NEW YORK — (CNN) Donald Trump on Monday warned that President Barack Obama’s planned executive actions to expand background checks on gun purchases are a step toward even greater restrictions on Americans’ access to firearms.
“Pretty soon you won’t be able to get guns,” he told CNN’s Chris Cuomo during an interview on “New Day.” “It’s another step in the way of not getting guns.”
Trump’s comments come just hours before Obama is expected to meet with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to discuss ways to toughen restrictions for access to firearms.
As he has in the past, Trump suggested that the keys to blunting mass shootings are an increased focus on mental health — a focus on “the people that actually pull the trigger on the gun” — and a push to put those weapons in the hands of civilians.
“If the people in Paris had guns, you know what, you wouldn’t have had 134 people and many more to follow get killed,” he said. “And if people in California had guns, a couple of guns in that room, you wouldn’t have had 16 people killed.”
Trump also used the interview to slam areas where guns are prohibited or restricted, saying, “Whenever I see gun-free zone, that’s a flag for the whackos to come in and start shooting people.”
Trump’s comments come on the eve of his campaign’s first major ad buy, with a new spot ready to air Tuesday in early-voting Iowa and New Hampshire
In a statement released Monday morning, the billionaire again promised to begin spending $2 million per week, “with $1.1 million allocated to TV in Iowa and close to $1 million spent on TV in New Hampshire.”
The first ad will feature a narrator’s voice channeling the candidate’s campaign promises, including one to temporarily halt the immigration of Muslims into the U.S., and a pledge to “quickly cut the head off ISIS and take their oil.”
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