The evangelical pastor and Donald Trump ally Robert Jeffress has suggested that an armed attacker on his church would be stopped after one or two shots because his congregants carry guns 'and I don't think there's anything wrong with that'.

Jeffress, who is pastor at the megachurch First Baptist Church, Dallas, yesterday told Fox News: 'I'd say a quarter to a half of our members are concealed carry, they have guns and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. They bring them into the church with them.'

Co-host Ainsley Earhardt interjected: 'That probably makes you feel safer.'

Jeffress responded: 'I think it does and I think, look, if somebody tries that in our church, they might get one shot off or two shots off, and that's the last thing they'll ever do in this life.'

Fox co-host Brian Kilmeade added that mass shooters might not target a church where those attending are known to carry weapons.

'Most of these guys are cowards, they don't like when people shoot back, they like to hit defenceless people, and that won't be the case any more,' Kilmeade said.

Trump himself has already dismissed the notion that Sunday's shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas in which 26 people died was, as he put it, 'a guns situation'.

The US President said at a press conference in Japan: 'We have a lot of mental health problems in our country, as do other countries, but this isn't a guns situation. I mean we could go into it, but it's a little bit soon to go into it, but fortunately, somebody else had a gun that was shooting in the opposite direction...it would have been much worse.'