Suggesting it was not guns that kill people but mentally ill/twisted monsters with access to social media and violent video games, an unusually sedate President Trump signaled he wanted to crack down on the latter two. 

That came in prepared remarks Monday (Aug. 5) on the mass shootings in Ohio and Texas over the past 48 hours.  

In a speech the President appeared to be reading verbatim, or at least mostly so, from a teleprompter, the President said: "We must recognize that the internet has provided a dangerous avenue to radicalize disturbed minds and perform demented act," something the President's tweets about immigrants and others have been accused themselves of doing. 

He also appeared to be blaming the media while using his favorite social media site, tweeting:

[embed]https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1158340095608610816[/embed]

Related: Study Says Violent Gamers Less Likely to Be Online Haters

The President said a light needed to be shined on "the dark recesses" of the internet and stop mass murders before they start," eventually adding: "Mental illness and hatred pulls the trigger, not the gun." 

While he was on the subject, he pointed out that the internet was used for human trafficking, illegal drug distribution. He said the "perils" of the internet and social media cannot, and they will not, be ignored." 

Related: White House Focused on Video Violence

But the President was also looking for help from social media. He said his administration would work with social media companies on tools to detect mass shooters before they strike.  

He said there must be a stop to the glorification of violence in our society, including "the gruesome and grisly video games that are now commonplace." He said it has become too easy for troubled youth to surround themselves with culture that celebrates violence." 

Related: Trump Decries Movie, Video Violence

He said it had to be stopped, or "substantially reduced," and "immediately. He did not say how that would happen, though he suggested there needed to be a "cultural change" toward valuing every human life.  

Last year's Parkland, Florida, school shooting (17 students and teachers killed), drew similar calls from the White House for looking into media's impact on violence, as did the Sandy Hook shootings during President Obama's tenure, as did the Columbine shootings during the Clinton years.

Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.) is back in intensive care, his office said in a statement.

Scalise was seriously injured when he was shot by a gunman while practicing for the congressional softball game last month.

"Congressman Steve Scalise has been readmitted to the Intensive Care Unit at MedStar Washington Hospital Center due to new concerns for infection," said a statement from the MedStar Washington Hospital, where Scalise has been since the June 14 shooting. "His condition is listed as serious."

The hospital said it would provide a further update Thursday (July 6).

Count CNN and NBC News among those media outlets that took President Obama up on his call to compare terrorist violence and U.S. gun violence.

Frustrated at yet another mass shooting, the president took to the airwaves Thursday night (Oct. 1) to comment on the Umpqua Community College attack in Roseburg, Ore.

He suggested the media has a role in getting the message across that mas gun violence must stop and to counter the press releases that will call for more guns and fewer gun safety laws. In an effort to avoid criticism for "politicizing the issue" -- though he argued guns threaten the body politic -- President Obama asked media outlets to publish gun violence stats.

"I would ask news organizations ... to tally up the number of Americans who have been killed by terrorist attacks in the last decade and the number of Americans who have been killed by gun violence, and post those side-by-side on your news reports," Obama said. "This won't be information coming from me, it will be coming from you."

On its website Friday (Oct. 2), CNN did just that.

"Using numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, we found that from 2004 to 2013, 316,545 people died by firearms on U.S. soil," CNN reported. "This data covered all manners of death, including homicide, accident and suicide."

CNN noted that 2013 is the most recent year CDC data for deaths by firearms is available.

By contrast, CNN said, "[a]ccording to the U.S. State Department, the number of U.S. citizens killed overseas as a result of incidents of terrorism from 2004 to 2013 was 277. In addition, we compiled all terrorism incidents inside the U.S. and found that between 2004 and 2013, there were 36 people killed in domestic acts of terrorism. This brings the total to 313."

NBC News took on the challenge on its website as well, looking at data from 2001 to 2013 and taking a slightly different tack than CNN. While it also used CDC stats, the news organization used only homicides and did not include "legal interventionism" (police) or suicides.

NBC found that while 153,144 people were killed in firearm homicides over that period (the number would have been 394,912 if all deaths were included), only 3,046 people in the U.S. died in terrorist or possible terrorist attacks with the 9/11 attacks obviously representing the majority of those deaths.