President Donald Trump held a cue card between his hands that reminded him to offer sympathy as he met with victims and families of the Florida high school massacre on Wednesday.

A photo from the event shows Trump holding what appears to be a piece of paper with the White House letterhead.

Point number five is clearly visible - a reminder to himself to tell his guests: 'I hear you.' Other questions that were also visible on the card included: 'What would you most want me to know about your experience?' and 'What can we do to help you feel safe?'

It seems the president had to remind himself to tell the dozens of guests who had been directly impacted by the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last week, which left 17 dead, including 14 children, that he was listening to their concerns.

At the same event, the President put forward a proposal to arm up to a fifth of teachers.

After listening from a circle of participants, Trump floated his own idea, calling for arming teachers and coaches, and even bringing in Marines.

'Lets say you had 20 percent of your teaching force, because that’s pretty much the number' Trump said, describing how it might work.

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'I HEAR YOU': During his meeting with survivors and parents of the Parkland school massacre at the White House on Wednesday, Trump carried a cue card

Other questions that were also visible on the card included: 'What would you most want me to know about your experience?' and 'What can we do to help you feel safe?'

Survivors of the Parkland shooting and their parents begged President Donald Trump to act on gun violence Wednesday at a tearful listening session at the White House. Here, he is seen listening to student body president, Julia Cordover

President Trump (left) shakes the hand of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting survivors Carson Abt (center) and Ariana Klein (right) during a White House listening session on Wednesday

Trump said the teachers with guns would be 'adept at firearms' and would get 'great training.'

Trump also mentioned Marines, saying those armed on a sprawling campus like the one in Parkland, Florida would be 'spread evenly,' rather than having a single security guard.

He acknowledged it was a controversial idea. 'We can understand both sides. Certainly it's controversial,' he said.

Trump complained that the shooter 'should have been nabbed.'

But with teachers and coaches armed, 'That would've been the end of it.'

Trump didn't appear to actually use the visible prompts at any point during the meeting, but did remember to cast a tender tone.

'To me there can be nothing worse than what you've gone through,' he told the victims, before bringing up reforms to the system that his administration had backed publicly.

He told the survivors of the shooting and their parents that he grieved for them during the listening session at the White House, in which many of the guests implored the president to take immediate action on gun violence.

The meeting came as thousands of high schoolers held walkouts and protests around the country to bring attention to gun control.

Parkland parent Andrew Pollack, who is an avid Trump supporter, told the president he was 'pissed' as he described his daughter Meadow's horrific death to the president and other families present - she was shot nine times.

'I'm very angry that this happened, because it keeps happening,' the bereaved father said, declaring that 9/11 'happened once, and they fixed everything. How many schools, how many children have to get shot?'

Pollack told Trump, 'It stops here with this administration and me. I'm not going to sleep until it's fixed. And Mr. President, we're going to fix it. Because I'm going to fix it. I'm not going to rest.

'Fix it! It should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it! And I'm pissed! Because my daughter I'm not going to see again. She's not here. She's not here. She's at, in North Lauderdale, in King David Cemetery. That's where I go to see my kid now.'

Andrew Pollack (center), who is an avid Trump supporter, described how his daughter Meadow Pollack was shot nine at last week's deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. He was joined by his sons at Wednesday's White House event

'I'm very angry that this happened, because it keeps happening,' the bereaved father said, declaring that 9/11 'happened once, and they fixed everything. How many schools, how many children have to get shot?'

Pollack told the president he was 'pissed' as he described his daughter Meadow's horrific death to the president and other families present - she was shot nine times

Pollack is seen on the day of the shooting, holding up a picture of his daughter, whom he had not been able to contact since the massacre that claimed 17 lives

After listening to parents like Pollack for some time, Trump said he'd be looking at making concealed carry permits available to teachers, which he admitted after asking for a show of support is certainly 'controversial.'

Trump also endorsed stricter background checks and pledged his administration to considering age limits for the purchase of semi-automatic rifles like the one the Parkland shooter used and new measures to treat mentally ill individuals.

'We're going to pick out the strongest ideas, the most important ideas, the ideas that are going to work and we're going to get them done,' the president said. 'It's not going to be talk, like it's been in the past. It's going on too long. Too many instances. And we're going to get it done.'

Parkland parent Carey Gruber pleaded with Trump to abandon partisan politics and take up reforms that will prevent shootings like the one that could have killed his son Justin.

President Trump was captured bowing his head during Wednesday's White House listening session with families and victims of school shootings. He offered his grief and condolences to the victims and their families multiple times throughout the sit-down

Student Julia Cordover (pictured) told the president that his bump stocks ban is a 'step in the right direction' but more should be done

President Trump briefly reaches down to pick up his hand-written notes, which he didn't seem to need to reference during the discussion

THE NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION'S STATEMENT AGAINST IMPLEMENTING AGE RESTRICTIONS Federal law prohibits adults under the age of 21 from purchasing a handgun from a licensed firearm dealer. Legislative proposals that prevent law-abiding adults aged 18-20 years old from acquiring rifles and shotguns effectively prohibits them [from] purchasing any firearm, thus depriving them of their Constitutional right to self-protection. We need serious proposals to prevent violent criminals and the dangerously mentally ill from acquiring firearms. Passing a law that makes it illegal for a 20 year-old to purchase a shotgun for hunting or an adult single mother from purchasing the most effective self-defense rifle on the market punishes law-abiding citizens for the evil acts of criminals. Advertisement

'It's not left and right, it's a human issue, and we have to stop this,' Gruber told the Republican president.

President Trump was holding his first of two listening sessions at the White House this week on the topic of school safety.

The discussion with parents and teachers connected to the Parkland, Florida, shooting included more than a dozen student survivors who also urged Trump to take action.

Parents and students affected by the Sandy Hook and Columbine shootings were in the room, as well, alongside local teachers and students who put a spotlight on D.C.'s local crime problem.

The president spoke briefly at the top, and sympathetically asked questions several times in the middle of the meeting that aired live on national television.

Trump promised midway through attendees' passionate accounts that 'two minutes after this meeting' he would begin working on the issue of gun violence in schools and we will 'solve it together.'

'And we don't want others to go through the kind of pain that you've gone through,' he told them.

The president broached the topic of armed guards in school, adding, 'I think a lot of people are going to be opposed to it. A lot of people are going to like it. But the good thing is that you'll have a lot of people with that.

The meeting came as thousands of protesters across the country, many of them students, rallied against gun violence across the country in protests and organized school walkouts. Pictured are protesters on the steps of the old Florida Capitol in Tallahassee on Wednesday

Students of Coral Glades High School, a high school less than four miles from the Parkland shooting scene, hold signs as the participate in a school walk for gun law change

'You know, you can't have 100 security guards in Stoneman Douglas. That's a big school, that's a massive school with a lot of acreage to cover, a lot of floor area,' he said.

'So that would be certainly a situation that is being discussed a lot by a lot of people. You would have a lot of people that would be armed. They would be ready. They are professionals. They may be Marines – that left the Marines, left the Army, left the Air Force – and they are very adept at doing that.'

Parkland high school student Samuel Zeif appealed to Trump to ban guns like the one the shooter used.

'I don't understand why I can still go in a score and buy a weapon of war, an AR. I was reading today that a person 20 years old walked into a store and bought an AR-15 in five minutes with an expired ID,' he said. 'How is it that easy to buy this type of weapon? How have we not stopped this after Columbine, after Sandy Hook? I'm sitting with a mother that lost her son. It's still happening.'

Student Julia Cordover told the president she was at the session 'so that no child, no person in this world' will ever 'have to go through something so tragic and horrific.'

Students marched outside of the White House all day on Wednesday as Trump prepared to hold the listening session. Also in attendance was Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.