In the wake of a school shooting this week that claimed the lives of 17 children and adults, President Trump has sought to steer the national conversation to mental illness as critics question why he has failed to mention guns in his comments about the attack.

Trump said Thursday that his administration would work with state and local officials to “tackle the difficult issue of mental health” and prioritize security in schools.

However, his failure to mention guns on Thursday rankled Democrats, who have long accused the White House of avoiding the debate over gun legislation any time a national tragedy strikes.

“Our administration is working closely with local authorities to investigate the shooting and learn everything we can. We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools, and tackle the difficult issue of mental health,” Trump said in remarks about the shooting on Thursday.

“Later this month, I will be meeting with the nation's governors and attorney generals, where making our schools and our children safer will be our top priority,” he added. “It is not enough to simply take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference. We must actually make that difference.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment about whether aides are actually working on any mental health policies for schools.

Democrats have seized on the shooting to return to a conversation about gun control that had gone dormant since a shooting last October in Las Vegas claimed 58 lives and injured hundreds of other people. For example, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Congress had a “moral imperative” to take action after the Parkland, Fla., rampage this week and Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., said “thoughts” for the victims of the high school shooting “are not enough.”

John Feehery, a Republican strategist, suggested Trump would find little benefit in pivoting to a discussion about gun policy in the wake of this week’s shooting.

“The gun discussion almost always leads to a dead-end, and is not very productive,” Feehery said. “So I think the president is right to try a different approach. “

“Clearly, this kid has mental health issues and clearly he was letting us all know that he wanted to do something like he ended up doing,” Feehery added. “There were plenty of signs that he had very evil thoughts in his head. The question is why didn’t the local community do anything to stop him. What was stopping them from protecting themselves from him?”

Authorities say Nikolas Cruz, the suspected shooter, was referred at least once to the FBI for social media posts that included references to violence. Cruz was reportedly well known to have a fascination with guns, and his social media pages were filled with pictures of him posing with weapons.

Trump and other Republicans have highlighted the public evidence of Cruz’s struggle with mental illness in their argument to focus discussions about how to stop similar attacks on mental health policy, not on guns.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Thursday that stricter gun control laws would not have prevented Cruz from executing his plans to attack the high school from which he had recently been expelled for disciplinary reasons.

“If we do something, it should be something that works. And the struggle up to this point has been that most of the proposals that have been offered would not have prevented, not just yesterday's tragedy, but any of those in recent history,” Rubio said.

Brad Blakeman, a Republican strategist and former aide to former President George W. Bush, said Trump has handled the Parkland shooting well this week.

“I believe the [president] and the White House has done a good job in response to Parkland,” Blakeman said. “The reality is that we need to have a discussion on Capitol Hill on mental health and reasonable and necessary gun controls.”

Blakeman said it is a “good thing” that local governments administer schools, despite calls in the wake of tragedies like the Parkland shooting to tighten federal control of schools.

“There is nothing stopping parents from demanding more security in their schools tomorrow,” Blakeman said. “Parents should be more involved and not give up local controls by demanding federal intervention because one size does not fit all.”

“The brain is an organ like the heart. People will rush to a heart attack victim but will shut the victim of mental illness,” Blakeman added. “We need to identify people who need help and get help to them.”