Today, President Trump brought together top executives from the gaming industry, parents groups, and members of Congress for a meeting to discuss violence in video games. Announced last week as part of President Trump’s response to the Parkland shooting, the meeting was hastily assembled and has been criticized as a purposeful distraction from more concrete gun-control measures.

The proceedings were closed to the press, but by all accounts, the meeting was a strange one. The president opened the meeting by showing a supercut of hyperviolent gameplay scenes drawn largely from the Call of Duty series — a compilation that was later posted to the White House’s official YouTube account. According to The Washington Post, the president asked the group, “This is violent, isn’t it?” after the video ended.

Attendees said there was little serious talk of government restrictions on content (which would present significant legal challenges), and the conversation focused on more robust age restrictions or voluntary measures that could be undertaken by the industry itself. “The president encouraged [game developers] to explore things they can do on their own to make things healthier in society,” said Media Research Center president Brent Bozell, “and that’s where it was left.”

In part, that may be a result of who was in attendance. None of the three conservative critics in attendance have any particular focus on video games, and each is better known for their work in other areas. Parents TV Council member Melissa Henson writes primarily about liberal values in Hollywood, while fellow attendee Lt. Col Dave Grossman specializes in teaching military tactics to police officers. (He was quoted telling officers: “It’s your job to put a piece of steel in your fist and kill those sons of bitches when they come to kill our kids,” in a recent profile in Men’s Journal.) Bozell himself has most recently focused on raising awareness about allegedly anti-Christian bigotry on ABC’s The View.

“The president encouraged [game developers] to explore things they can do on their own to make things healthier in society.”

On the industry side, Rockstar Games CEO Strauss Zelnick and ZeniMax CEO Robert Altman were both invited, as was Entertainment Software Association president Mike Gallagher.

The members of Congress seem to have been uninterested in forcing the issue. In a statement after the meeting, Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) focused on non-gaming measures. “Discussions should not be limited to just video games and guns,” said Hartzler’s statement after the meeting. “The President’s approach of leaving no stone unturned is prudent and similar meetings with the movie industry pertaining to gun violence on film should also be conducted.” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), who was initially listed in the White House announcement, was unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts.

The game industry, for its part, has held its ground. “We welcomed the opportunity today to meet with the President and other elected officials at the White House,” the Entertainment Software Association said in a statement. “We discussed the numerous scientific studies establishing that there is no connection between video games and violence, First Amendment protection of video games, and how our industry’s rating system effectively helps parents make informed entertainment choices.”

A recent University of York study backs up the ESA’s claim, finding no evidence of a link between violent video games and violent behavior. When former Vice President Joe Biden took on violent video games in a similar summit in 2013, the industry used that same lack of scientific evidence to convince him to back down.

“There is some programming that contains just absolute mind-boggling violence.”

It’s still anyone’s guess where Trump will land on the issue and how that might translate into actual policy — but even the harshest critics in the room seemed to think outright restrictions on violent content were off the table.

“I don’t think there should be any government control over it,” Bozell told The Verge. “But there is some programming that contains just absolute mind-boggling violence. We’ve all seen it. Is it appropriate in a civilized world to have that? Or could the industry listen to the better angels of their nature and say, we just don’t want to do it, on a voluntary basis?”

With no voluntary restrictions forthcoming from the industry, the result is likely to be a retread of Trump’s earlier proposal to arm teachers, also widely criticized as a distraction tactic. Congress is expected to vote next week on the first school safety bill since the Parkland shooting, allocating $50 million a year for teacher training and reinforced classroom doors, among other things. The bill contains no gun control measures.