Florida shooting: Thousands attend rally in Tallahassee to demand stricter gun control laws

Thousands of people including teenage survivors of the Florida mass shooting poured into state capital Tallahassee to demand lawmakers limit sales of assault rifles.

Some demonstrators wore t-shirts and carried signs reading "We call B.S.", one of the slogans of the movement started by students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, where 17 students and educators were killed.

During last week's massacre, gunman Nikolas Cruz used an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle to carry out the second-deadliest shooting at a US public school.

The attack was the latest in a long series of deadly US school shootings and stirred the nation's long-running debate about gun rights and public safety, prompting officials including US President Donald Trump to consider new action.

"Nikolas Cruz was able to purchase an assault rifle before he was able to buy a beer," said Laurenzo Prado, a Stoneman junior, referring to a Florida law that allows people as young as 18 to buy assault weapons. "The laws of the country have failed."

Florida lawmakers in Tallahassee said they would consider raising the age limit to 21, the same standard for handguns and alcohol, though the state Senate on Wednesday opted not to take up a gun control measure.

Florida Senate President Joe Negron, a Republican, met with students and declined to answer their questions on whether he would support any specific gun control measures.

"That's an issue we're going to look at as we work to develop legislation," he said.

The legislative session wraps up on March 9.

Meanwhile students scattered across the US walked out of classes in sympathy protests.

Hundreds of teens from the Washington suburbs gathered at the White House, where Mr Trump met with families of school shooting victims and survivors.

"I came out here because I don't feel safe in my school," said Allyson Zadravec, 15, of Northwood High School in Silver Spring, Maryland.

"I want to make sure that everyone who can do something about it hears that I don’t feel safe in my school."

Similar walkouts were held or planned in Florida, Phoenix, Arizona; Pittsburgh and Chicago, according to witnesses and local news media accounts.

Mr Trump, Vice President Mike Pence, and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos sat in a semicircle, listening to stories and pleas from about 40 students, teachers and families.

The group included Nicole Hockley, who lost a child in the 2012 Sandy Hook shooting in Connecticut, and family members of Parkland students.

The meeting came a day after Mr Trump said his administration would take steps to ban "bump stocks", an accessory that enables a rifle to shoot hundreds of rounds a minute.

Under pressure after Parkland, Mr Trump on Tuesday directed the Justice Department to quickly complete a proposed rule that would treat the devices as machine guns, which could effectively outlaw them in the United States.

Last October, bump stocks were used to kill 58 people at a Las Vegas outdoor concert, the deadliest attack by a single gunman in US history.

They have not played a prominent role in other recent US mass shootings.

Mr Trump's support for any tightening of gun laws would mark a change for the Republican, who was endorsed by the National Rifle Association gun lobby during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The NRA opposes an outright ban on bump stocks but has said it would be open to restrictions on the devices.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer urged Mr Trump to back legislation, instead of a regulation, on bump stocks.

"The only way to close this loophole permanently is legislation," Schumer said.

In Tallahassee, a group attempted to deliver a petition to Republican Governor Rick Scott's office but was turned away.

"What happened in Parkland is a tragedy but a preventable tragedy," said Florida State University student Elianna Cooper, 19, who joined the lobbying effort.

"There are things our elected officials can be doing, but they refuse to have a conversation."

Additional reporting by Press Association