The White House said Monday there are several options still on the table regarding enacting stricter gun laws, despite the NRA pushing back on some of the ideas being discussed.
Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders briefed reporters and addressed the issue that's dominated the headlines since a gunman walked into a Florida high school and killed 14 children and three adults nearly two weeks ago.
"We think that hardening our schools and protecting our students with trained personnel is a viable path and one that we're looking at," Sanders said, referring to the idea of arming certain teachers and staff members within schools. "A final determination on what that would look like hasn't been made and will involve state, local, and federal officials all weighing in, which is a lot of what you've seen the last couple weeks."
Another idea floated by Trump has been to raise the minimum age to buy assault rifles from 18 to 21, which would put those weapons on par with handguns. Trump seemed to be sold on the idea last week.
While speaking with the nation's governors earlier Monday, Trump revealed that he met with NRA officials over the weekend. That news coincided with Sanders saying during the briefing that raising the age limit to 21 is just one of the options being looked at. Some reporters wondered if Trump had softened his stance because of the NRA meeting.
"The president is supportive of the concept," Sanders said, who later confirmed the meeting took place Sunday.
"Everybody is in agreement that things need to be done and we have to have changes to take place to do what we can to protect America's kids. Members of the NRA want to be part of that discussion. As we said, the president is taking information from a number of stakeholders and to try to pretend that he's being influenced by any one group is ridiculous, considering the number of individuals that he's met with that come from the far left to the far right. And a lot of those in between."
Trump also wants to ban bump stocks, devices that make semiautomatic rifles fire nearly as quick as automatic ones. The NRA is opposed to that and raising the minimum age.
"Don't worry about the NRA, they're on our side," Trump told the governors. "They think they're doing what's right, but sometimes we're going to have to be very tough and we're going to have to fight them."
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