President Donald Trump hosted students and families affected by school shootings at the White House for an emotional listening session on what needed to be done to protect schools.
âWeâre going to do something about this horrible situation that is going on ⊠I want to listen, and after I listen, we can get things done,â Trump said to the group.
The president was joined by Education Secretary Betsy Devos and Vice President Mike Pence.
Pence said that Trump and the entire administration was determined to âmake sure that this is the last time that this ever happensâ
Several Florida students from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School at the time of the shooting last week attended the meeting together with their parents. Seventeen people were shot and killed in the attack.
âWeâre going to pick out the strongest ideas ⊠and weâre going to get them done. Itâs not going to be talk like in the past,â Trump said, before asking a pastor present to open the meeting with a prayer.
Father Andrew Pollack and his three sons came to the meeting, expressing his rage in response to his daughter Meadowâs death.
âHow many schools, how many children have to get shot?â he said. âIt should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it. And Iâm pissed. Because my daughter Iâm not going to see again.â
Pollack was targeted online after photographers captured him in a Trump t-shirt after the shooting looking for his daughter.
The students were polite in their discussions with Trump, fighting tears as they spoke to the president about their experiences.
Julia Cordover, the senior class president at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who has joined the activist group to March for our Lives on Washington, D.C. She thanked Trump for moving to ban âbump stocksâ calling it a âstep in the right direction.â
Some of the students even praised Trumpâs leadership.
âYouâve done a great job, and I like the direction that youâre going in,â Florida High School student Jonathan Blank said.
âThank you for leading this country, youâre a great leader and I appreciate the direction the country is going in,â student Ariana Klein said.
Cary Gruber, the father of a student attending the school directly asked Trump to support raising the legal age to buy a rifle.
âIf heâs not old enough to buy a beer he should not be able to buy a gun,â Gruber said.
Frederick Abt, one father of a Florida student proposed the idea of volunteer concealed carry for trained teachers or people at the school.
âIf you canât stop it from happening, and with hundreds of millions of guns out there, I donât know if it will ever be fully stopped, but the challenge becomes once it starts, to end it as quickly as possible,â he said.
After introducing several of the guests and hearing their opening remarks, Trump opened the meeting for discussion.
Trump supported the idea of allowing teachers to have concealed carry permits to bring firearms to school to stop mass shootings early.
He praised slain coach Aaron Feis for defending students but suggested that if he was armed he would have been able to stop the shooter.
âIf he had a firearm, he wouldnât have had to run, he would have shot and that would have been the end of it,â Trump said.
âA gun-free zone to a maniac is âletâs go in and letâs attack because bullets arenât coming back at us,’â he added.
Mark Barden, whose son was killed in Sandy Hook, opposed the idea of armed teachers, citing his wife who was a teacher.
âNobody wants a shootout in a school,â Barden said.
One of the studentâs, Samuel Zief, called for gun control laws that banned âweapons of warâ like AR-15 rifles, citing the recent bans passed in Maryland.
âThey have proven that we donât have to lose our Second Amendment,â he said.
Trump thanked everyone in the room for participating in the meeting, promising them results.
âThank you for your ideas. Thank you for your thoughts. Thank you for pouring out your hearts because the world is watching,â he said. âAnd we will come up with the solution. God bless you all.â
Source: Breitbart