The White House said that the listening sessions, originally announced at Tuesday's press briefing, will give Trump a chance to "hear from students, parents and educators who have directly experienced these horrific tragedies." | Gerald Herbert/AP Photo Trump to meet with students from Stoneman Douglas amid criticism from survivors The president has signaled a desire to act in the wake of the Parkland shooting a week ago, even as some students have attacked his initial criticisms of the FBI and Democrats in the wake of the slaughter.

President Donald Trump will meet Wednesday with students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Florida to discuss "how to improve school safety," the White House said in a statement, a gathering that comes as the president has faced direct criticism from several Parkland shooting survivors.

Wednesday's listening session will include a number of students who have reached out to the White House indicating their interest in participating in a conversation about guns, including from Parkland's Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school, according to two White House aides.


The listening session was organized at the president's behest, these aides said, and planned jointly by the White House's communications team and the Office of Public Liaison, which works to connect the president with constituents.

The president, who in the immediate aftermath of the Parkland shooting took to Twitter to criticize the FBI for failing to follow up on tips about the shooter and Democrats for not passing tighter gun control laws, has since signaled a desire to act. He surprised even some of his own staff Tuesday when he ordered Attorney General Jeff Sessions to craft a regulation banning bump stock devices that convert semi-automatic firearms into automatic weapons.

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But Trump, who talked during his campaign about "Second Amendment people" and noted in his recent State of the Union address that "we are defending the Second Amendment," faces the challenge of appearing to do something without antagonizing his base.

"I think any time you listen, it’s important. The critical thing is you have to be very sensitive and be just that — a listener, not a debater," said Ed Rollins, lead strategist for the pro-Trump Great America super PAC. "But nothing is going to come out of there that we haven’t heard before or that’s going to turn the president around."

The White House event comes as Parkland students, joined by survivors of other shootings – including the 2016 Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando – marched on Florida's state Capitol in Tallahassee in favor of tougher gun laws.

"I just want to be a part of the movement for gun control, mental health reform, for anything we can do to prevent more kids, more teachers and more innocent lives being lost to mass shootings and to gun violence,” Olivia Feller, a junior at Stoneman Douglas High, told POLITICO on Wednesday. "I just really hope that Stoneman Douglas can be the last and that students from my school, that we together can push forward and actually make the change.”

She said she'd support a ban on assault rifles, along with more armed school resource officers and measures to address mental health.

“We are, honestly at this point, begging them to do something, to save our lives, to save teachers' lives,” she said.

On Tuesday, Florida legislators voted down a measure that would have banned assault rifles and large capacity magazines. Images of teary-eyed students standing distraught in the halls of the state capitol appeared on news broadcasts across the country.

Seventeen students and teachers were killed in Parkland on Feb. 14.

The White House said that Trump's listening session, originally announced at Tuesday's press briefing, will give Trump a chance to "hear from students, parents and educators who have directly experienced these horrific tragedies."

"The president is honored to have these individuals at the White House today and looks forward to an open discussion on how we can keep our students safe," deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters said in a statement.

Vice President Mike Pence and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos will also be in attendance, according to Walters.

The event also include students from other high schools around the country who have survived shootings like the one that took place a week ago in Florida, as well as representatives from Sandy Hook Promise and Rachel's Challenge, two groups established by the families of those killed in shootings in Newtown, Connecticut and Columbine, Colorado.

Survivors of the Parkland shooting have announced plans on for a nationwide march next month to protest gun violence.

Several students, during a series of Sunday morning television appearances, also forcefully denounced some of the rhetoric coming out of the West Wing.

Student David Hogg slammed Trump for questioning why Democrats didn't pass gun control legislation while they controlled both houses of Congress.

"You are in that exact position right now, and you want to look back on our history and blame the Democrats? That's disgusting," Hogg said on NBC. "You're the president. You're supposed to bring this nation together, not divide us. How dare you."

Emma Gonzalez, another student organizer from Stoneman Douglas, called Trump's words "disgraceful during a public event in Florida on Saturday.

“The best thing for us to do is ignore him and to continue fighting our fight, the fight he refuses to acknowledge,” she said.

Daniel Ducassi contributed reporting from Tallahassee.