Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador on Monday urged the United States to revisit gun control legislation following the deadly mass shooting in El Paso, Texas.
“We’re very respectful of what other governments decide, but we think that these lamentable events that occurred in the United Sates should lead to reflection, analysis and the decision to control the indiscriminate sale of arms,” López Obrador said at a press conference in Valle de Bravo, Mexico.
{mosads}“It is not our disposition to involve ourselves in the internal affairs of any country, but this topic should be considered again because it affects many people, in this case Americans as well as Mexicans,” he said.
A gunman on Saturday killed at least 22 and injured over two dozen at a Walmart in El Paso.
Patrick Wood Crusius, the suspected gunman, drove eight hours from the Dallas-Fort Worth area to El Paso, which is directly across the border from Mexico’s Ciudad Juárez and has a high concentration of Hispanic people.
Crusius allegedly wrote a racist, anti-immigrant manifesto before the attack, which described fears of a Latino “invasion.”
López Obrador said Monday that the latest information indicates seven Mexicans died and seven more were injured in the shooting.
Secretary of Foreign Affairs Marcelo Ebrard on Sunday described the shooting as “an act of terrorism against the community of Mexico.” López Obrador announced Monday that Ebrard has been dispatched to Ciudad Juárez to deal with the fall out from the incident.
The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime.
Ebrard revealed Sunday that Mexico’s chief prosecutor may consider extraditing the alleged shooter on charges of terrorism.
“The attorney general will evaluate requesting, if necessary elements are there, the extradition of the author or the authors of this action,” he said.
President Trump signaled his support early Monday for bipartisan action on legislation providing “strong background checks,” but did not mention the proposal during his address to the nation later in the day.
He did identify several possible steps, such as a “red flag” law that would make it easier for law enforcement to identify mentally ill people who should be banned from purchasing guns.
Democrats have renewed their calls for new gun control legislation following the shooting in El Paso and the other mass shooting this weekend that left at least nine dead in Dayton, Ohio.
They have called for the House-approved universal background bill to be taken up by the Senate. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has so far refused to do so.