President Donald Trump on Thursday said he vows to uphold the Second Amendment amid ongoing discussion on gun reform.
The president also suggested opening more mental institutions to deal with mass shooters.
"It's not the gun that pulls the trigger," Trump said Thursday to loud applause from a packed crowd at his campaign rally in New Hampshire.
"It's the person that pulls the trigger."
Trump's comments come after back-to-back mass shootings in Texas and Ohio left 31 people dead and dozens more injured.
Earlier in the week, the president claimed many Republicans supported his push to strengthen background checks on gun sales, though lawmakers in private tell the president different according to media reports.
Before his rally Thursday, Trump said his administration was "going to be looking at that very closely and we're looking at the whole gun situation. I do want people to remember the words mental illness. These people are mentally ill and nobody talks about that, but these are mentally ill people. And people have to start thinking about it.
"I think we have to start building institutions again, because you know, if you look at the '60s and the '70s, so many of these institutions were closed, and the people were just allowed to go onto the streets," he said. "And that was a terrible thing for our country. . . . A lot of our conversation has to do with the fact that we have to open up institutions. We can't let these people be on the streets."
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.