--- title: Trump on Oregon Shooting: "Guns, No Guns—It Doesn't Matter" description: Presidential candidate Donald Trump responded to the Oregon shooting, saying people are always going "come through the cracks." canonical: https://time.com/4060362/trump-on-oregon-shooting-guns-no-guns-it-doesnt-matter/ author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-10-03T13:32:57.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T11:29:35.254Z article:section: Politics og:title: Trump on Oregon Shooting: 'Guns, No Guns—It Doesn't Matter' og:description: Trump says the major problem is mental illness and copycats og:url: https://time.com/4060362/trump-on-oregon-shooting-guns-no-guns-it-doesnt-matter/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7acea530aa62d096/698866c63c1639414645a102/donald-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3600 og:image:height: 2025 og:image:alt: Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Keene, New Hampshire og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Trump on Oregon Shooting: 'Guns, No Guns—It Doesn't Matter' twitter:description: Trump says the major problem is mental illness and copycats twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7acea530aa62d096/698866c63c1639414645a102/donald-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Trump on Oregon Shooting: 'Guns, No Guns—It Doesn't Matter' > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Oct 3, 2015 1:32 PM UTC  Donald Trump prepares for a town hall event at Keene High School on Sept. 30, 2015 in Keene, NH. Donald Trump prepares for a town hall event at Keene High School on Sept. 30, 2015 in Keene, NH. Darren McCollester—Getty Images by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Oct 3, 2015 1:32 PM UTC Presidential candidate Donald Trump responded to President Obama’s renewed calls for gun control following the recent [Oregon shooting](http://time.com/4058269/oregon-shooting-community-college/?xid=homepage) in [an interview](http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/trump-mental-illness-not-guns-blame-americas-mass-shooting-problem-n437901) with _Meet the Press_ host Chuck Todd, saying people are always going “come through the cracks.” “I watched his statement, and I understand exactly what he’s saying,” says Trump. “But, you know, no matter what you do – guns, no guns – it doesn’t matter. You have people that are mentally ill, and they’re going to come through the cracks. And they’re going to do things that people will not even believe are possible. And whether it’s the school shootings which are really very prevalent in this country. They seem to be more prevalent in this country.” When asked for his own explanation of the violence, Trump said: “They’re just sick people. They’re mentally imbalanced.” Todd then asked Trump if he thought the U.S. had more mentally ill people compared to other countries, and Trump responded, “I think what we have is, I think, we have copy cats. I think that they watch it and they see it here more than other places. And the world can be a pretty sick place in so many different ways. But we have mentally, very unstable, people and that is going to lead – and you know it’s not politically correct to say. You can have the best security. You have the best everything, but people are able to get in and do this — just terrible damage.” Watch the interview below: The full interview will be shown on _Meet The Press_ on Sunday. \[[NBC](http://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/trump-mental-illness-not-guns-blame-americas-mass-shooting-problem-n437901)\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4060362/trump-on-oregon-shooting-guns-no-guns-it-doesnt-matter/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4060362/trump-on-oregon-shooting-guns-no-guns-it-doesnt-matter/"},"headline":"Trump on Oregon Shooting: 'Guns, No Guns—It Doesn't Matter'","datePublished":"2015-10-03T13:32:57.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:29:35.254Z","description":"Trump says the major problem is mental illness and copycats","url":"https://time.com/4060362/trump-on-oregon-shooting-guns-no-guns-it-doesnt-matter/","keywords":["2016 elections","Mental Illness","Guns","Donald Trump","Oregon shooting","trump"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7acea530aa62d096/698866c63c1639414645a102/donald-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt7acea530aa62d096/698866c63c1639414645a102/donald-trump1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Keene, New Hampshire","caption":"Donald Trump Holds Campaign Rally In Keene, New Hampshire","creditText":"Darren McCollester—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-elections/","name":"2016 elections"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4060362/trump-on-oregon-shooting-guns-no-guns-it-doesnt-matter/","name":"Trump on Oregon Shooting: 'Guns, No Guns—It Doesn't Matter'"}}]}] ```