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Trump suggests armed guards for all houses of worship, stiffening death penalty in wake of Pittsburgh synagogue shooting

New York Daily News 27/10/2018

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(Reuters)

There’s nothing he can do.

Massacres like the one that unfolded at a Pittsburgh synagogue have “little to do” with lax gun laws and are “even tougher when you're the President of the United States and you have to watch this kind of a thing happen,” President Trump said Saturday afternoon.

Instead of strengthening gun laws, the commander-in-chief suggested the U.S. should “stiffen up our laws in terms of the death penalty” and advised houses of worship to hire armed protection.

"This has little to do with (gun laws) if you take a look," Trump said. "If they'd had protection inside, the result would have been a lot better."

"Maybe it could have been a very much different situation," he added.

At least four police officers were shot and wounded when they confronted the hate-speech spewing shooter who opened fire on dozens of congregants inside the Tree of Life synagogue.

Eight people were killed before the suspected shooter, identified as 48-year-old Robert Bowers, surrendered.

The President’s comments echo the National Rifle Association’s usual talking points in the wake of such mass shooting. The nation’s largest gun lobbying group often repeats the claim that a “good guy with a gun” is the only answer to deter deranged gunmen from gunning down innocent people at malls, schools, houses of worship and elsewhere.

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“They had a maniac walk in and they didn't have any protection and that is just so sad to see," Trump said. "The results could have been much better.”

The President also reiterated his long-held belief that lawmakers should “stiffen up” death penalty laws and bring it “into vogue.”

Video: Multiple dead in Pittsburgh synagogue shooting (Reuters)

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“When people do this, they should get the death penalty and shouldn’t have to wait years and years,” he said before departing for the Future Farmers of America convention in Indianapolis and a political rally in Murphysboro, Ill.

“Now the lawyers will get involved, and everybody’s going to get involved, and we’ll be 10 years down the line. I think they should stiffen up laws, and I think they should very much bring the death penalty into vogue,” he said.

In 1989, two weeks after a female jogger was raped, beaten and left for dead in Central Park, Trump paid $85,000 to place a series of ads calling for the state to “Bring Back The Death Penalty! Bring Back Our Police.”

The ads ran in New York newspapers after five teens, later exonerated by DNA evidence, were arrested and charged with the crime.

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