Trump suggests he would have rushed into Parkland school

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump met with state governors Monday in a wide-ranging discussion that focused largely on school safety and the president’s push to encourage “very gun-adept” teachers to carry concealed weapons.

Reacting to reports that one or more deputies lingered outside during the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that left 17 dead, Trump condemned the deputies for “frankly disgusting” behavior. Trump added that he believes he would have charged into the room to confront the Parkland shooter – even if he didn’t have a weapon.

“You don’t know until you’re tested, but I think 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,” Trump told the governors.

“That’s interesting coming from someone who got out of military service based on bone spurs,” said Kris Brown, co-president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.

During his 22-minute introductory remarks, Trump repeated the menu of changes he has chosen to champion in the wake of the Parkland shooting – arming highly trained teachers, banning “bump stocks” and institutionalizing the mentally ill.

Trump assured the governors that he would ban bump stocks, devices that accelerate the firepower of legal semi-automatic rifles. The gunman in the Oct. 1 mass shooting in Las Vegas had equipped 12 semi-automatic rifles with bump stocks to enable him to fire 11,000 rounds in a 10-minute period, according to congressional testimony.

The president last week signed a memo directing the Justice Department to move as quickly as possible to ban the devices.

“I think it’s a delay tactic,” Brown said. If Trump wants swift actions on bump stocks, she said, he should support legislation pending in Congress.

Raising the age to buy rifles

Trump did not repeat his suggestion — posted on Twitter last week — to raise the legal age to buy a rifle from a federally licensed dealer from 18 to 21. Neither did any of the governors.

Asked if Trump’s omission was a signal that he was having second thoughts, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump still supported “the concept” of raising the legal age to buy a rifle, “but how it would be implemented and what that might look like is still part, very much part of the discussion.”

The National Rifle Association has opposed raising the age to purchase rifles.

“Half of you are so afraid of the NRA,” Trump said. “There’s nothing to be afraid of. And you know what, if they’re not with you, we have to fight them every once in a while.”

At the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland last week, David Bossie, a long-term informal adviser to Trump, told the Review Journal, “I don’t believe the age is going to end up changing.”

Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval, a Republican who serves as chairman of the National Governors Association, responded positively to Trump’s remarks about “hardening” schools to make them safer.

“I think I speak for all the governors of the United States of America that we are here to solve this problem once and for all,” Sandoval said. “You are right. We need to take action. The status quo is not acceptable.”

Sandoval recommended broadening the scope of FBI background checks at the state level so that states like Nevada would have to report information on mental health problems.

Inslee challenges the president

Gov. Rick Scott, R-Florida, also supported Trump’s emphasis on “hardening” schools, but Gov. Jay Inslee, D-Wash., pointedly challenged the president.

Inslee noted that Trump’s trial balloon suggested arming as many as 20 percent of teachers. “Whatever percentage it is, speaking as a grandfather, speaking as the governor of the state of Washington, I have listened to the people who would be affected by that,” Inslee told Trump.

Biology teachers, first-grade teachers who don’t want to be “pistol-packing” and law enforcement officials have voiced misgivings to him, Inslee said.

He concluded, “I suggest we need a little less tweeting here, a little more listening, and let’s just take that off the table and move forward.”

Later in the day Sandoval told reporters, “I don’t essentially disagree with Gov. Inslee.” Sandoval agreed that educators should be educating and not worried about possessing a gun, but he suggested it was fair “to talk about” arming school personnel with military or other training.

Contact Debra J. Saunders at dsaunders@reviewjournal.com or 202-662-7391. Follow @DebraJSaunders on Twitter. Review-Journal staff writer Gary Martin contributed to this report.