News - World: Former US President Donald Trump says mass shootings are not “a gun problem” as he vows to defend and expand gun owners' rights in a speech to the main American gun lobby’s annual meeting.

"I was proud to be the most pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment president you've ever had in the White House," Trump said to an audience at the National Rifle Association's meeting on Friday in Indianapolis.

"And with your support in 2024, I will be your loyal friend and fearless champion once again as the 47th president of the United States,” Trump added.

A plethora of 2024 Republican presidential hopefuls and possible candidates rushed to pledge their loyalty to the NRA before several thousand gun-rights activists in a hall at the convention center against the backdrop of recent mass shootings in Tennessee and Kentucky,

The Republicans ridiculed at the notion that gun and ammunition restrictions would reduce violence.

"It is a scandal and a tragedy that year after year, Democrats in Washington continue to hold commonsense school safety measures hostage to their radical gun control agenda, which, in virtually all cases, would do nothing to prevent attacks by demented and disturbed individuals," Trump said.

"This is not a gun problem," he added, as he batted cleanup for a long list of Republican officials and office seekers. "This is a mental health problem, this is a social problem, this is a cultural problem, this is a spiritual problem."

Kentucky and Tennessee political leaders have called for tighter controls on guns, including tougher laws preventing people in crisis from accessing firearms, after two mass shootings killed 11 people in Louisville and Nashville.

A bank employee shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine other people at his workplace in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday. On March 27, three 9-year-olds and three staff members were killed at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, by a former student.

Any person 21 or older who is eligible to legally possess a firearm can carry a concealed deadly weapon, according to Kentucky State Police.

Mass shootings have become commonplace in the US. There have been 146 so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit group defines a mass shooting as four or more shots or killed, not including the shooter.

One in five American adults report having been personally threatened with a firearm, according to data published on Tuesday by KFF, a nonprofit research organization formerly known as the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Democrats and gun safety activists have argued that passing stricter laws would reduce the violence, whereas Republicans and gun rights advocates argue that arming teachers would act as a deterrent.

The United States, a country of around 330 million people, is awash with some 400 million guns. Efforts to ban assault rifles have faced opposition from Republicans who are staunch supporters of the constitutional right to bear arms.

A Gallup poll from October 2022 showed a majority of Americans are in favor of gun control, with a 57% majority of all Americans saying they want stricter laws covering the sale of firearms.

Source: Press TV