DONALD Trump says he will push for tighter gun laws after the grieving father of a teenage girl shot dead in last week’s massacre at a Florida high school made an impassioned plea for him to protect America’s students.
The US President hosted a “listening session” in the White House on Wednesday with students, teachers and parents who had been touched by gun violence in schools.
The most memorable moment from the emotionally charged yet polite meeting came towards the end when Andrew Pollack, the father of Meadow Pollack, spoke.
“We’re here because my daughter has no voice. She was murdered last week, and she was taken from us. Shot nine times on the third floor,” Mr Pollack said.
“We, as a country, failed our children. This shouldn’t happen. We go to the airport — I can’t get on a plane with a bottle of water. But … some animal can walk into a school and shoot our children.
“It’s just not right, and we need to come together as a country and work on what’s important, and that’s protecting our children in the schools.
“We protect airports. We protect concerts, stadiums, embassies, the Department of Education that I walked in today that has a security guard in the elevator. How do you think that makes me feel? In the elevator, they got a security guard.
“I’m very angry that this happened, because it keeps happening. 9/11 happened once, and they fixed everything. How many schools, how many children have to get shot? It stops here with this administration and me. I’m not going to sleep until it’s fixed.
“And, Mr President, we’re going to fix it, because I’m going to fix it. I’m not going to rest.
“All these school shootings, it doesn’t make sense. Fix it. It should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it. And I’m pissed, because my daughter I’m not going to see again. She’s not here. She’s not here. She’s in North Lauderdale, at — whatever it is — King David Cemetery. That’s where I go to see my kid now. And it stops if we all work together and come up with the right idea. And it’s school safety. It’s not about gun laws right now; that’s another fight, another battle. Let’s fix the schools, and then you guys can battle it out, whatever you want.”
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The President has indicated a willingness to act on gun control, tweeting overnight that he supported stronger background checks with an emphasis on mental health, raising the age at which people can buy guns to 21 and banning bump stocks, which allow semiautomatic rifles to act like an automatic ones and spray bullets in quick succession.
Mr Trump is also supportive of the idea to arm more teachers within schools.
In the listening session, he suggested that 20 per cent of the teaching staff in school across America could be given “concealed carry” permits, which allow people to carry firearms hidden from view.
On Twitter, the President said well-trained, armed teachers would act as a “GREAT DETERRENT” to a potential ”sicko shooter”.
“ATTACKS WOULD END!” Mr Trump wrote.