WASHINGTON _ Vice President Mike Pence said on Thursday that the administration is making school safety the "top national priority" as it responds to the deadly school shooting in a Parkland, Fla., high school.
"As the president has said, no child, no teacher should ever be in danger in an American school," Pence told the annual gathering of the Conservative Political Action Conference, known as CPAC.
Trump was meeting at the White House with state and local government officials about school safety. Pence noted that the president later this week also will talk to state governors coming to Washington for their annual winter meeting.
"We'll make the safety of our nation's schools and our students our top national priority," Pence said.
At CPAC, Pence took the stage after a fiery, partisan speech by National Rifle Association President Wayne LaPierre, who made his first public comments since last week's massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School by a suspect with an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. Echoing Trump, LaPierre called on American moms and dads to demand "effective armed security" to protect students � even offering free consultations to schools from the NRA.
LaPierre also alleged that states are failing to report the names of millions of violent felons and people adjudicated mentally incompetent for the federal background check system that is used in some gun sales.
