'Big 2nd Amendment person' Donald Trump: Lafayette theater shooting 'has nothing to do with guns'

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said over the weekend that a shooting at a theater in Lafayette, Louisiana could have been prevented if moviegoers were allowed to bring more guns with them.

During an interview with CNN host Jake Tapper on Sunday, Trump argued that it was wrong to focus on gun safety laws after John Russell Houser allegedly shot 11 people on Friday.

"These are sick people," he explained. "This has nothing to do with guns, this has to do with the mentality of these people."

Trump, who called himself a "big Second Amendment person," said that people needed "protection against the bad ones who have the guns."

"You take them away from the good people, and the bad ones are going to have target practice," the billionaire remarked. "Like for instance, the gun free zone with the Marines [in Chattanooga], that was disgraceful... This guy shot them, they were like sitting ducks... and if they would have had their guns, they probably would all be alive or most of them."

"We have to protect our Second Amendment and we can't take little chunks here -- you know, they keep talking about, take these little chunks out," he continued. "And you have to be very careful about that."

Tapper wondered if the Second Amendment also protected the right of Lafayette shooter John Russell Houser, who had been involuntarily committed previously.

According to Trump, there was a "very fine line" in taking away the Second Amendment rights of the mentally ill.

"You've got to do it very judiciously," he insisted. "If a person is mentally ill and it's proven and it's documented, you have to be extremely careful not to let them kill people. Frankly, he should be committed."

"Because he has the kind of a record where he should be in a institution. He was a very sick puppy."

Watch the video below from CNN's State of the Union, broadcast July 26, 2015.