Florida School Shooting: President Trump Tweets Gun Law Changes

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Less than 24 hours after holding a listening session with survivors of the Florida school shooting, president Donald Trump released a torrent of social media posts on Twitter in which he promised sweeping changes to gun laws. He described the participants in his listening session as "courageous students, teachers and families." The president also expressed confidence that leaders of the 5-million strong National Rifle Association would "do the right thing" with respect to the proposed changes.

But speaking at the American Conservative Union on Thursday, NRA chief Wayne LaPierre appeared to blame the Parkland school massacre on poorly protected schools though Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School had an armed officer on the property at the time of last week's mass shooting. The Broward Sheriff's Office is investigating to determine why the officer did not engage the shooter.

LaPierre called on Americans to "stand and unflinchingly defend the Second Amendment" and he called for schools to improve security. "We must immediately harden our schools," he said. "It should not be easier for a madman to shoot up a school than a bank, a jewelry store or some Hollywood gala."

The NRA chief told a sympathetic audience that "evil must be confronted immediately with all necessary force to protect our kids" but he did not directly respond to the president's calls for change.

"I will be strongly pushing Comprehensive Background Checks with an emphasis on mental health," Trump tweeted earlier. "Raise age to 21 and end sale of bump stocks! Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue."

The president seemed to suggest that he would be pushing for certain trained teachers to be able to carry firearms into classrooms.

Speaking at a town hall sponsored by CNN on Wednesday night, Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who had received millions in financial support from the NRA and earned the organization's top rating, said that he supports a ban on bump stocks, raising the age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21 and setting a maximum size on gun magazines. Rubio said he would not support giving guns to teachers.

Meeting with education officials, state and local leaders, and law enforcement officials, including Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi later in the day, the president said that he had already placed calls to members of Congress and the Senate after Wednesday's listening session.

"I called many senators last night, many congressman," Trump said. "They’re into doing background checks that they wouldn’t be thinking about a week ago."

The president elaborated on his ideas regarding the mental health system.

"We're going to be talking very seriously about opening mental health institutions, in some case reopening them," Trump said.

Trump also suggested that he may even want to look at violent video games and movies that can be viewed by children.

LaPierre said that the NRA supports safe schools and safe communities but "as usual the opportunists wasted not one second to exploit tragedy for political gain."

Carly Novell a student at Stoneman Douglas, fired back at LaPierre on CNN calling his comments "disrespectful" toward the students who have suffered losses as a result of last week''s tragedy.

Just simply arming a school is putting a Band-Aid over a gunshot wound," she said. "This isn't just happening at schools. This is happening everywhere."

LaPierre said that his organization has been trying for years to revamp the National Instant Criminal Background Check System to include anyone deemed "mentally incompetent or a danger to society" and to also include millions of convicted felons who have been omitted from the system.

"The NRA originated the National Instant Check System," LaPierre insisted. "Nobody on the prohibited persons list should ever have access to a firearm."

LaPierre did not directly address the president's call for specific changes.

"President Trump's election while crucial can't turn away the wave of these new European-style socialists bearing down upon us," LaPierre told the audience.

President Donald Trump, joined by Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School student Carson Abt, right, and Julia Cordover, the student body president at the school, pauses during a listening session with high school students teachers and others in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington on Wednesday (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster).