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.

Parkland parent Andrew Pollack said that 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.'

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.'

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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

Parkland parent Andrew Pollack said that he was 'pissed' as he described his daughter Meadow's horrific death to the president and other families present

Andrew Pollack (center) 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 son's 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 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 spree that took 17 lives

'I HEAR YOU': President Trump came prepared with talking points on Wednesday that said things like, 'What would you most want me to know about your experience' and 'What can we do to help you feel safe?'

President Trump briefly reaches down to pick up his hand-written notes used to guide Wednesday discussion on how to protect schools from more shootings in the aftermath of the massacre in Parkland, Florida last week

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

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.'

The National Rifle Association quickly came out against age restrictions saying they would punish 'law-abiding citizens for the evil acts of criminals.'

'We need serious proposals to prevent violent criminals and the dangerously mentally ill from acquiring firearms,' the NRA statement said.

On Wednesday evening, Trump tweeted: 'I will always remember the time I spent today with courageous students, teachers and families. So much love in the midst of so much pain. We must not let them down. We must keep our children safe!!'

Parkland parent Carey Gruber pled 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

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders (left) and Communications Director Hope Hicks (right) are captured at Wednesday's listening session with President Trump and student survivors of school shootings

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

Melissa Blank, whose son Jonathan survived the shooting and was at the White House with her, told fellow parents, 'I feel for all of these families, my heart is just broken, for my whole community.

'I feel for all the families who have lost, and I feel for the ones that are here because we now have almost a guilt like I have. Why not my child? Which I feel bad saying. I'm happy that he's here with me. I feel so bad for all of you who have lost so many, and I'm just begging for a change. We need a change,' she said.

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 on a spotlight on D.C.'s local crime problem.

Nicole Hockely, mother of slain Sandy Hook Elementary student Dylan Hockely and the founder of Sandy Hook Promise, forcefully told Trump, 'This is not difficult. These deaths are preventable.

'And I implore you: Consider your own children. You don't want to be me,' she said. 'No parent does. And you have the ability to make a difference and save lives today. Please don't waste this.'

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

Trump is a father of five. His youngest son, Barron, is 11. His two elder sons and two elder daughters are adults, and three of them have children of their own.

'To me there can be nothing worse than what you've gone through,' he told the shooting victims on Wednesday at event where where he slightly beyond reforms to the system that his administration had backed publicly.

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, working off of notes that prompted him to ask, 'What would you most want me to know about your experience' and 'What can we do to help you feel safe?'

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.

'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 that his bump stocks ban is a 'step in the right direction' but more should be done.

Cordover, the student body president at Marjory Stoneman, said she was at the session 'so that no child, no person in this world will ever have to go through something so horrific and tragic.'

'I'm a survivor. I was lucky enough to come home from school, unlike some of my other classmates and teachers,' she said with tears in her eyes. She told Trump, 'I'm confident you'll do the right thing.'

Trump visited Parkland survivors on Friday during a blitz of Florida's Broward County, where he made stops at a hospital and police department to encourage first responders and shooting victims.

But he announced a pair of listening sessions as his administration took on water for a lack of meaningful action in the wake of the Florida shooting that took place 40 miles away from his 'Winter White House.'

Students marched outside of the White House all day on Wednesday as Trump prepared to hold the first of two events inside with Education Secretary Betsy DeVos and his invited guests.

'We're going to work very hard. Very difficult, very complex but we're going to find a solution,' he said, soliciting ideas to reduce gun violence.

Trump revealed his desire at end of the event that for his administration to look 'very strong into age' and the 'mental health aspect' of the shootings, a reference to the 19-year-old gunman's ability to purchase a semi-automatic weapon before he turned 21.

'This was a person who was sick, very sick. And people knew he was sick, ' Trump said. ''All I can say is we're fighting very hard for you. We will not stop,' he promised.

At an event on Tuesday, Trump recalled his hospital visit a few nights before, telling Medal of Valor recipients that he was 'greatly moved, greatly moved' by the survivors' strength and resilience 'and heartbroken for the families whose loved ones were so cruelly torn from them forever. Forever and ever.'

'We cannot imagine the depths of their anguish, but we can pledge the strength of our resolve. And we must do more to protect our children. We have to do more to protect our children,' he said.

The White House says that Trump is holding listening events like the one today as part of his decision-making process about what those next steps should be and that he has open mind about potential reforms.

An Axios report on Wednesday morning had said that Trump is privately shopping changes to age minimums on gun purchases. Guns like the AR-15 that the Florida teen who assailed Marjory Stoneman Douglas used could be restricted to buyers age 21 and above under that proposition.

Trump affirmed the report at the White House event when he insisted, 'We're going to go very strong into age...age of purchase.'

The president similarly said, 'We're going to be very strong on background checks, very strong on the mental health. There are many ideas that I have, many ideas that other people have.'

Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky warned viewers of the event that her city is one of the safest in America.

'The fact that this happened in our city means it can happen anywhere,' she stated. 'We have to at some point care enough and be strong enough to come up with solutions. And I hope we will.'

She shared reform suggestions from parents who Jennifer and Tony Montalto, who buried their daughter Gina this week and were unable to make it to Washington, telling Trump that slain girl's father is a Second Amendment supporter but he does not believe there's a need for assault rifles.

Missed signs by the FBI reminded him of 9/11, she said. The family also wanted enhancements to 'fed flag laws' that allow authorities to temporarily take a person who shows signs of mental affliction's gun away.

Connecticut's Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy said Wednesday that opponents of universal background checks 'have blood on your hands' as he waged a war against the country's 'insane' gun laws

Kneecapping Trump and the Republican Party on Wednesday morning prior to the event, Connecticut's Democratic Governor Dannel Malloy said that opponents of universal background checks will continue to 'have blood on your hands' until they make basic reforms the nation's 'insane' gun laws.

Malloy argued on CNN that 97 percent of Americans support background checks for all firearms sales, including those that take place at gun shows.

'It is insane to allow that to happen. If you support that legislation, if you, if you vote to allow that to happen in Washington or in your state capitol, you do have blood on your hands,' Malloy posited.

The fiery rhetoric was a curtain-raiser to Trump's listening session with parents, teachers and survivors of school shootings, including residents of Malloy's state.

Connecticut is home to Sandy Hook Elementary, a Newtown school where a mentally ill man shot and killed 20 children and six adults before committing suicide in December of 2012.

Federal legislators tried and failed to pass new background check requirements several months after the shocking rampage.

Guns that are sold by private sellers remain exempt from federal background check requirements.

One of the early actions Trump took in his presidency was to withdraw an Obama-era initiative making it more difficult for people suffering from mental health issues to buy firearms.

Malloy said last week that Trump and the Republican Members of Congress who passed the bill that served as a vehicle for the rollback 'have blood on their hands.'

'What the hell is the president of the United States doing signing that bill?' he said a day after the Parkland, Florida, shooting. 'And what the hell are members of the Senate and the House of Representatives of the United States doing voting on that? And why would you puff your chest about making guns available to people with mental health challenges?'

The Connecticut Democrat implored legislators to 'just do sane things' in his appearance Wednesday morning on CNN's 'New Day' program, telling them, 'Let's not sell guns to people who have protective orders against them. Let's not sell guns to people who have mental illness. Let's not sell guns to people who are on the no-fly list.

'We can't even do that in our country. That's insane,' Malloy fumed.

President Trump called on politicians on both sides of the aisle to back stronger background checks for prospective gun owners on Tuesday evening.

But he has not endorsed a mandatory bill like the one Malloy is pushing federal lawmakers to pass.

'Whether we are Republican or Democrat, we must now focus on strengthening Background Checks!' the president tweeted.

'Whether we are Republican or Democrat, we must now focus on strengthening Background Checks!' Trump tweeted on Tuesday night

The tweet came just hours after Trump announced Tuesday he wants to outlaw bump stocks like the one used in the Las Vegas shooting last year. He made the announcement at a Medal of Valor ceremony at the White House

His push for stricter gun controls comes after thousands of students and parents have called on his administration to implement changes to prevent future mass shootings.

Hours earlier, Trump took action to outlaw bump stocks like the one used in the Las Vegas massacre last fall.

'I signed a memorandum directing the Attorney General to propose regulations to ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns,' Trump said .

The bump stocks directive, which he pointedly brought up at a White House Medal of Valor ceremony, followed his press secretary's announcement minutes before that the president had ordered his administration to look at ways it could unilaterally deter mass shootings like the one in Parkland.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders also said that Trump had not closed the door on new gun controls, including an assault weapons ban that is unpopular with the president's base.

Sanders said Tuesday at her first briefing since the shooting that Trump had also directed his Health and Human Services department to review its rule-making ability and to advise him on possible improvements it could make to the mental health system.

Trump has not provided specifics about what he wants new background checks to entail or what changes he envisions to the mental health system.

After the talks this week with survivors and local official, with the input of his administration, Sanders says Trump will come up with concrete proposals on how to mitigate rampages.

'Unfortunately, when horrific tragedies like this happen, everybody wants a quick and a simple answer, but there isn't one.' she told reporters Tuesday. 'There's not a quick and there's not a simple answer.'

'I signed a memorandum directing the Attorney General to propose regulations to ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns,' Trump said in the wake of a Florida massacre in which the killer did use such a device. Trump is seen above with Attorney General Jeff Sessions at Tuesday's White House event

The gesture to ban bump stocks immediately came under attack from Democrats, including Dianne Feinstein, who is a co-sponsor of legislation in the Senate to ban bump stocks.

'I’m glad President Trump finally understands that bump stocks should be illegal. Now he needs to follow through with action and support our bill to ban these deadly devices,' she said in a statement.

ATF is already in the middle of a rule-making process for bump stocks. 'I expect that these critical regulations will be finalized very soon,' Trump said Tuesday

Feinstein said that ATF currently does not have the authority to do what Trump directed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to do.

'The agency made this clear in a 2013 letter to Congress, writing that "stocks of this type are not subject to the provisions of federal firearms statutes." '

ATF is already in the middle of a rule-making process for bump stocks. A comment period on the proposed regulations ended several weeks ago.

On Tuesday, Feinstein said that the rule-making process could be tied up in court for years, if ATF follows through on Trump's direction 'and that would mean bump stocks would continue to be sold.'

'Legislation is the only answer,' she stated. 'Words are one thing, Mr. President, but we need meaningful action. If you want these devices off the street, call congressional Republicans and tell them to stop blocking our bill.'

Trump said Tuesday at the White House event that he had directed his AG to 'clarify whether certain bump stock devices, like the one used in Las Vegas, are illegal under current law' and that review began in December.

'I expect that these critical regulations will be finalized very soon,' Trump said Tuesday from the White House's East Room.

The president had come under scrutiny in the days since the Florida shooting for his relative silence on the issue of gun violence after he failed to mention firearms, aside from a reference to gunfire that took place at Marjory Stoneman, in a national address the day after.

He insisted at the White House event on Tuesday afternoon that school safety is a 'top priority' of his administration.

'The key in all of these efforts, as I said in my remarks the day after the shooting, is that we cannot merely take actions that make us feel like we are making a difference,' he said. 'We must actually make a difference.'

Sanders said this week that Trump has been in touch with the Republican author of a Senate bill that would provide the carrot and the stick to states and federal agencies to provide better comply with background check requirements and those conversations are ongoing.

The president's spokeswoman also suggested that Trump might even be willing to endorse gun control legislation that has been repudiated by Republicans like an assault weapons ban.

'I don't have any specific announcements, but we haven't closed the door on any front,' she said. 'Again, that's the next several days and weeks will be -- to have conversations and to see what this process looks like, and to see what areas we can help make changes to, and in what places that we can do better.'

The Senate legislation that the White House has said that Trump would be willing to back looks to 'fix' the National Instant Criminal Background Check System legislation has the backing of key senators on both sides of the aisle.

A progressive organization with the sole purpose of cracking down on firearms laws they see as too lax likewise said that the measure alone was not to make a dent in gun violence.

'If all Congress does is pass the Fix NICS Act, then lawmakers will have failed to meet this moment and do their job,' Everytown for Gun Safety said.

The group said that Americans across the country are 'demanding that Congress finally get serious and meet this moment with robust action to reduce gun violence' and the Cornyn-Murphy bill 'is a small step forward.'

'Congress needs to do much more, starting with legislation to require criminal background checks on every gun sale -- supported by 95 percent of Americans,' the group said.

Background checks are not required when firearms are sold by private sellers, including at gun shows. The exemption has given rise to the term 'gun show loophole' for that reason.

Legislators unsuccessfully attempted to pass legislation in the Senate placing new restrictions on firearms sales in 2013 after the Sandy Hook shooting.

Then-President Barack Obama aggressively chased the reforms but none of the measures earned the required 60 votes in bitterly divided upper chamber.

A assault weapons ban championed by Feinstein and background check legislation spearheaded by Sens. Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, and Pat Toomey, a Republican from Pennsylvania, each failed.

Lashing out at his predecessor's party on Twitter on Saturday evening, Trump said, 'Just like they don’t want to solve the DACA problem, why didn’t the Democrats pass gun control legislation when they had both the House & Senate during the Obama Administration.

'Because they didn’t want to, and now they just talk!' the Republican asserted.

Democrats were in control of the House and Senate for Obama's first two years in office. They chose to prioritize healthcare reform in those years, ultimately passing Obamacare.

Obama's gun control push in his second term, when Democrats controlled the Senate but not the House, did not pan out. The president consequently took as much executive action as the White House believed he legally had the power to in order to enact some new firearms regulations.

Republicans lawmakers rolled back an Obama-era rule that was intended to make it more difficult for people with mental health issues to purchase guns at the beginning of 2017.

Democrats were swift to point out on Thursday that it was Trump who signed the legislation containing the scale-back into law after the Republican president said mental health was the issue.

Trump in a tweet last weekend also appeared to blame peers of Cruz's and adults around him who knew that something was off about his behavior and did not contact the police - but he made none of the same claims in front of Parkland students on Wednesday.

A separate message that Trump sent over the weekend had ridiculed federal authorities for not acting on a tip upset students who survived the shooting because it made reference to the FBI's investigation into collusion between his campaign and Russia in the 2016 election.

A student claiming to be a survivor of the shooting said in response:'17 of my classmates are gone. That's 17 futures, 17 children, and 17 friends stolen. But you're right, it always has to be about you. How silly of me to forget. #neveragain" '