'I think you're afraid of the NRA': Trump blasts Republican lawmakers in bipartisan meeting on gun control

• President Donald Trump hosted a bipartisan group of 17 lawmakers at the White House on Wednesday.
• It was a freewheeling, open discussion with members of both parties passionately speaking about what they could do on gun control.
• Trump chastised fellow Republicans for being "afraid" of the National Rifle Association.

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President Donald Trump held a freewheeling White House meeting on Wednesday to discuss various gun-control measures, at one point jabbing a Republican senator over his reluctance to raise the age of all gun purchases to 21 from 18.

"I think you're afraid of the NRA," Trump said to Sen. Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, arguing that raising the age limit was "something we have to think about."

"A lot of people are afraid to bring it up," Trump said, referring to the National Rifle Association's vehement opposition to the proposal. Some Democrats, such as Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, smiled and nodded at Trump's remarks.

Toomey said his reservations were due to fear that such a regulation would punish the "vast majority" of 19- and 20-year-olds in his state who own rifles or shotguns and are "law-abiding citizens."

Trump said he had lunch with NRA leadership on Sunday, noting that they "have great power" over Republicans but "less power over me."

The unusual meeting, which was open to the media and broadcast live, came just two weeks after a gunman killed 17 students and staff members at a Florida high school using a legally purchased AR-15 rifle.

Trump held a similar meeting on immigration in January. Trump reneged on several of his proposals and congressional negotiations collapsed just weeks later.

'I don't want mentally ill people to be having guns'

In Wednesday's meeting, Trump made clear to the lawmakers that all options of gun-control and school-safety measures were up for discussion.

He declared at the outset he was "going to write" an order banning bump stocks, the devices used in last year's Las Vegas massacre that accelerated the gunfire from the shooter's semiautomatic rifles.

Trump also doubled down on his solution to arm some teachers with concealed weapons to both prevent and deter active shooters at schools, though he conceded that many disagreed with the proposal.

Trump emphatically backed solutions that would prevent people with mental illnesses from buying or owning guns, a popular Republican position.

"Number one, you can take the guns away from people you can judge easily are mentally ill," he said, noting that no one confiscated the alleged Florida shooter's weapons, despite numerous run-ins with law enforcement, documented mental illnesses, and multiple tips that he would commit a school shooting.

"You have to have very strong provisions for the ill," Trump said. "I don't want mentally ill people to be having guns."

Trump appeared to be referring to so-called "red flag" laws that have gained some traction among lawmakers of both parties in recent weeks. Five states so far have laws that allow people to request that police confiscate weapons belonging to family members who may pose a threat to themselves or others.

But Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa pushed back on Trump's emphasis on mental health, arguing that there are many people with mental illnesses "who are not a danger to others."

"It's not fair to other people that have mental illness," Grassley said. "We have to have a culture in our schools where people are attuned to people who have problems."