President trump condemns White Supremacy, but fails for acknowledge his own ratist rhetoric t that was echoed in t man necessary owe of the antigunman who killed 22 people in el paso. Trump proposed no new major gun control measures but instead blamed video games and Mental Illness for the spike in Mass Shootings. President trump Mental Illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun. Amy well get response from two leading gun control advocates, plus well speak to manny and Patricia Oliver. Their son joaquin was killed last year in the Mass School Shooting in parkland, florida. They just happened to be in el paso on saturday to unveil a mural near the u. S. Mexico border on what would have been joaquins 19th birthday. And we will get an update on the political crisis in puerto rico. All that and more, coming up. Amy welcome to democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. The death toll in saturdays massacre at an El Paso Walmart has gone up to 22 people after two more injured victims died monday. The gunman posted a racist, antiimmigrant manifesto online 20 minutes before the shooting. Hours after the massacre in texas, a gunman shot and killed nine people in dayton, ohio, and injured dozens of others. Trump addressed the nation monday and called on americans to condemn racism, bigotry and White Supremacy. In his man necessary owe, the el paso shooter said he was defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion. So far this year, trumps Reelection Campaign posted over 2,000 facebook ads that include the word invasion. That refers to m mrants. Trump has also repeatedly used the term in speeches. The congressional hispanic cause us asked trump monday t t stop using t the languguage of invasionon when describing immigrant and refugee communities. Trump went on to blame the Mass Shootings on violent video games, mental l illness and the Dark Recesses of the internet. President trump Mental Illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun. Amy trump did not call for changes to the nations gun control laws, but earlier in the day wrwrote on twitter, republicans and democrats must come together to get strong background checks, perhaps marrying this legislation with desperately needed immigration reform. In hisis address, trump also called for the Death Penalty for mass shooters. Last month the Justice Department annouounced the federal governmentnt is resumin Capital Punishment after nearly two decades. As he signed off from his televised address, trump named the wrong ohio town in reference to dayton, saying may god blessss the memories o those who perished in toledo. Cesar sayoc, the avid trump supporter who last year sent homemade pipe bombs to cnn and high profile democrats including the obamas and the clintons, was sentenced monday to 20 years in prison. Prosecutors said sayoc should eceive a life sentence for sending the 16 diy bombs but the judge determined that, although he hated them, sayoc had not intended to kill his victims based on the flawed design of the devices which never went off. Sayocs attorneys said he was radicalized by reading trumps tweets, watching fox news, and reading conspiracy theories on the internet. Tensions are mounting over kashmir following the revocation. Kashmir remained on lockdown, with internet and other communications blocked and leaders placed under house arrest. The status change would mean hindu indians from outside kashmir could start buying land and settling in the region, among other acactions s that wi shift the demomographic makeup the indianadministered, muslimmajority region. Critics and many kashmiris say this would threaten the States Indian rule. Protests were held across pakistan monday as political and military leadede convene today to discuss the issssue. Raja farooq hahaer, the prprime ministster of pakistanadministered azad kashmir, issued a stern warning, saying Pakistans Army would defend the region and make a graveyard for indian soldieiers if india dares to try any mischief over kashmir. Pakistani Prime Minister imran khan said indias actions were a violation of u. N. Security council resolutions, while the u. N. Is calling for all parties totoxercise rerestraint. The political crisis in puerto rico continues as the senate sued against the appointment of Pedro Pierluisi as the new governor following ricardo rossellos resignation last week. Pierluisi was sworn in despite not having being confirmed by the Puerto Rican Senate. Ierluisi argues he is in the line of succession for governor after being nominated as secretary of state by rossello last week. San juan mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz also sued after pierluisis swearing in. Pierluisis law firm represents the unelected, federally appointed control board with sweeping powers to run puerto ricos economy. Puerto ricans also say he represents a continuation of the corruption and status quo in the countrys leadership. The Treasury Department designated china a currency manipulator after r it allowed its currency to weaken to an 11year low amid the ongoing trade war with President Trump. Chinas move came after trump lala week threreatened to impose a furtrther 10 taffff on 300 billion of chinese g goods. Trump lashed out monday, accusing china of using it to steal our business and factories, hurt our jobs, depress our workers wages an haharm our farmers priceces. Not anymore. China also directed stateowned companies to suspend imports of u. S. Crops. Economists have refuted trumps claims that china will bear the economic brunt of increased tariffs, saying u. S. Consumers will in fact suffer the most. Stocks dropped in response monday, with wall streetet suffering its worst day of 2019. President trump signed an executive order monday imposing news sanctions against venezuela and the government of president nicolas maduro, in what amounts to a near total economic embargo. The latest move freezes the property and assets of the venezuelan government as the country grapples with ongoing sanctions targeting its oil industry. The wall street journal reports that the sanctions are on a par with those against north korea, iran, syria and cuba. Venezuelan Vice PresidentDelcy Rodriguez said in an interview the country is facing a transnational legal coup planned by the u. S. Government. Venezuela has been plunged into a political crisis following the attempted overthrow of maduro by Opposition Leader juan guaido in january. The ongoing unrest and usimposed sanctions have crippled the venezuelan economy. According to the united nations, around a quarter of venezuelas population is in need of aid, and three Million People have left venezuela since 2016. Trumps National Security adviser john bolton is speaking today at a conference in lima, peru where he will reiterate u. S. Support for guaido. Special envoy to venezuela Elliott Abrams and commerce secretary wilbur ross are also set to attend the meeting. In southwestern libya, Officials Say a drone strike on the remote town sunday killed 42 people and injured 60 others, 30 of them critically. The unbacked government blamed the assault on the loyalty to former libyan general khalifa haftar, who already controls much of eastern libya. Haftar is a former cia asset who the white house has praised for his role in fighting terrorism and securing libyas oil resources. The singer and accused serial pedophile r. Kelly has been charged in minnesota with two felony counts of prostitution and solicitation involving a minor. R. Kelly is accused of luring the girl, then 17, to his hotel room, where he offered her 2 hundred to undress and dance for him. R. Kelly, is currently behind bars in new york where he faces multiple federal criminal charges for abusing women and girls. He was arrested last month in chicago and indicted on counts including obstruction of justice, child pornography, and sexual assault. Police in galveston, texas, apologized following outrage over a photo showing a horsemounted officers leading a handcuffed black man down the street with a rope. The man was arrested saturday on a misdemeanor trespassing charge. The president of the Galveston Coalition for justice leon phillips, said the officers humiliated the man and that the photo was reminiscent of racist imageses from the 1920s. James douglas, the president of houstons naacp also lamented the photo, saying this is 2019 and not 1819. In media news, two of the countrys largest Newspaper Publishers are merging. Gatehouse media acquired gannett, which owns usa today, among other papers, for 1. 4 billion. The new company will own over 250 daily newspapers and hundreds of other weekly and community publications. The company, which will retain the name gannett, will own over onesixth of all daily newspapers in the United States. Critics warn the merger could result in newsroom layoffs. And local reporting may be sacrificed in favor of stories produced remotely and republished across many of the companys newspapers. And those are some of the headlines. This is democracy now, democracynow. Org, the war and peace report. Im amy goodman. Juan and im juan gonzalez. Welcome to our listeners and viewers from across the country and around the world. The death toll in the shooting at a walmart in el paso has risen to 22 after two more victims died monday. It is one of the deadliest Mass Shootings in u. S. History. Just before the shooting, the gunman published a man necessary owe claiming his actions were being done in response to what he described as a hispanic invasion of texas. Parts of the man necessary owe echoed President Trumps antiimmigrant rhetotoric. Most of the dead in el pasaso were latino, including eight mexican nationals 136789 hours after the massacre in el paso, a gunman in dayton, ohio, killed nine people, including his own sister, after opening fire outside a bar. Amy on monday, President Trump addressed the nation. He did not acknowledge his own antiimmigrant rhetoric. President trump in our voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and White Supremacy. These sinister ideologies must be defeated. Ate has no place in america. Hatred devours the soul. Juan President Trump also laid out a plan to confront Mass Shootings, but said little about enacting any new form of gun control. President trump first we must do a better job of identifying and acting on Early Warning signs. Second, we must stop the glorification of violence in our society. This includes the gruesome a an grizzly y video games that are now commonplace. It is too easy today for troubled youth to surround themselves with a culture that celebrates violence. Third, we must reform our Mental Health laws to better identify mentally disturbed individuals who may commit acts of violence and make sure those people not only get treatment, but, when necessary, involuntary confinement. Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun. My were joined by igor , the author of guns down how to defeat the nra and build a safer future with fewer guns. Igor its tragic, but not surprising. When you combine late, when you combine racism with easy access to firearms, you get tragedy. And so when we think about what we have to do, i think the number one thing is we have to ensure that firearms are harder to get in this country, particularly firearms that were designed for the military, that the gun manufacturers in this country are pumping into our communities. Theyre making these guns more dangerous ever single year. Theyre using advertisements that pull in military themes. So when you see a mass shooter walk into a situation and use an assault weapon where military fatigues wear military fatigues, theyre using the firearms as advertised. Juan of course, its not just Mass Shootings. They always get the biggest attention in the media, but what is it, 100 0 people a day average are being killed by guns in the United States . Igor its about 40,000 people ever single year. Most of that, as up point out, is every day gun violence, using handguns. Amy the majority people taking their own lives by suicide . Igor 2 3 is suicide. Until 1989, the most popular handgun was a revolver. Now its a semiautomatic pistol that uses larger rounds. Those rounds are coming at you faster. Thats not an accident. Thats because the gun industry made a decision that theyre going to start making these weapons more dangerous, because they want to sell more weapons to folks who already had them. The federal government t can st this. Amy so lets talk about how the federal government can stop this. First of all, in both dayton and in el paso, do you believe, but we dont know everything about how they got these guns, but they got these guns legally. Igor its because the standard of gun ownership in america is somewhere in the basement. Its so incredibly low. We have to raise the standard, not only for gun ownership, but also for gun production. So why dont we have a gun licensing system in the United States where if you want to own a gun, you have to go to your police station, get finger printed, you have to pass a test, go through a much more comprehensive background check. Theres a waiting period and then you can get your firearm. Amy snore coir booker has demand licensing, like you license a car. Igor exactlyly, senator booker mayor pete has that that. Amy lets turn to senator cory booker. It is one thing we dont all agree with when it comes to guns, and i think its s common sense, and over 70 of americans agree with me. If you need a license to drive a car, you should need a license to buy and own a firearm. Not everybody in the field agrees with that, but in states like connecticut that d that, they saw 40 drops in gun violence and 15 drops in suicides. We need to start having bobold enendas on g guns. Amy bold agendas. Does it sound like what even the democrats are now proposing the senate, if Mitch Mcconnell will call a special session. Mitch mcconnell, who fractured his shoulder apparently at his house in kentucky, if he would call a special session. What theyre proposing for the senate to pass . Igor theyre proposing the senate house pass, the house pass a background check bill. The house passed that measure in february 27. It would extend background checks to almost all gun purchases. Its a step in the right direction. It doesnt go far enough. And, you know, while i appreciate the calls for Mitch Mcconnell to call a special session, i think all of us together could set ourselves ablaze on Mitch Mcconnells front lawn, and he wouldnt do anything. Hes established an entire political career around carrying the n. R. A. s water. So what i dont understand is why champions of gun reform in the senate, the people who marched with us in parkland, the people who promised they would fight for us, why theyre not back in washington, d. C. , showing the nation that they are ready to pass legislation to disarm domestic terrorists, while the other folks are on vacation. People want to see a fight on this issue. Theyre so tired of a mass shooting. We talk about it for three days maybe, and then nothing happens. Lawmakers have to fight for this. We cant w wait for mcconnell. Juan i wanted to ask you, in the absence of any government action, substantive government action, what else can be done . Youve raised the issue of private corporations, specifically walmart, the role of walmart and the selling of guns in the United States. Igor yeah, this is significant. Walmart is the largest seller of guns in the United States, just given its size. And if walmart decided to take a stand on this issue, it could have a big difference. So my demand of walmart is, number one, stop selling guns, period, until we can raise the standard of gun ownership in this country. Stop giving political contributions to lawmakers who take money from the n. R. A. And also, invest in the communities that you serve. Fund gun buyback programs all around those communities. They have a troll play here. You know, as you point o out, legislative change, particularly on the federal level, takes a really long time. So its up to us to organize all voices of society to help build that future. Amy you have this call for walmart to stop selling guns. They were selling them in the El Paso Walmart. They were selling them in mississippi, where two employees were just killed last week. Companies like Dicks Sporting Goods just stopped selling weapons. Is that right . Igor thats right, and they stopped with assault weapons. Theyve raised the age. Theyve moved in the right direction, but they need clearly, as this act shows, they need to go further. Amy were also joined by kris brown, president of brady, formerly the Brady Campaign to prevent gun violence, named for james brady, who was shot in the head during the attempted assassination of president reagan. Kris brow