“This wicked act of mass murder is pure evil, hard to believe and, frankly, something that is unimaginable,” Trump told the audience at the Future Farmers of America convention in Indiapolis Saturday afternoon. “Our nation and the world are shocked and stunned by the grief. This was an anti-Semitic act. You wouldn’t think this would be possible in this day and age, but we just don’t seem to learn from the past.”

Previously, in speaking with reporters ahead of his Indiapolis speech, Trump said the “devastating” attack by a shooter on the Tree of Life synagogue lays bare the “hate in our country” and speculated that the death toll — “a lot of people killed” — would have been curbed if the building had had an armed guard.

Trump also said gun control “has little to do with it” but “if they had protection inside, the results would have been far better.”

Authorities said the gunman opened fire during a baby-naming ceremony Saturday morning at the Tree of Life Congregation in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. The attack is being investigated as a hate crime.

“This is a case where, if they had an armed guard inside, they might have been able to stop him immediately,” Trump said. “Maybe there would have been nobody killed, except for him, frankly. So it’s a very, very – a very difficult situation.”

In previous mass shootings, Trump has at times said he would consider tightening certain gun controls but in the main has called for more armed guards in places such as schools.

“The world is a violent world,” he said Saturday. “And you think when you’re over it, it just sort of goes away, but then it comes back in the form of a madman, a wacko. … They had a maniac walk in and they didn’t have any protection and that is just so sad to see, so sad to see.”

Trump said lawmakers “should very much bring the death penalty into vogue” and people who kill in places such as synagogues and churches “really should suffer the ultimate price.”

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders tweeted: “We stand in total solidarity with the victims and all of the Jewish community against bigotry and hate.”