A number of celebrities have spoken out in a call for “action”, following the mass shooting in Texas over the weekend.
On Sunday (5 November), 26 people were killed in a shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas.
The response from the US government, including President Trump’s claim this is not “a gun situation” but a problem relating to “mental health”, and Speaker Paul Ryan’s call for “prayers” has been met with a backlash on social media, including from a number of celebrity critics.
Katy Perry was among those to voice her outrage, tweeting the simple message: “Prayer without action is powerless.”
Others have also been venting on their social media accounts, highlighting the issue of gun control in the US, in the wake of another mass shooting.
At a press conference in Tokyo in the wake of the tragedy, Trump was asked what policies he might support in response to the shooting, explaining he felt the gunman was “a very deranged individual, a lot of problems”.
After suggesting that it was a “little bit too soon” to get into a discussion about the potential reform of gun laws in the US, the President insisted: “This is a mental health problem at the highest level. It’s a very, very sad event.”
Earlier in his speech, Trump had remarked: “Who would ever think a thing like this could happen?”
After fleeing the shooting scene - about 65 km (40 miles) east of San Antonio - the suspect was found dead by a gunshot wound in his vehicle in neighboring Guadalupe County, Wilson County authorities said.
A statement from the Wilson County Sheriff’s Office and the Texas Department of Public Safety said: “The exact circumstances of the gunman’s death are still under investigation.”