Trump on WDBJ Shooting: ‘This Isn’t a Gun Problem; This Is a Mental Problem’

[excerpt]

TRUMP: “Mental illness is just a massive problem. As you know, because of the cutbacks, and you can see it in New York State, you know very well in New York State and in so many other places, they have released a lot of the people that are pretty ill, that really should be hospitalized because they don't have the money to take care of them. And so they walk the streets and they run the streets and sometimes is doing the workplace, and you know, in the old days they had mental institutions for people like this. Because he was really -- definitely borderline and definitely would have been and should have been institutionalized at some point, somebody should have seen that. I mean people closest to him should have seen it, but so many people are being released now because they don't have any money. So they are walking the streets. And of all our cities and all of our places, it's becoming a very dangerous situation. And it's another problem. It’s one of many problems, our country has so many problems, Chris, as you know, you covering every day, but it's one of many problems that we have.”

CUOMO: “Solutions winds up becoming the call from people who are so sick and tired of what they see. Do you think it is time to do something else about guns? Nobody likes to talk about it. People say that this is an inappropriate time and then those who experience it say it's the most appropriate time. Would you do something different with gun policy?”

TRUMP: “Well, I don’t think I would because this is really sick person. This isn’t a gun problem, this is a mental problem. And you know, you have cases where like had the – veterans had the guy that were shot recently, if they had weapons, they might have been able to save themselves. They would have been able to, they were all heroes, they were all tremendous military men. And they had absolutely no defense. And frankly, you know, a case like this, he snuck up on them, whether it was a gun or a knife or whatever it would have been, it would have been something. But you're not going to get rid of all guns. So I know one thing, if you try to do it, the bad guys would have them.”