Donald Trump says he would have 'run in' to Florida shooting without a weapon
Donald Trump has said he would have rushed inside the Florida high school where 17 people were shot dead even if he wasn't armed.
The US president said an armed police officer, who remained outside the building during the massacre on Feb 14, had "choked".
Speaking to a group of 39 state governors at the White House, Mr Trump said: "I really believe, you don’t know until you’re tested, but I really believe I’d run in even if I didn’t have a weapon."
Mr Trump also suggested that there was daylight between himself and the National Rifle Association, America's biggest gun lobby, in how to respond to the shooting.
The NRA, which has five million members, strongly endorsed Mr Trump in the 2016 election and backed him with tens of millions of dollars.
The president said he had lunch with the NRA leadership, including chief executive Wayne LaPierre, over the weekend, and they were "great patriots"
But he added: "Sometimes we’re going to have to be very tough and we’re going to have to fight them."
Mr Trump told the governors: "Don't worry about the NRA. They're on our side. Half of you are so afraid of the NRA. You don't need to be afraid of them. They want to do something."
The president has indicated he wants to increase the minimum age for buying a semi-automatic weapon form 18 to 21, expand background checks, and ban bump stock devices which increase a gun's rate of fire. The NRA is pushing back against tighter gun controls.
Mr Trump also indicated it should be easier to commit people for psychiatric reasons.
He said: "We’re going to have to start talking about mental institutions. If we see a sicko, I don't want them having a gun."
He reiterated his belief that some teachers should be armed with concealed weapons.
Mr Trump said that these should be teachers who "have a natural talent like hitting a baseball, or hitting a golf ball, or putting".
He added that gunmen should know there would be "retribution" and "the bad guy has to understand they will pay the ultimate price. I don't think you're going to stop it by being kind."
Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, told NBC News that arming teachers was "an idea that needs to be discussed".
But asked whether, as a mother of three children, she would consider providing teachers with guns, the first daughter added: "To be honest, I don't know. Obviously, there would have to be an incredibly high standard for who would be able to bear arms in our schools."
