Trump urges ban on gun devices like bump stocks

United States President Donald Trump 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. Seeking to show action days after a deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Mr Trump spoke during a White House ceremony recognising bravery by the country’s public safety officers.

“We must move past cliches and tired debates and focus on evidence-based solutions and security measures that actually work,” Mr Trump said.

The announcement came less than a week after the shooting deaths of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The device Mr Trump referred to was used in the October shooting deaths of 58 people in Las Vegas, and attached to a number of the long guns found in the shooter’s hotel room.

A legislative effort to ban the device, which allows a rifle to shoot hundreds of rounds a minute, fizzled out last year.

White House officials say the President will be meeting with students, teachers and state and local officials to discuss ways of providing more school safety and address gun violence. Pressure has been mounting for action after the Parkland shooting. Mr 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 the President had spoken on Friday to senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, about a bipartisan bill designed to strengthen the FBI database of prohibited gun buyers. Mr Trump’s spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders qualified the support, stressing that talks continue and “revisions are being considered”, but said “the President is supportive of efforts to improve the federal background check system”. The White House statement comes as shooting survivors and other young people press for more gun control in a rising chorus of grief and activism.