Trump urges ban on firearm add-ons

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has signed a memo directing the Justice Department to propose regulations to “ban all devices” like the rapid-fire bump stocks involved in last year’s Las Vegas massacre.

Days after a deadly school shooting in Parkland, Fla., Trump spoke during a White House ceremony recognizing bravery by the nation’s public safety officers.

“We must move past clichés and tired debates and focus on evidence based solutions and security measures that actually work.”

The announcement came days after the shooting deaths of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The device Trump referred to was used in the October shooting deaths of 58 people in Las Vegas, and attached to a half-dozen of the long guns found in the shooter’s hotel room.

A legislative effort to ban the device fizzled out last year.

White House officials say the president will be meeting with students, teachers and state and local officials to discuss providing more school safety and address gun violence.

Trump has also indicated he is open to a limited strengthening of federal background checks on gun purchases. Over the weekend, the White House said he had spoken Friday to Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, about a bipartisan bill designed to strengthen the FBI database of prohibited gun buyers.

Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders stressed that talks continue and “revisions are being considered,” but said “the president is supportive of efforts to improve the federal background check system.”

Shooting survivors and other young people are pressing for more gun control in a rising chorus of grief and activism. Their March for Our Lives is planned March 24 in Washington.

But previous gun tragedies have not led Congress to act.

After the Las Vegas massacre, Congress talked about tightening gun laws. Four months later, the only gun legislation that has moved through Congress eases restrictions for gun owners.