Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsTrump's policies on refugees are as simple as ABCs Ocasio-Cortez, Velázquez call for convention to decide Puerto Rico status White House officials voted by show of hands on 2018 family separations: report MORE says the Justice Department will step up federal prosecutions of gun crimes in response to the Parkland, Fla., school shooting that killed 17 people on Wednesday.

In an interview with Breitbart News, Sessions noted the agency had increased federal prosecutions by 23 percent under his leadership, and said that number would rise.

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"We’ll step that up even more,” Sessions said.

“I believe very strongly in enforcing gun laws. I believe there’s no value in having them on the books if they’re not prosecuted,” he added.

The attorney general dismissed the idea, however, of putting new gun laws on the books to deter future mass shootings. Sessions said preventing future attacks involved working with mental health and law enforcement professionals to develop new policies.

“We think that would include working with the mental health community, and the education community, and the homeland security community,” he told Breitbart.

Democrats including former President Obama renewed calls for tougher gun control following Wednesday's shooting at a high school in Florida.

They were joined on Twitter by survivors of the attack, who called on GOP lawmakers to act.

President Trump Donald John TrumpObama calls on Senate not to fill Ginsburg's vacancy until after election Planned Parenthood: 'The fate of our rights' depends on Ginsburg replacement Progressive group to spend M in ad campaign on Supreme Court vacancy MORE on Thursday denounced the shooting and said making the nation's schools safer would be a "top priority" but did not address the debate over gun control.