Donald Trump is considering arming teachers in classrooms in the wake of a mass shooting on a school in Florida.
Students and teachers staged a mass walkout and rallies in cities around the country as anger boiled over at politicians' failure to prevent school shootings.
Teenagers who survived the Florida attack held an emotional hour-long meeting with Trump in the White House. 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 Republican president, who has championed gun rights and was endorsed by the NRA during the 2016 campaign, said he would move quickly to tighten background checks for gun buyers and would consider raising the age for buying certain types of guns.
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 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.
The US Constitution protects the right of Americans to bear arms, a measure fiercely defended by Republicans. However, Trump has come under pressure to act.
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.
'If you had a teacher ... who was adept at firearms, they could very well end the attack very quickly,' he said, while acknowledging the proposal was controversial. Some of the meeting participants indicated support. Others were opposed.
Mark Barden, whose son was killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Connecticut, said his wife, Jackie, a teacher 'will tell you that school teachers have more than enough responsibilities right now than to have to have the awesome responsibility of lethal force to take a life'.
'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.'
