Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) created a media firestorm on Sunday when he told CNN's Jake Tapper that more people should carry their guns to movie theaters to prevent future shootings.

Perry pointed out the fact that the massacre in Lafayette occurred at a gun-free zone, making the theater's patrons a natural target for a crazed gunman.

"These concepts of gun-free zones are a bad idea. I think that you allow the citizens of this country -- who have been appropriately trained, appropriately backgrounded, know how to handle and use firearms -- to carry them. 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," Perry said on CNN.

Tapper asked the presidential hopeful if he thought greater gun ownership would be more effective than strengthening gun control laws. Perry stood firm to his convictions, saying that America doesn't need more gun control laws, but more law enforcement to prevent shootings like the ones in Lafayette and Charleston, S.C.

“We need to enforce the laws that are on the books,” Perry continued. “Somebody didn't do their job in the standpoint of enforcing the laws that are on the books."

The Lafayette shooter, John Houser, legally purchased the gun used in the massacre from a pawn shop in Alabama last year despite having been arrested for domestic violence, reported the Huffington Post.

Watch the full clip below: