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<\/a>Jennifer Palacios, center, the biological mother of 14-year-old Annabelle Pomeroy who died in a mass shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas, is comforted by, from left to right, her boyfriend Fritz Rymers, her son Timothy Rodriguez and her mother Diana Palacios<\/p><\/div><\/p>\n
By Dave Boyer – The Washington Times <\/p>\n
Rejecting a reporter\u2019s suggestion for \u201cextreme vetting\u201d of gun buyers in the U.S., President\u00a0Trump<\/a>\u00a0said Tuesday that the gunman who killed 26 people in a Texas church would have slain \u201chundreds more\u201d if a heroic resident hadn\u2019t returned fire and wounded the murderer.<\/p>\n At a news conference in South Korea,\u00a0Mr. Trump<\/a>\u00a0was asked by\u00a0NBC<\/a>\u00a0News reporter Ali Vitali if he would \u201cconsider extreme vetting for people trying to buy a gun.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr. Trump<\/a>\u00a0at first appeared put off by the question, telling the reporter, \u201cyou\u2019re bringing up a situation that probably shouldn\u2019t be discussed too much right now. We could let a little time go by.\u201d<\/p>\n But the president then said that with tougher gun laws, \u201cthere would have been no difference\u201d in preventing the shooter, Devin Kelley, from carrying out his rampage in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday.<\/p>\n And\u00a0Mr. Trump<\/a>\u00a0said the carnage would have been far worse without the armed response by Stephen Willeford, a Sutherland Springs resident who grabbed his own gun when he heard Kelley shooting up the church. Mr. Willeford wounded Kelley twice and, with another man, chased him in a truck before Kelley committed suicide.<\/p>\n But the president then said that with tougher gun laws, \u201cthere would have been no difference\u201d in preventing the shooter, Devin Kelley, from carrying out his rampage in Sutherland Springs, Texas, on Sunday.<\/p>\n And\u00a0Mr. Trump<\/a>\u00a0said the carnage would have been far worse without the armed response by Stephen Willeford, a Sutherland Springs resident who grabbed his own gun when he heard Kelley shooting up the church. Mr. Willeford wounded Kelley twice and, with another man, chased him in a truck before Kelley committed suicide.<\/p>\n With more restrictive gun laws,\u00a0Mr. Trump<\/a>\u00a0said, \u201cYou might not have had that very brave person who happened to have a gun or a rifle in his truck go out and shoot him, and hit him and neutralize him. And I can only say this: If he [Mr. Willeford] didn\u2019t have a gun, instead of having 26 dead, you would have had hundreds more dead.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJust remember, if this man didn\u2019t have a gun or rifle, you\u2019d be talking about a much worse situation in the great state of Texas,\u201d\u00a0Mr. Trump<\/a>\u00a0said. \u201cSo that\u2019s the way I feel about it. [More gun laws are] not going to help.\u201d<\/p>\n The president also pointed to Chicago as an example of why stricter gun laws don\u2019t work.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cYou look at the city with the strongest gun laws in our nation, is Chicago, and Chicago is a disaster,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n