WASHINGTON (CBSNewYork/AP) — President Donald Trump said he had a weekend lunch with key leaders of the National Rifle Association and all agreed they “want to do something” to address gun violence and school safety.
Trump is meeting with the nation’s governors Monday and says the deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school is the top issue he wants to discuss.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy is attending the meeting, but New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is not.
Under pressure to act to stem gun violence on school grounds, Trump planned to solicit input from the state chief executives during meetings Monday at the White House. The governors are in Washington for their annual winter meeting.
Trump told the governors there is “no bigger fan of the Second Amendment than me,” but there’s a need to boost background checks and ensure that a “sicko” is unable to get a gun.
Seventeen students and teachers were killed in the Valentine’s Day shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, sparking a public outcry for new gun-control measures as well as action to improve school safety.
Trump has proposed toughening background checks, increasing mental health services and raising the age to buy most guns to 21. The NRA opposes raising the minimum age to buy a gun.
The president has also called for arming teachers, which will be heavily debated on Capitol Hill this week as Congress gets back to work.
“We’ll be talking about Parkland and the horrible event that took place last week,” Trump said as he hosted the governors for an annual black-tie ball Sunday. “That will be one of the subjects. We’ll make it first on our list.”
Greeted by a sprawling memorial on Sunday, students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School returned to school for the first time since the shooting to pick up belongings left behind in panic.
“I’m scared to come back, but I know through this our school will be safer,” said senior Mikayla Stravitz.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s office said he had asked Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Rick Swearingen to investigate the law enforcement response to the shooting. The agency confirmed it would begin the probe immediately.
Some state Republican lawmakers are also asking Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel to resign, CBS2’s Magdalena Doris reported.
Israel has come under withering scrutiny after the revelation last week that deputy Scot Peterson, the school’s assigned security officer, was nearby when the shooting began but did not go into the building to confront Cruz during the attack. The sheriff’s office is also facing a backlash for apparently mishandling some of the 18 tipster calls related to the suspected shooter.
Israel defended his leadership Sunday and said investigators were looking into claims that three other deputies were on the scene but failed to enter the school when the chance to save lives still existed.
He said to date, the investigation has pointed to only one deputy being on school grounds while the suspect was present.
“While this killer was inside the school, there was only one law enforcement person — period — and that was our former deputy Scott Peterson,” Israel told CNN.
Israel also labeled as “absolutely untrue” reports that the deputies waited outside even though children were inside the building needing urgent medical treatment.
Trump’s session with the governors Monday will be the latest in which he solicits ideas for stopping gun violence at schools as the White House works to finalize an expected legislative proposal.
The president spent several days last week hearing emotional pleas from parents and students, including some who survived the Parkland shooting, and others who suffered through school shootings in Connecticut and Colorado. He also solicited input from state and local officials.
Trump has floated numerous ideas since the shooting, including raising the minimum age for the purchase of assault-style weapons, improving background checks for gun purchases, arming educators and paying them bonuses, and re-opening mental institutions.
“I think we’re going to have a great bill put forward very soon having to do with background checks, having to do with getting rid of certain things and keeping other things, and perhaps we’ll do something on age, because it doesn’t seem to make sense that you have to wait until you are 21 years old to get a pistol, but to get a gun like this maniac used in the school, you get that at 18,” Trump said during a late Saturday telephone interview with Fox News Channel. “That doesn’t make sense.”
The National Rifle Association, which backed Trump for president, opposes increasing the minimum age for assault-style weapons purchases but favors arming teachers.
“This is really a discussion about banning all semi-automatic firearms and I wish that we could be genuine in our discussion of that,” said NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch . “That’s the position on AR-15 and AR-15s are going to be in that school protecting students and teachers when they return back to class.”
Members of Congress also return to work Monday and will likely address the shooting, but will not be voting on any gun control measures.
Includes more video:
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In a White House meeting with the nation’s Governors, President Donald Trump on Monday reiterated his call for legislative action by the Congress on matters related to gun violence, saying he had told leaders of the National Rifle Association that “we need to do something,” as he pressed Congress and the states to do their part to prevent future school shootings.
“We’ve got to do background checks,” the President said, once more emphasizing closer checks dealing with mental illness. “If we see a sicko, I don’t want him having a gun.”
Mr. Trump said he had already been lobbying leaders of the National Rifle Association to help with changes related to gun violence, telling the Governors he had lunch with NRA leaders over the weekend.
“Don’t worry about the NRA,” the President said in a meeting in the East Room. “They’re on our side.”
Trump says the NRA wants to “do something” in the wake of the Florida school shooting
“We continue to mourn the loss of so many young lives,” Mr. Trump said, “but we’ll turn our grief into action,” as the President said too often there is a mass shooting – and no answers.
“A week goes, by let’s keep talking,” the President said. “Two months go by, and we’re on the next subject.”
As he has since the mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida earlier this month, the President again endorsed action on a series of matters, including having certain teachers and administrators carry concealed weapons, banning devices like ‘bump stocks’ which make semi-automatic weapons fire faster, and ensuring that more information gets into the federal background check system for gun buyers.
While the Governors and the President engaged in a back and forth about school safety, there was one interesting moment as the Governor of Washington, Democrat Jay Inslee, directly challenged the President’s idea of arming certain teachers and school administrators.
WATCH: Exchange between President Trump and @GovInslee (D-WA) on arming teachers concludes: “We need a little less tweeting here and a little more listening.” http://cs.pn/2sXnjCj
“I just suggest we need a little less tweeting right now and a little more listening,” said Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington State, as he gave the back of the hand to the President’s idea of having teachers carry concealed weapons.
While the President talked about having action, down Pennsylvania Avenue on Capitol Hill, there is no sense of imminent action on guns, which has always been a politically difficult matter to consider in the House and Senate, no matter what party is in charge.
The last gun-related measure to pass was a bill in the House that combined a plan to make changes in the instant check system related to mental health concerns – but that was combined with a bill that forces states to honor concealed carry permits issued in another state.
For now, that combo bill seems to have no future in the Senate.
Speaker Ryan and President Trump spoke again on the phone this weekend about guns. The House is waiting for the Senate to take the next steps on this since House already passed a fix NICS/concealed carry bill
In his meeting with the Governors, the President also again weighed in on the school security aide who waited outside, and did not confront the school gunman.
“I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon,” the President told Governors, saying he thought the officer’s failure to act was ‘disgusting.’
Trump on the Parkland school shooting: “I really believe I’d run in there even if I didn’t have a weapon and I think most of the people in this room would have done that too”
“He choked,” the President said. “A lot of people choked in that case.”
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