McConnell on shootings: Hard to prevent ‘outrages by evil people’

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Monday it is hard to find a way to stop outrages from “evil people.”

“It’s hard to envision a foolproof way to prevent individual outrages by evil people,” McConnell said Monday when asked what he and the Senate can do to make America a safer country.

McConnell referenced the terror attack last week in New York City, where a man drove his truck into a bicycle path, killing eight people.

“It’s a very, very challenging thing,” McConnell said.

{mosads}”This is the sort of thing you hate and we’ve had repeated examples of it, not only here but in Europe as well.”

His comments come a day after 26 people were killed when a man opened fire at a church Sunday in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

President Trump said Monday the mass shooting was not a “guns situation.” Instead, he said the problem was with the shooter’s “mental health.”

“I think that mental health is your problem here,” Trump said during a news conference in Tokyo.

“This was a very — based on preliminary reports — a very deranged individual. A lot of problems over a long period of time.”

Trump previously said it’s a “little bit soon” to discuss the issue of guns and suggested that more people would have been killed if another armed person had not opened fire on the shooter.

White House counselor Kellyanne Conway on Monday warned against politicizing a tragedy, saying the “rush” to judgment is “disrespectful to the dead.”

After past mass shootings, Democrats have issued calls for gun control. In the wake of the Las Vegas shooting last month, many Democrats called on Congress to take action on gun control legislation.

But there has been little movement on any legislation in either chamber of Congress.