WASHINGTON (AP) – President Donald Trump planned to meet Thursday with families of the victims of the Texas school shooting that left 10 people dead.
The White House says Trump will hold the meetings after he arrives in Houston to attend several political events in the state. The May 18 shooting at Santa Fe High School killed eight students and two substitute teachers. Authorities have charged a 17-year-old student with capital murder in the attack.
After 17 teachers and students were killed during a February shooting at a school in Parkland, Florida, Trump said he would work to improve school safety but has not called for new gun control legislation. He created a commission on school safety and named Education Secretary Betsy DeVos to chair it, and the panel on Thursday was making its first field trip to a Baltimore-area elementary school.
Trump briefly strayed from gun rights dogma after the Parkland shooting, but quickly backpedaled. His trip to Texas, which embraces its gun-friendly reputation, comes weeks after Trump visited the state to address the annual convention of the National Rifle Association.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican and a staunch gun-rights supporter, has called for schools to have more armed personnel and said they should put greater focus on spotting student mental health problems. He’s proposed a few small restrictions on guns since the shooting.
Students at Santa Fe High School returned to class Tuesday for the first time since the shooting.
Authorities have charged student Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, with capital murder in the attack. Investigators said he used a shotgun and pistol that belonged to his father.
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