UPDATED 2X: Trump addresses gun violence, vows to be 'very strong on background checks' [View all]

[DonViejo]

Source: Reuters

FEBRUARY 21, 2018 / 4:49 PM / UPDATED 17 MINUTES AGO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday his administration would emphasize background checks and mental health in an effort to deal with gun violence in schools after last weeks mass shooting at a Florida high school.

Were going to be very strong on background checks, were doing very strong background checks, very strong emphasis on the mental health, Trump said at a White House meeting with high school students, teachers and parents, including some from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and educators were killed last week by a former student.

Reporting by Jeff Mason; Writing by Mohammad Zargham; Editing by Leslie Adler

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns-trump/trump-addresses-gun-violence-vows-to-be-very-strong-on-background-checks-idUSKCN1G52QT

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UPDATE 1:

Trump vows action on gun background checks after Florida shooting

Jeff Mason, Zachary Fagenson

FEBRUARY 21, 2018 / 9:08 AM / UPDATED 18 MINUTES AGO

5 MIN READ

WASHINGTON/TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday vowed to take steps to improve background checks for gun buyers in the wake of last weeks deadly Florida high school shooting as hundreds of students joined scattered protests around the United States.

Its not going to be talk like it has been in the past, Trump said in a meeting about school safety that included six students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and educators were slain by a gunman with an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle in the second-deadliest shooting at a U.S. public school.

Survivors of that shooting poured into the Florida state capital, Tallahassee, to demand that lawmakers restrict sales of assault rifles. Some wore T-shirts and carried signs reading We call B.S., one of the slogans of the movement started by the survivors.

Protesters joined the call from the streets of Washington, Chicago and Pittsburgh.

more
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-guns/trump-vows-action-on-gun-background-checks-after-florida-shooting-idUSKCN1G51QY

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UPDATE 2

Trump Proposes Arming School Staff: ‘It Could Very Well Solve Your Problem’

By Matt Shuham | February 21, 2018 5:40 pm

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that having more people armed at schools could prevent future mass shootings.

“I think it could very well solve your problem,” he said.

After hearing the devastating stories from parents and young people affected by gun massacres at schools, Trump pointed to the example of Stoneman Douglas football coach Aaron Feis, who was reportedly killed by the alleged gunman last week after Feis threw himself in front of students to protect them from the gunfire.

“If the coach had a firearm in his locker when he ran at this guy — that coach was very brave, saved a lot of lives I suspect — but if he had a firearm, he wouldn’t have had to run, he would have shot and that would have been the end of it,” Trump said.

“Gun-free zone, to a maniac — because they’re all cowards — a gun-free zone is ‘Let’s go in and let’s attack, because bullets aren’t coming back at us,” Trump said, wondering aloud about arming “20 percent of your teaching force.”

more
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/trump-proposes-arming-school-faculty-it-could-very-well-solve-your-problem