Two US Democratic candidates for 2020 presidential election blamed El Passo mass shooting on Donald Trump's racist rhetoric.

Iran Press/America: US Democratic candidates for 2020 presidential election Pete Buttigieg and Beto O'Rourke have reacted to the mass shooting in El Passo, Texas, which killed at least 20 people.

Stressing the need for enforcing strict gun control laws throughout the United States, Buttigieg said that US is the only country in the world where the number of weapons exceeds the number of people, Iran Press reported.

"It has not made us safer. We can respect the Second Amendment and not allow it to be a death sentence for thousands of Americans." He said.

Buttigieg said that US has become the target of nationalist racist whites who are encouraged by US president Donald Trump.

O'Rourke, the other Democrat candidate, also said: "We’ve had a rise in hate crimes every single one of the last three years during an administration where you’ve had a president who’s called Mexicans ‘rapists’ and 'criminals', though Mexican immigrants commit crimes at a far lower rate than those born here in the country."

In a mass shooting incident on Saturday night a gunman opened fire in a shopping centre in El Paso, Texas, killing 20 people and injuring least 26 others.

Just hours later, a gunman in the early hours of Sunday morning opened fire on people in downtown Dayton, Ohio, killing at least 9 and wounding at least 16 others.  207/211/215

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