President Trump Meets With Parents Preventing School Shootings After Parkland – Full Transcript

(From White House Press Pool Email) POTUS and VPOTUS entered the room at 4:19 pm and started shaking hands with attendees all around the room before taking a seat.
(please check quotes and id’s against transcripts as everyone did not immediately id themselves fully)
“We’re going to be listening to some of your suggestions. We’re going to be do something about this horrible [situation] going on.
POTUS then requested that a prayer be said by the pastor.
VPOTUS: I want to thank families… I ensure you of my deepest condolences and sympathies… I want to find out from all of you gathered here by listening… How we might ensure they this is the last time this ever happens. Tell us your  stories …on every level we’re working on it. I encourage you to be candid, share with us. Just know that the president has already taken action. He has a meeting in this very room. We want to hear from you first.
DeVos: for many of you it’s raw and fresh. I admire your strength and bravery… No student, teacher should never endure what you all have. My heart is broken. We’re here to have an earnest conversation. We’re here to listen to gain your important perspective on ways to reduce violence and protect students.
Trump: 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… It’s not going to be talk as it has been. We’re going to get it done. I want to thank you all for being here if you have any suggestions I’d like to have those ideas.
Julia Cordover: I’m a survivor. I want you to emphasize the point that I survived. I was lucky enough to come home from school. It’s very scary. And to know that a lot of people do not have the opportunity to be here still is mind blowing. I’m confident that we’ll do the right thing. There’s definitely a lot more to go but I’m just grateful to be here. No child no person will have to go through something glso horrific and tragic.
Jonathan Blank: I was actually in the second classroom I was shot at. Nothing horrible should ever have to happen to you. You can’t even think about it. It doesn’t even seem real still. It seems fake. I don’t even know what’s going on.
Carson Abt: I know that there are a little different solutions but one was about all the drills and protocols – through research I found only 32 states require drills…. I think a change that will increase all the training and protocol so if a shooting does happen, at least all the teachers will be prepared and keep students safe.
Justin Gruber – I’m only 15 yrs old… I was born into a world where I never got to experience safety and peace. This has to never happen again. People need to feel like when they go to school they can be safe. Parents shouldn’t have to go through the idea of losing their child.
Cary Gruber: [My son was]  texting me hiding in a closet, if something happens I love you. You can’t imagine what’s that like as a parent. 17 lives are gone. I was lucky enough to get my son home. It’s not political. It’s a human issue. People are dying and we have to do this. If he’s not old enough to go buy a beer. He should not be able to buy a gun. It’s just common sense.
Andrew Pollack: She was murdered last week and she was taken from us. Shot 9 times on the 3rd floor. We as a country failed our children. I can’t get on a plane with a bottle of water. But some animal can walk into a school and kill our children. Everyone has to come together… And figure out how we protect the schools.  It’s simple. It’s not difficult. We protect airports, concerts, stadiums, embassies, the Department of Education that I walked in today that had a security guard in the elevator. I’m very angry because it happened. How many schools, how many children have to get shot? It stops here. I’m not going to sleep until it get stopped. My boys have to go through this. I’m pissed. My daughter I’m not going to see again. She’s not here. It’s not about gun laws right now. Let’s fix the schools first. Let’s get together work with the president and fix the schools. That’s it.
Huck Pollack : I just want to add its imperative to the safety of everyone to support to the free flow of ideas. Listen to radical opinions on both sides and that’s how we’ll find solutions. Censorship has got to stop. That’s how we find the solutions, by listening to every oe and having an open mind .
Sam Zeif: i was on the second floor texting my mom, texting my dad, texting three of my brothers that I was never going to see them again…I’m sure a lot of you have read my texts on the internet. No brothers or sisters, family members or anyone ever have to share those texts again. And that’s why I’m here. I lost a best friend. I’m here to use my voice because I know he can’t and I know he’s with me cheering me on. And to feel like this, it doesn’t even feel like a week. Time has stood still. To feel like this ever. I can’t feel comfortable in my country knowing that people have, will ever feel like this. Me and my friends we get scared when a car drives by. I think I agree with Hunter  and Huck and how we need ideas flow and get the problem solved.I don’t understand how I can go into a store and buy a weapon of war. (Zeif references Australia as  an example).
Trump: incredible group of people. We want to learn everything we can learn. And starting two minutes after this meeting we’re going to work. We’re going to settle this all together. We don’t want others to go through the kind of pain you’ve gone through.
Trump then called for ideas/recommendations to stop school shootings.
Frederick Abt: One possible solution, if a tragedy strikes can we wait for the first responders to get to campus. One solution would be to have people in the school who would have a firearm sagely locked in the classroom, who are getting training across the year… Having raised their hands to volunteer, so when something like this starts, the first responders are already on the campus. If you can’t stop it from happening and with hundreds of millions of guns out there. But the challenge becomes once it’s start to end it quickly.
There’s no lack of solution. What we’ve had is a lack of leadership. It’s not one solution. There are many solution to addressing them. Our schools are soft targets. We need to harden the targets so that the potential murderer knows that that is not going to happen. I think we need to get started right away.
Trump: background checks are going to be very strong. And if we do that we have to nab them.
Trump referenced the lack of mental health institutions and how it is uncertain what to do with someone who had a history.
Trump: Firearm solutions would obviously only be for those who are very adept. And it would be obviously concealed carry. And it would no longer be a gun free zone.
The good thing about a solution like that… You’d have a lot of people with that. You can’t have 100 security guards.
Wed have a lot of people who would be arms, would be specialists.
I think if these cowards knew, they would very well not go into the school. A lot of people don’t understand that airplane pilots now, a lot of them carry guns.
Does everybody like that idea?
(a few people raised hands)
When asked who opposed the idea, more people raised their hand.
Zeif: I fully respect the 2nd amendment… But these are not weapons of defense, these are weapons of war.
Trump: we’re  going to go very strong into age.. Age of purchase, as well as the mental health aspect. Because this was a person who was sick, very sick. And people knew he was sick.
I want to thank everybody. Most of you have been through a lot more than you ever thought was possible and all I can say is that we’re fighting very hard for you and we will not stop.
The session wrapped at around 5:31pm EST.