Students galvanised by the deadly mass shooting at a Florida high school have confronted lawmakers with demands to restrict sales of assault rifles.
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The unprecedented lobbying effort by groups of teenagers and parents at the White House and at the Florida statehouse in Tallahassee played out as fellow students staged classroom walkouts and rallies in cities across the country.
Trump held an emotional, hour-long meeting with students who survived the Florida shooting and a parent whose child did not. He said arming teachers and other school staff could help prevent future mass shootings, voicing support for an idea backed by the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby.
The attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, where 17 students and educators were killed on February 14 in the second-deadliest shooting at a US public school, has revived the long-running US debate over gun rights.
Investigators said the assault was carried out by 19-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student Nikolas Cruz, who purchased an AR-15-style assault weapon nearly a year ago.
"Nikolas Cruz was able to purchase an assault rifle before he was able to buy a beer," said Stoneman Douglas student Laurenzo Prado, referring to a Florida law that allows people as young as 18 to buy assault weapons.
"The laws of the country have failed," he told reporters at the Florida state capital.
Lawmakers in Tallahassee said they would consider raising the age limit to 21, the same standard for handguns and alcohol, although the state Senate opted on Wednesday not to take up a gun control measure.
Trump spoke at length during the televised White House "listening session", attended by students, parents and people affected by other US school shootings, about how armed teachers and security guards could frighten off potential shooters and prevent more deaths.
Trump listened intently to ideas from about 40 people, including those from six students who survived the Florida shooting.
"I don't understand why I could still go in a store and buy a weapon of war," said Sam Zeif, 18, sobbing after he described texting his family members during the attack. "Let's never let this happen again, please, please."
Fred Guttenberg, whose daughter was killed at Stoneman Douglas, told Republican Senator Marco Rubio of Florida at a town hall program televised on CNN on Wednesday night his comments and those of the president's in the past week had been "pathetically weak."
Rubio, under fire for saying the problems could not be solved by gun laws alone, said he would support a law that would prevent 18-year-olds from buying a rifle as well as a ban on "bump stocks," an accessory that enables a rifle to shoot hundreds of rounds a minute.
Australian Associated Press
