On Wednesday afternoon nearly for an hour, President Donald Trump listened to students, parents and teachers beg him to do something to prevent from another mass shooting happening at another school. The whole group offered a number of suggestions, like bolsters school security, drill students on what to do during such situations and raise an age at which someone can buy an assault rifle. The president remained focused on the solution he often proposes after a mass shooting: increasing the number of people with guns so they can quickly stop shooters with lethal force.
The President said, "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." The 70-minute listening session with students, parents, and teachers at the White House was a remarkable event with participants’ raw emotions often on display - at one point, a student openly sobbed after he spoke, his head down as he wiped away tears and those around him rubbed his back.
The President further added, "We're going to do something about this horrible situation that's going on. And we're going to all figure it out together."
But it will be a difficult promise to fulfill with Trump's Republican Party long opposed to making it more difficult to buy a gun and Democrats and gun-control advocates calling anything short of limiting access to firearms a failure. It will require him to use the bipartisan dealmaking skills he promised to bring to his presidency but has yet to show.
Trump sat quietly for most of the event, often nodding his head as if in agreement. He held notes that told him to ask the participants about their experiences and what the White House could do, along with a reminder to say, "I hear you."
David Hogg, a survivor of the shooting who has passionately argued for stricter gun control measures, declined an invitation extended by the White House, according to his mother, Rebecca Boldrick.
A survivor’s mother said, "He needed to be in Tallahassee today. In Israel, you have to be 27 years old to have a gun. You're only allowed one. They tax the guns. You have to go through significant training. We got to do something about this. We cannot have our children die. This is just heartbreaking. Please."
"Fix it," said Pollack, who was wearing a red. "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 at - in North Lauderdale, at whatever it is - King David Cemetery. That's where I go to see my kid now."
He further said,"No one wants to see a shootout in a school. We're asking you to please help. It's very difficult, it's very complex, but we're going to find the solution. There are many different ideas. Some, I guess, are good. Some aren't good. Some are very stringent, as you understand, and a lot of people think they work, and some are less so."
