President Trump on Friday reacted to news of a deadly school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas by expressing condolences for the victims and their families, and saying that his administration would support them. He did not elaborate.
The president’s comments come exactly two weeks after he addressed the annual National Rifle Association convention and said he would protect gun owners who were “under seige” by gun control activists.
“Unfortunately, I have to begin by expressing our sadness and heartbreak over the deadly shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas that took place moments ago,” Trump said, speaking to reporters at the White House Friday. “…This has been going on too long in our country. Too many years, too many decades now.”
Trump said the White House was monitoring the situation and noted federal officials were working with local authorities in the aftermath. He added that his administration was “determined to do everything in our power to protect our students, secure our schools, and keep weapons out of the hands of those who pose a threat to themselves and to others.”
“Everyone must work together at every level of government to keep our children safe,” he said. “May God heal the injured and may God comfort the wounded, and may God be with the victims and with the victims’ families. A very sad day, very, very sad.”
"This has been going on too long in our country, too many years, too many decades now" – President Trump on reports at least eight people are dead after shooting at Santa Fe High School in Texas https://t.co/n5ZUtzkzO9 pic.twitter.com/qbQrY9zjiW
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) May 18, 2018
Earlier in the morning, Trump had tweeted in response to the unfolding tragedy, writing, “School shooting in Texas. Early reports not looking good. God bless all!”
School shooting in Texas. Early reports not looking good. God bless all!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 18, 2018
Two weeks ago, on Friday May 4, Trump spoke at the National Rifle Association’s annual conference and promised to protect gun owners, whose Second Amendment rights, he claimed, were “under siege.”
“Thanks to your activism and dedication, you have an administration fighting to protect your Second Amendment and we will protect your Second Amendment,” he said at the time. “Your Second Amendment rights are under siege, but they will never ever be under siege as long as I am your president.”
He added that the NRA was “doing the right thing” for the country.
Trump’s comments were later echoed by newly appointed NRA President Oliver North, a retired Marine Corps lieutenant colonel and prominent figure in the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-1980s. During an interview with Fox News on May 8, North claimed the NRA was under attack from anti-gun violence groups, claiming that the onslaught of criticism against them was unprecedented.
“Quite frankly, I have never seen anything quite like it. They have hacked into almost everything that they could. They have threatened the officers, the directors, the staff,” he said. “The harassment goes beyond simply yelling at people. It now includes vandalism. It’s slashed tires and broken windshields, things like that. There is no place for that in America.”
North upped the ante even further on May 9, in an interview with the Washington Times, claiming that the young survivors of the February 14 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida — many of whom have since become leading voices in the gun control debate — and others like them were “civil terrorists.”
“They call them activists. That’s what they’re calling themselves. They’re not activists — this is civil terrorism. This is the kind of thing that’s never been seen against a civil rights organization in America,” he said, referring to an incident in which an activist had splashed fake blood on the Virginia home of an NRA official. “You go back to the terrible days of Jim Crow and those kinds of things — even there you didn’t have this kind of thing. We didn’t have the cyberwar kind of thing that we’ve got today.”
The NRA dropped at least $30 million in outside spending in support of Trump during the 2016 presidential election. Despite claiming during a meeting with lawmakers earlier this year that the NRA had no sway over his decision-making, Trump has since backed several policies favorable to the NRA in the wake of mass shootings. He has also abandoned previous promises meant to stem gun violence, such as banning the sale of ban bump stocks and raising the age limit for purchases of assault-style rifles to 21 — both policies the NRA has opposed.