March 13, 2018

*-- Trump gun plan to include provisions 'hardening' schools --*

President Donald Trump's plan to prevent school shootings will include measures focused on "hardening" schools, a White House official said Sunday.

Appearing on ABC News' This Week White House spokesman Raj Shah said Trump will introduce a series of proposals to raise the age limit to purchase certain firearms, improve background checks and create a task force to study school shootings

"Some will be legislative, some will be administrative and some will be recommendations for states as well as a task force to study this issue in more depth and make more additional policy recommendations. So it's going to be consistent with what the president has talked about," Shah said.

The planned legislation will be released Sunday, nearly a month after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., in which former student Nikolas Cruz killed 17 students and faculty members.

One bill to be proposed by Trump is known as the STOP School Violence Act which would authorize $50 million a year on school-safety improvements, including violence-prevention training for teachers and students, the Wall Street Journal reported.

When asked about the report Shah said he "didn't want to get ahead" of the specifics of the plan, but said there will be a component focused on getting "trained professionals" to volunteer to help secure schools.

"There's going to be a provision about hardening schools," he said.

During a listening session with with student survivors of the Parkland shooting Trump advocated to end the status of schools as gun-free zones by arming some school faculty.

"Gun-free zone to a maniac -- because they're all cowards -- a gun-free zone is 'let's go in and let's attack because bullets aren't coming back at us," he said.

Shah said Trump won't advocate for universal background checks for gun owners, but will focus on improving the current background check system through a bill known as FixNICS.

The announcement of Trump's plan comes as the National Rifle Association has filed a lawsuit against the state of Florida after Gov. Rick Scott signed a $400 million suite of legislative reforms to school security, mental health and gun-control measures which orders a ban on bump stocks, an increase to the minimum rifle purchasing age from 18 to 21 and a three-day waiting period on all firearm purchases.

Department of Justice Saturday also proposed a ban on bump stocks, which increase the firing rate of rifles and were used in the fatal Las Vegas shooting last fall that killed 58 people attending a country music festival.