters. “It’s been going on for a long while, background checks. I will say that for the most part, sadly, if you look at the last four or five, going back even five or six or seven years, for the most part, as strong as you make your background checks, they would not have stopped any of it. So, it’s a big problem. It’s a mental problem. It’s a big problem.”

The president said he had been speaking to lawmakers from both political parties about gun control legislation. (RELATED: Background Check Didn’t Catch Aurora Shooter’s Prior Felony Conviction)

“So we’re going to see, this really hasn’t changed anything,” he said, regarding the Texas shooting. “We’re doing a package and we’ll see what it’s all, how it comes about. It’s coming about right now.”

Trump appeared to somewhat back off previous comments after August shootings in El Paso and Dayton, when he told reporters he was “all in favor” of background checks.