Trump to hold listening session on gun violence

WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump plans to sit down Wednesday afternoon with survivors and families of victims of some of the worst shootings in U.S. history. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said families from Parkland, Fla.; Newtown, Conn.; and Littleton, Colo. are expected to meet with the president for a listening session. At a White House event Tuesday, Trump announced a directive to the Justice Department to look into regulating devices that increase the firing rate of some firearms and also expressed a desire for further action. “We have to do more to protect our children,” he said. When asked Tuesday if the president would consider limiting the sale of the AR-15 rifle—the gun used in the Parkland school shooting that killed 17 people last week—Sanders said the White House was weighing its options: “That’s certainly something that’s on the table for us to discuss and that we expect to come up over the next couple of weeks.” In 2012, a gunman killed 20 children and six adult staff members at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, and 13 people died at Columbine High School in Littleton during a shooting in 1999.