LOC00:15
21:15 GMT
WASHINGTON, Feb 22 (KUNA) -- President Donald Trump said on Thursday that the US will take steps to reduce gun violence, including more background checks on would-be gun buyers and raising the age for some gun purchases from 18 to 21.
"We're going to do a strong background check, we're going to work on getting the age up to 21 instead of 18, we're getting rid of the bump stocks, and we're going to be focusing very strongly on mental health," Trump said during a White House meeting on school safety with state and local officials.
Bump stocks are attachments that enable a semiautomatic rifle to fire faster.
Twelve of the rifles used by the gunman in the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, last October were modified with a bump stock. That massacre was the worst in US history, with 58 killed and hundreds more injured.
"We're going to be talking about mental institutions, and when you have some person like this you can bring them into a mental institution and they can see what they can do, but we've got to get them out of our communities," Trump said, referring to the 19-year-old arrested in the killing of 17 students at a Florida high school last week.
Most US movies have had a rating system that takes violence into account since the 1960s.
"I think we're making a lot of progress, and I can tell you there's a tremendous feeling that we want to get something done," Trump said.
"And we're leading that feeling, I hope, but it is a great feeling, including at the NRA (National Rifle Association), including with Republican senators and hopefully Democrat senators and congressmen."
The NRA is arguably the most powerful lobby in the US, representing gun owners and gun manufacturers.
The NRA has effectively kept the US Congress from approving gun control legislation for decades, primarily through large campaign contributions to congressional candidates along with grass-roots political activism and pressure.
"We're going to take action," Trump added. (end)
rm.mb