Rick Perry Says Gun-Free Zones are a "Bad Idea" After Lafayette 'Trainwreck' Shooting

Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry believes that gun-free zones are a "bad idea" and that the shooting during a showing of Trainwreck in a Lafayette, Louisiana movie theater last week would have been stopped earlier with better-trained citizens. He said that gun control laws should not be stricter but, instead, better enforced.

"I think that you allow the citizens of this country, who have appropriately trained, appropriately backgrounded, know how to handle and use firearms, to carry them," Perry said in a CNN interview on Sunday.

"I believe that, with all my heart, that if you have the citizens who are well trained, and particularly in these places that are considered to be gun-free zones, that we can stop that type of activity, or stop it before there's as many people that are impacted as what we saw in Lafayette," he continued.

Perry does not believe that there need to be more laws concerning gun control or that current laws need to be changed. He said that if the existing laws were enforced better, there would be fewer shootings.

Perry explained that, as an example, both the shooters in Lafayette and in the Charleston church shooting were "obviously mentally impacted" and should not have been able to legally obtain guns under current laws had they been properly enforced.

John Russell "Rusty" Houser legally purchased a handgun, which he then used to shoot 11 people, killing two, during a screening of Amy Schumer's Trainwreck last Thursday in Lafayette, Louisiana, despite a history of mental illness. Houser then shot himself. Perry believes that making movie theaters gun-free would not prevent similar shootings in the future.

Pitch Perfect star Rebel Wilson called for America to adopt the same kind of strict gun control laws that her native Australia has following the Lafayette shooting. For her part, Schumer tweeted that her "heart is broken" over the shooting. Singer Sam Smith and actor Ian Somerhalder also took to Twitter to voice their shock and sadness about the Lafayette shooting.

Two high school teachers, Jena Legnon Meaux and Ali Viator Martin, are being hailed for helping to end the shooting. Meaux escaped the theater and shouted that there was a shooter, while Martin, who was shot in the leg, managed to pull a fire alarm. They had been trained for active shooter situations at their school under new initiatives following the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.