Trump rambles about 'mental institutions' and voter ID in bizarre response to gun control question

'You have to remember, also, it's a big mental - I was talking about mental institutions,' US president says

Donald Trump has given a rambling and at times incoherent response to questions about gun control in the wake of two recent mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.

Responding to reporters in New Jersey before heading back to the White House on Sunday, the US president raised the prospect of building more “mental institutions” to deal with a gun violence epidemic killing thousands of Americans annually.

“I don't want people to forget that this is a mental health problem. I don't want them to forget that, because it is. It's a mental health problem,” Mr Trump said, adding vaguely that congressional committees were “working on background checks and various other things”.

“It's the people that pull the trigger, it’s not the gun that pulls the trigger,” Mr Trump continued, echoing a favourite Republican talking point that ignores statistics showing other countries with stricter gun control measures suffer far lower levels of gun violence.

Asked if he would support banning high-capacity magazines, such as the one used by a shooter in Dayton, Ohio, earlier this month, Mr Trump dodged the question, and instead ranted about the closure of hospitals for the mentally ill.

“You have to remember, also, it's a big mental - I was talking about mental institutions. They closed so many, like 92 per cent, of the mental institutions around this country over the years, for budgetary reasons,” Mr Trump said.

“These are people that have to be in institutions for help. I'm not talking about as a form of a prison. I'm saying for help. And I think it's something we have to really look at, the whole concept for mental institutions.”

“I remember, growing up, we had mental institutions. Then they were closed - in New York, I'm talking about. They were - many of them were closed. A lot of them were closed. And all of those people were put out on the streets. And I said, even as a young guy, I said, 'How does that work? That's not a good thing'. And it's not a good thing. So I think the concept of mental institution has to be looked at.”

Although psychiatric hospitals in the US have declined in recent decades, the reasons are various, including budget cuts but also because newer laws make it harder for authorities to involuntarily commit people to institutions.

It is not clear where Mr Trump obtained his figure of 92 per cent.

Unprompted, Mr Trump then moved onto the issue of voter identification, a topic the president has often muddied by pushing conspiracy theories about voter fraud, which he wrongly claims caused him to lose the 2016 popular vote.

“Unrelated to that, I believe that the concept also of voter identification has to be looked at, because you can't have great security for the voter. People that vote, you can't have that national security unless you're going to have voter identification,” he said.

Asked by a reporter, “Sir, what does that have to do with guns?” the president instead answered a question about golf.