Trump: stricter gun laws wouldn’t help

The US shows no sign of amending gun control laws, despite more than 80 people being killed in a spate of recent mass shootings.

President Donald Trump told media in South Korea that stricter firearm legislation wouldn't have made a difference in regards to the Texas church shooting that ended 26 lives two days ago.

"If [the hero on scene] didn't have a gun, instead of having 26 dead, you would've had hundreds more dead," Trump said, in response to questions about "extreme vetting" for prospective gun owners.

"So that's the way I feel about it. Not gonna help."

Instead of having 26 dead, you would've had hundreds more dead.

The Texas killing spree followed a shooting in a Walmart in Colorado, and the worst mass shooting in the country's history at a music festival in Las Vegas.

Despite these atrocities, Trump deflected questions on preventative measures, pointing at the crime rate in Chicago where residents are subject to stringent police checks.

"Look at the city with the strongest gun laws in our nation — Chicago," Trump said. "Chicago is a disaster, a total disaster."

Chicago responds

A Chicago Tribune journalist has fired back at Donald Trump, saying, "Mr. President, keep the name of our city out of your lie-spewing mouth".

"A president who gives a damn might answer a question at a news conference by saying we absolutely need to investigate this failure and make sure our system of federal background checks on gun buyers is as close to flawless as it can be," wrote Rex Huppke.

"Instead, Trump belted out every line in the NRA playbook: He suggested it was too soon to be talking about such things as gun control; he brought up Chicago to suggest that gun laws don’t do any good anyway (this overlooks the well-established fact that most of the guns coming into Chicago are purchased in states with lax gun laws); and he cited the Texas man who got his own gun and fired on the shooter."