World News: OnPolitics Today: Trump offers no solution for mass shootings

with Josh Hafner

OnPolitics Today: Trump offers no solution for future attacks

President Trump walks to the podium to make a statement

Two years ago, in the wake of a different mass shooting, then-candidate Donald Trump told ABC News that nothing could be done about gun violence. Trump essentially echoed the sadly-now-familiar Onion headline: "'No Way To Prevent This,' Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens."

"I could say, oh, were going to do this and that and it's never going to happen again." Trump said, brushing off the idea of gun regulations and lamenting mental illness. "You have sick people in this country and throughout the world and you're always going to have difficulty."

And so on Monday, President Trump offered his "warmest condolences" to the 500-plus people injured or killed in Sunday's deadly shooting in Las Vegas. Unlike former president Barack Obama, Trump offered no policy solutions.

"The answers do not come easy," Trump said.

Trump, who received $30 million from the National Rifle Association as a candidate, reversed a rule to ban gun purchases by mentally ill earlier this year.

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Senator tells Congress to 'get off its ass' for gun control

Trump announced he would visit Las Vegas on Wednesday in the wake of the shooting, lamenting "an act of pure evil." Meanwhile, familiar calls for gun control arose from Democrats. Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut called for Congress to "get off its ass and do something ." Former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, herself a shooting victim, asked Congress for "courage," while her husband, retired astronaut Mark Kelly, said lawmakers' usual strategy wouldn't be enough.

"Your thoughts and prayers aren't going to stop the next shooting," Kelly said. "Only actions and leadership will do that."

America: A nation that fixated on instruments of death

Gun stocks climbed following Sunday's deadly attack, a sign America's fixation on firearms won't soon end. In Nevada, where Sunday's shooting occurred, residents can buy machine guns or silencers that are banned in other states as long as they're properly registered and federally compliant.

And no nation has a gun problem like the United States: The nation saw roughly 8,600 gun homicides each year between 2010 and 2015, according to Geneva-based researchers, more than five times the rate of Canada and ten times that of the Netherlands or France.

If you feel helpless amid all the madness, don't: Here are four ways you can help.

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