GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump Donald John TrumpOmar fires back at Trump over rally remarks: 'This is my country' Pelosi: Trump hurrying to fill SCOTUS seat so he can repeal ObamaCare Trump mocks Biden appearance, mask use ahead of first debate MORE said in an interview broadcast Sunday morning that the U.S. cities with the strongest gun laws often have the biggest problems, saying gun violence will happen "no matter what you do.”

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“You take Chicago, you take Baltimore, you take various other places where you have tremendous gun violence and death,” Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “The strictest laws in the United States — in the world — for guns happens to be Chicago, where they have a lot of problems. Baltimore, a lot of the places where you have the biggest problem is where they have the strongest laws.”

“I don't think it's about laws,” Trump said during a gun control discussion in the wake of a mass shooting at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., that left 10 people dead, including the gunman.

“The strongest, the most stringent laws are in almost every case the worse places. It doesn't seem to work. It's a tough situation,” Trump added. “And when it comes to the schools, it really is mental health. It's a mental problem.”

. Trump said he watched President Obama’s statement following the Umpqua Community College rampage and said he understands “exactly what he's saying.”

“But, you know, no matter what you do, guns, no guns, it doesn't matter. You have people that are mentally ill. And they're gonna come through the cracks. And they're going to do things that people will not even believe are possible.”

Trump also criticized the gun-free zone on the Umpqua Community College campus.

“I see it was a gun-free zone. And you were not allowed to have guns at all in that particular area. And you could make the case that it would have been a lot better had people had guns because they had something to fire back.”

The real-estate mogul advised the media to stop reporting the name of the assailant in mass shootings to prevent “copycat” killers.

“But in the meantime, the news is all using his name,” Trump said. “And everybody now knows his name. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you wouldn’t cover it? Because I think that’s part of the problem. You have copycats. They wanna do it. They think it’s wonderful. They’re sick people.”

— Bradford Richardson contributed to this report, which was updated at 9:59 a.m.