President Trump on Monday attributed the Texas shooting to a "mental health problem."
President Trump has denied that the recent mass shooting in Texas was a product of inadequate gun control laws. Instead, he blamed the incident on a "mental health problem at the highest level."
During a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo Monday, Trump was asked about gun control in the shooting's aftermath.
"I think that mental health is your problem here. This was a very -- based on preliminary reports -- very deranged individual," Trump said. "This isn't a guns situation. I mean, we could go into it, but it's a little bit soon to go into it….this is a mental health problem at the highest level."
The tragedy occurred on Sunday when a former Air Force serviceman, identified as Devin Patrick Kelley, began shooting in Sutherland Springs' First Baptist Church, killing an estimated 26 people.
According to the Washington Post, the 26-year-old Caucasian man had been convicted of domestic violence which resulted in a military discharge in 2014, but his motive for the recent mass attack is still being investigated.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has questioned Kelley's access to guns despite being denied a license by the state, but the Republican official also alluded to the shooter's "mental health challenges."
"One thing that we seem to know is that Devin Kelley was a person with some mental challenges even, seemingly, before he entered into the United States Air Force," Abbott told CNN's Chris Cuomo. "The things that he did to his family were a sign that there was some level of mental instability."
Despite the governor echoing some of Trump's comments, the U.S. president has nonetheless been criticized for apparently responding differently to the shooting in Texas compared to previous attacks based on the perpetrator's race or religion.
"If Southern Baptist churches were blowing up, if a guy named Mohammed blew up that church yesterday, oh, my God. Oh, my God. This morning Washington would be on fire," MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said on 'Morning Joe' Monday.
Meanwhile, someone on social media wrote, "Donald Trump says the shooting in Texas is a mental health problem. Keep in mind if the shooter was any other race, he would call them thugs."
