Texas churches need more guns, attorney general says after mass shooting

Hours after alleged gunman Devin Patrick Kelley opened fire at a church in Texas, the state’s attorney general called for more firearms in churches.

READ MORE: Pregnant woman and her 3 children among victims Texas church shooting

Republican Ken Paxton appeared on Fox News Sunday, speaking about the shooting at the First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, which left 26 dead and several others injured.

Paxton voiced support for more guns in churches, saying that the religious institutions should be “arming some of the parishioners.”

“If it’s a place where somebody has the ability to carry, there’s always the opportunity that the gunman will be taken out before he has the opportunity to kill very many people,” the attorney general said.

READ MORE: 26 confirmed dead after gunman opens fire in Texas church

“It’s going to happen again,” Paxton added. “You can’t necessarily keep guns out of the hands of people who are going to violate the law.”

“I wish some law would fix all of this,” he said.

Paxton’s argument that more guns are necessary to combat gun violence is one that is often cited by the National Rifle Association (NRA).

WATCH: Texas governor calls church shooting ‘act of evil’

0:41 Texas governor calls church shooting ‘act of evil’

The NRA’s frequently used phrase is, “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

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The organization even sells T-shirts with the slogan.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump, who is in Japan, called the shooting an “act of evil.” He added the shooting was caused by a “mental health problem.”

WATCH: Trump calls deadly Texas church shooting a ‘mental health’ issue

0:44 Trump calls deadly Texas church shooting a ‘mental health’ issue

“This isn’t a guns situation,” Trump said. “This is a mental health problem at the highest level. It’s a very, very sad event.”

The latest mass shooting has once again renewed calls for tighter gun laws in the U.S., with many using the hashtag #GunControlNow on social media.

Users urged politicians such as Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan to move beyond offering “thoughts and prayers.”

According to the Mass Shooting Tracker, mass shootings in the U.S. are becoming deadlier and more frequent.

This year alone, there have been 378 mass shootings in the country, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker website. It defines mass shooting as an incident in which at least four people were shot.

— With files from The Associated Press