WASHINGTON (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump on Saturday expressed concern that the death toll in an attack by a gunman on a "heavier" synagogue had been announced in preliminary reports and expressed his desire to "tighten laws on death sentences for such crimes."
A gunman stormed a Jewish synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on Saturday and opened fire, killing at least 11 people, AFP reported.
Trump, before boarding his plane for a meeting with farmers, said he feared the death toll would be "more severe" than it has been so far.
He said he wanted to "tighten the laws on the death penalty", saying that "when people do such a job they must be sentenced to death," and denounced "hatred" in the United States, according to AFP.
"Weapons possession laws have nothing to do with the attack"
The US president said it had nothing to do with US arms control laws, which President Barack Obama has long tried to tighten, and was his biggest critic.
Trump added that the toll would have been lower "if there were armed guards in the area," adding that "there was nothing" to protect those inside the temple.
He stressed that there should be "an option for all churches and synagogues to have armed guards."
In another event, at the start of an election rally in Indianapolis, Indiana, Trump described the attack as "an evil act of mass murder and pure evil," saying that "anti-Semitism must be condemned and confronted everywhere and wherever it appears"
