The White House praised the hundreds of thousands of Americans participating in March for Our Lives across the U.S. on Saturday to call for gun control reforms.
In a brief statement, White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Waters also reiterated the Trump administration’s support for some reforms.
“We applaud the many courageous young Americans exercising their First Amendment rights today,” Walters said. “Keeping our children safe is a top priority of the President’s, which is why he urged Congress to pass the Fix NICS and STOP School Violence Acts, and signed them into law,” Walters added.
Additionally, Waters touted the Justice Department’s late Friday night proposed ban on “bump stocks,” devices that allow semi-automatic firearms to fire more rapidly.
The proposed rule would define “machinegun,” an illegal weapon under federal law, to include “bump stocks.”
One such device was used in the Las Vegas mass shooting last October, but no serious action had been taken by the U.S. government to prohibit them until after the Feb. 14 school shooting in Parkland, Fla.
“Obama Administration legalized bump stocks. BAD IDEA,” Trump tweeted Friday. “As I promised, today the Department of Justice will issue the rule banning BUMP STOCKS with a mandated comment period. We will BAN all devices that turn legal weapons into illegal machine guns.”
Former President Barack Obama’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives had argued “bump stocks” could not be regulated by the government.
President Trump is visiting his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., Saturday, while the main March for Our Lives event in Washington, D.C., will be taking place right on his doorstep.
