President Trump says gun control may have caused more deaths

President Donald Trump says stricter gun control measures might have led to additional casualties during a mass shooting at a South Texas church.

Trump said at a Tuesday news conference in South Korea that, "If you did what you're suggesting, there would have been no difference three days ago and you might not have had that very brave person who happens to have a gun or a rifle in his trunk."

He had been asked whether he would support "extreme vetting" for gun purchases similar to the "extreme vetting" he's called for of people entering the country.

Trump says if that a neighboring good Samaritan hadn't had a gun, "instead of having 26 dead, you would have had hundreds more dead."

Authorities say Devin Patrick Kelley fired at least 450 rounds of ammunition at worshippers in Sunday's attack at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. The dead ranged in age from 18 months to 77 years old.

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The gunman who killed 26 people at a small town Texas church was able to buy weapons because the Air Force did not submit his criminal history to the FBI as required by military rules.

The Air Force acknowledged Monday that if the past offenses by Devin Patrick Kelley had been properly shared, they would have prevented him from buying a gun.

In 2014, Kelley was formally ousted from the Air Force for a 2012 assault on his ex-wife in which he choked her and struck her son hard enough to fracture his skull.

Authorities say Kelley fired at least 450 rounds of ammunition at worshippers in Sunday's attack at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs. The dead ranged in age from 18 months to 77 years old.