to tell our folks that the dow is now down 170 points, remember yesterday, we saw a lot of about 250 points, so take it in the aggregate not a great two days here but the bigger story is the volatility today, now after the bell. >> well it's volatility and whiplash, with these markets today and incredible look at this chart. you've got stocks dropping in the final moments of trading, we had a huge spike in this afternoon and that's gone the dow had been up about 300 points now we're closing down as liz just said off a session liz dow down 168, more than a 440 point swing today, incredible, s&p 500 and nasdac just went negative as we got to those closing bells, hello, everybody. i'm in for melissa francis. david: but we have the answer good to see you all i'm david asman this is after the bell more on the big market movers but first here is what else we're covering for you and this

is a very busy hour. president trump vowing action to protect mesh's children is the debate on gun safety enters the new phase the president holding a listening session any moment with students parents and teachers involved in some of the worst mass shootings in modern history. the focus, improving school security. we will take you live to the white house when this begins. and the white house also releasing its assessment of where they see the economy heading, the administration says it's confident the president's tax cuts will spur huge growth over the next couple of years, but nancy pelosi is still on the attack, her new comments this afternoon slamming the tax cuts after she got heckled for being rich when she called them un patriotic last night. >> well let's get back to these markets i mean we are of course waiting to hear from the president in that group at the white house but look at what happened in the markets just in the last few minutes of trading. the dow earlier today had spiked more than 300 points right after we got those comments from the

federal reserve, the minutes of course from the meeting we've got gerri willis standing by at the stock exchange. what a wild ride in the last hour. gerri: no kidding and if you didn't like how it was going one minute just wait a few and it goes in the opposite direction. here is what happened in the dow today the majors moved, the rally 157 point swing higher at 2:00 p.m. on that fed release, expectations the fed will be very complacent, not a lot going on there and then, the dow seeks 332 points and that comes at the end of the day as traders begin to realize that the yield on that 10 year treasury is speaking hitting a four year high of 2.946 and that's what's going on and also, we saw the dollar higher as well, so let me tell you a little bit about the dow winners here or losers i'm sorry as we start to look at these stocks. wal-mart down 2.5% you saw yesterday they had that loss of 10% and now another 2.5% for

that stock as we start to question online retail sales. home depot, a stock that had a great earnings report down 1.7. verizon down 1.6%, chevron down 1.6%, ge down 1.4% and when you break out the s&p 500 and as you know it's down about a half a percent right here the losers there largely energy companies, devon energy, newfield energy, chesapeake energy. devon down 11% your seeing stock s take a big hair cut as we enter our second day of lower trading. i'll just tell you lots of confusion on the floor today as people search for answers and i've got to tell you i think it's that 10 year treasury yield , inflation risk, higher rates that's what people are talking about here. back to you. >> that spike in the 10 year was certainly the story gerri we'll talk about it right now gerri willis thank you. david: we've got jonathan hoeni g, good to see you both

jonathan first to you. you know, we hate charts usually around here at fox business, but i've got to show you one because the point that gerri willis was making is that the market was up 300 points and that's not the chart i'm looking for, show the 10 year with the dow. what happened specifically was when we saw a spike in the 10 year, we saw the dow go down. show the chart, please so that our audience can see that. jonathan hoenig, isn't that the point that the moment that the investors saw the spike in the yield is when the dow began to tank? >> yes, david bonds are shut erring, interest rates are speaking we haven't seen something like this in years. in fact people are waiting for the fed to raise rates. interest rates are moving up even faster than the federal reserve is and the market seems to be seeing that inflation is real. when does this matter, i think people have been saying that i think you're starting to see an indication it matters now, as soon as those rates started to spike the dow took what a 500

point -- david: we'll see right there. keep that chart up on the screen if you can because the yellow of course is the dow, the blue is the yield on the 10 year, and john, the point is that the market was up initially on those fed notes because the fed said we're not going to be very aggressive about pushing up rates but i'm wondering when you see the rates go up without the fed doing anything, can the fed avoid rates going up? >> well i think the good and the bad of the report is the bad is the fed is going to see gradual increases of rate hikes. the fed started out saying they were going to be three hikes in 2018, the market is clearly pricing in a fourth hike. the good is the u.s. economy is far from a recession, so yes there's volatility that is now entering the market because of this but we're in a very healthy and strong situation here, so i think selloff like this should be met with buying opportunities david: you bring up a good question jonathan hoenig, if there are four hikes by the interest rate by the fed this year will the markets tank or will the economy be strong

enough to absorb that? >> i think you're putting too much credence in central planner s, david. think about on the way down with all these interest rates, how the fed kept changing its benchmark, changing its plans so i think to your point while they even are scheduling three or four interest rate hikes we're entering a period what used to be called the fed being behind the curve, interest rates are moving even ahead of the fed and david it wasn't too long ago that the 30 year was at 6%, 7%. if this inflation risk is for real we have a long way to go. david: jonathan i think you hit it. good to see you both thank you very much. cheryl? >> but if the economy grows and yields keep going higher watch out. well president trump is holding a listening session on school safety with students, parents and teachers who have gone through school shooting tragedies. we're going to be bringing it to you the moment that it starts live from the white house, but this is all happening as the white house is releasing its analysis of the economy and it

was bullish. blake burman is live breaking it down. hi there cheryl we expect the president with this listening session any moment now and the white house just releasing a list so we've got a better idea of whose going to be inside the room with him along with the vice president. it includes the mayor of parkland, florida and six students from marjorie stoneman douglas high school including the student president there and many of their parents along with those who have been affected by the shooting at sandy hook. this is a president and this is a white house that appears to be actively considering what to do next, as there is this national conversation taking place on just how to go about eliminating these mass shootings that are taking place inside of school classrooms, a white house source telling fox that the president is considering at least becoming an advocate for potentially raising the age in which somebody can purchase a gun legally though it it appears how much they could do at the federal level with this considering this is a state issue but the president also yesterday, as you know, weighed in on the las vegas massacre

from october 1 of last year in which 58 people were killed, 850 injured the president now saying he wants regulations in place to ban bump stocks. president trump: i signed a memorandum directing the attorney general to propose regulations to ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns. i expect these critical regulations will be finalized very soon. >> on the economic front today the president's report on the economy put together by the counsel of economic advisors released earlier this morning and it paints a fairly rosie picture of the economy. the president's top economic advisors projecting over the next decade 3% gdp growth when you look at the near-term above 3% the midterm of that timeframe 3% and then it dips below 3% toward the back end of the decade. they do warn though of some headwinds writing "challenges remain for 2018 and the longer

term including increased opioid dependence, the recent low rate of labor productivity and real wage growth and downward pressure on the labor force participation rate from demographic shifts." back to this listening session, david and cheryl that we expect any moment now, this will be a free wheeling session. a circle of chairs, the president, the vice president, and students from all across this country, including students who saw and who heard the bullets ring out last week. how to work on this going forward, what to do about it everything from background checks to the age of which someone should be able to buy a gun it appears all of that is on the table. >> to have those kids, those teenagers in the room with the president, again, it's going to be a must watch television to see how he handles the emotions that are starting to come out with those kids there blake of course we're going to come back to you as news develops and we are of course taking that listen ing session live for our viewers. i do want to bring in right now though to touch on what he was

just talking about with regards to the economic forecast from the white house, peter the maryland economics professor so a little bit of a hard turn there peter but let's talk about this rosey forecast, 2-4% gdp growth over a decade doesn't seem like a large stretch on the back of the tax reform package that we got yet the president is being, the administration is being criticized for just being too rosey. what do you say? >> a i think a lot depends on whether we get the productivity growth that many of us think is going to happen from robotics, artificial intelligence and so forth. we've gone through two decades of low productivity growth and in some ways we don't truly understand why it happened but historically the u.s. economy coming into the early years of the bush administration grew an average of 3% through recessions and recoveries from the time of the founding of the republic. there is no reason to believe we cannot return to 3% growth, even with a somewhat slower pace of

labor force growth. moreover, i think the budget that we have is going to compel some entitlements reform and it's not going to be about putting disabled people off but there's lots of healthy ablebodied people that are on the roles and if you start to cut back on entitlements they're going to have more incentive to work and also there's upward pressure on wages which will help lure them out. >> it's interesting too because this is the first time we've had this economic forecast come from of course the trump administration. they did something a little different we haven't seen in the past. they actually pointed out the mistakes of the previous administration, the obama administration and i want to get your thoughts on what they said. they said basically that there is diminished opportunity, security, equity and even health because of the overregulatory environment under the obama administration and they also said that basically, the tax and spend policies of the obama administration hurt the economy. do you agree with that? >> i think that's largely true. we had a slow period of growth from an overly constrained

economy. tim geitner was the mastermind of this earlier in the obama years and he said rapid growth is unstable and we need to settle for less growth and stability that's absolutely nonsense. the u.s. economy was well capable in the past from growing at 3% a year whether or not you have stability depends on the nature and structure of the economy over which no administration has much control. my feeling is that a lot of their regulatory policies were aimed toward the notion that business needs to be controlled and somehow rather the economy is inherently unfair. very latin american. now we know what it does down there. it didn't do good things and it didn't do good things here so i think this document is pretty good statement even though it's kind of politically motivated. >> talk to the people of venezuela about their economy. >> exactly. >> you're a great voice on this thank you for being here. >> take care. david: well cuba, there's a whole lot meanwhile house minority leader nancy pelosi is speaking at a senior center about the consequences of what

she calls the gop tax scam, her phrase she started her smear campaign at an event yesterday. take a listen. >> if what you're doing is cutting the taxes at the high end, you're doing a grave dis service to our country. david: unpatriotic. well a handful of democrats are openly disagreeing with her messaging, hillary vaughn is live in los angeles with more. >> reporter: david well all this went down in san francisco earlier today where she doubled down on calling tax reform a tax scam that rips off americans. pelosi saying at this press conference that the law is a gop scheme to trick americans by giving them a little bit more money in their paychecks. >> we recognize that some people are getting a little bit more, but there is a banquet out there for the high end and that's just not right, and while they're getting a little bit more

they're getting things taken away, and that's really what people have to see, but they put this little goody in there so that people will think okay, this is a good thing, while at the same time, they took away many things. >> the california lawmakers saying these corporate cuts will add $2 trillion to the deficit once you factor in interest she thinks that republicans are creating this problem intentionally by growing the debt so that they have an excuse to then cut some programs like social security medicare and medicaid. pelosi also protesting trump's tax cuts at a town hall in phoenix last night callsing the reforms unpatriotic but the white house announcing today some of the benefits of the new tax law could have big benefits from the economy growing them by 4% if these reforms were here to stay but pelosi is saying that the idea that these cuts will pay for themselves through economic growth is "bs." pelosi joining democrats on

their 100 city tour as they continue to convince americans that this is not good for american workers. david: even though the polls are turning around on that issue hillary thank you very much. here now to react is our political panel, we have a gop fundraiser and michael star hopkins is a democratic strategist as well as contributor for the hill, and he's also running for the united states senate in new jersey. we wish him best of luck there. michael let me go to you first and it wasn't all roses for nancy pelosi last night as she was speaking to a crowd there was a heckle erin the crowd. take a listen to what happened. >> have to struggle to make ends meet. >> [indiscernible] >> so no we're not talking about that. so in any event, now i can, you know i'm a mother of five, i can speak louder than anybody. david: if you didn't hear they said how much are you worth, nancy and actually we got an answer for that she's worth about $43.4 million. it plays into the whole

narrative, anti-nancy pelosi narrative that here is a woman worth 43 million, she calls thousand dollar bonuses based on tax cuts "crumbs" to people and a lot of people taking a thousand bucks as a bonus don't refer to that as crumbs. the question is whether she's doing more harm than good for your cause. do you feel comfortable? you're running for the senate for using her as your spokesperson. >> i think nancy pelosi has been a great leader for democrats but she is an easy target when it comes to these things. i think there are too many rich people on the left and right when it comes to politicians and not enough average americans which is why when comments heard like the thousand dollar comment , it lands so poorly. a thousand dollars is a big amount to any family, but what she was getting at the essence of what she was getting at is picking winners and losers and i didn't support this tax bill and i think that it does poke an even bigger hole into the deficit. david: but the point is nancy pelosi and other democrats were saying 80% of this tut is going to the rich and 80% of americans

will see their taxes go up. well americans are seeing something very different right now. they're, a lot of them are see ing their checks increase as a result of these tax cuts so there's a conflict between the rhetoric of the democrats on tax cuts and what's actually happened. >> and that is a great point, because what she is delivering is the same old same old rhetoric, basically saying that the tax cuts are not working and it's very hard to, you know, for the democrats to stop getting off the talking point when the actual truth is in reality, people are saying the increase in say, we have companies bringing more money back and filtering it into the united states, and we have job growth at an all-time high so the economy is on a high, job growth is on a high, you're seeing a rally in the market and even though the market took a dive, it's still hovering around 25,000 which was better, a lot better than what it was under obama's run. david: we have a lot of

breaking news gang, i wish we could spend more time on this issue but we'll see the panel coming back in just a moment but meanwhile cheryl? >> we've got the breaking news coming up david any minute now we're going to see the president he's going to be hosting this listening session with students, parents, educators, who directly experienced the school shootings in parkland, florida, sandy hook , and other places. the focus to improve school safety we'll take you live to the white house when all of that begins. david: also one high school senior is taking matters into his own hands. he has created a device that could save lives in the event of another shooting and schools are actually buying it up. we're going to be speaking with a remarkable young inventor coming up. >> students from parkland and florida's state capitol making their voices heard this afternoon, a live update from tallahassee next. >> nobody has to fear for their future when they are going to an educational system designed to give them a future.

david: here comes president trump and he is hosting this listening session at the white house with high school students and teachers let's listen in.

president trump: honor to have you here. we're going to be listening to some of their suggestions, i've heard some of them and we're going to do something about this horrible situation that's going on. so i want to listen and then after i listen we're going to get things done. i thought we'd start off if you could possibly say the prayer it would be appreciated, thank you. >> [praying ]

we ask you to comfort the families comfort every one of them and even the families that didn't lose a loved one but know that they were there at that time, comfort them also and father, i just ask right now, in the name of jesus christ, we just welcome you here in this room. in jesus name we say, amen. president trump: thank you very much, pastor, appreciate it. vice president, you wanted to say and i'd like you to say a few words and i'd like to then introduce you to betsy devos who most of you know and some of you have met a little while ago. mike what do you have to say? >> first off, thank you, mr.

president. i want to thank the families from parkland florida and assure you of the deepest condolences and sympathies of the first family and our family and of the american people. as the president said, last week , the american people are united with one heart, a broken one, on what took place, but the president called this meeting for us to talk about what's happening in our country over the last 20 years and to find out from all of you gathered here by listening, by learning how we might ensure that this is the last time this ever happens. i am deeply moved by the stories

and i am candidly moved by the courage that it takes for many of you to be here today and what i just want to encourage you to do is tell us your stories. america's looking on, your president, our entire administration, leaders around the country at every level are looking on and we want to hear your hearts today. i encourage you to be candid and be vulnerable and share with us, not only your personal experience but what it is that you would have us to do and just know that as the president's already taken action, he'll be meeting in this very room in the coming days with governors from all 50 states to make school safety the top priority of this administration across this country. the president and i wanted to hear from you all first and so i want to say thank you for coming , thank you for the

courage of being here and share your hearts and from our families to your families, just god bless you. president trump: thank you, mike , very much. betsy? >> thank you, mr. president. students, teachers, parents, thank you for being here and those of you who lived through something unthinkable. many of you it's raw and fresh. i admire your strength to come and share your experiences with the president, the vice president, and the world. no students, no parents, no teachers should ever have to endure what you all have. my heart is broken. what happened last week shocked us. it angers us. we're here to have an earnest conversation about why this tragedy and too many others before it happened and how we can work to find solutions.

we're here to listen, to gain your important perspective on ways to reduce violence and to protect students. our hope is that by talking and by listening, we can make something that was unthinkable bad, something good, and your loss and your trauma must never be in vein, so thank you again for being here and let's get started. president trump: thank you very much, betsy. i just want to say before we really begin because i want to say that we're going to be very strong on background checks, we'll be doing very strong background checks, very strong emphasis on the mental health of somebody, and we are going to do plenty of other things. again next week the governors are coming in from most of the states and we're going to have a very serious talk about what's going on with school safety,

it's very important, and we're going to cover every aspect of it and there are many ideas that i have and many ideas that other people have and we're going to pick out the strongest ideas and most important ideas and the ideas that we are going to work and we're going to get them done it's not going to be talk like it has been in the past. been going on too long, too many instances, and we're going to get it done, so again, i want to thank you all for being here. i'd like to hear your story and i'd also like to if you have any suggestions for the future based on this horrible experience that you've gone through, i'd love to have those as is. all right? >> all right, well thank you, mr. president, for having me here. my name is julia and i'm from stoneman douglas high school and i was there during the shooting and i'm a survivor, and i want you guys all to emphasize the point that i survived. i was lucky enough to come home

from school unlike some of my other classmates and teachers and it's very scary and knowing that a lot of people did not have this opportunity to be here still is mind blowing and i'm just i feel like there is a lot to do and i really appreciate you like hosting me and what you're saying, i'm confident that you'll do the right thing and i appreciate you looking at the bump stocks yesterday. that means that it is definitely a step in the right direction and i think we can all agree on that. there is definitely a lot more to go but i am just grateful that i'm here and we can try to work out something, maybe compromise on some solution so this never, no child, no person in this world will ever have to go through something so horrific and tragic and my thoughts and prayers are out to everyone there so thank you.

>> my name is jonathan blank. i go to stoneman douglas and i was actually in the second classroom that was shot at. in my mind as a kid, nothing that horrible should ever have to happen to you and you can't even think about it. like it doesn't even seem real still. everything seems fake. i can't even, i don't even know what's going on. it's just crazy. everything happening it's just so tragic. thank you for everything. you've done a great job and i like the direction that you're going in. thank you. >> my name is melissa and jonathan is my son and i had to get in touch with my son to find

out if he was alive. i feel for all of these families , my heart is just broken for my whole community. we were coming together, i feel for all of the families who have lost and i feel for the ones that are here because we now have almost the guilt like i have. why not my child, which i feel bad saying i'm happy that he's here with me. i feel so bad for all of you who have lost so many and i'm just begging for a change. we need a change. president trump: thank you. >> do you mind, may i pass the microphone back to my daughter

because i think she has some nice solutions and if that's okay with you? president trump: sure. >> thank you. >> hi. my name is carson, i'm a junior and i was at marjorie stoneman douglas at the time of the shooting, and i know that there are a lot of different solutions that we can go through to help e radicate this issue but one that stuck out to me was about all the drills and protocols that my teachers had to go through. they knew what to do once the code red for an active shooter was announced but through research, i found that only 32 states require drills but of those 32 states, more than half of the counties do not go through the drills because they want to spend their resources towards something else. president trump: uh-huh. >> and i know that a bill was also passed that declare each school has to go through one drill each month but i know at my school we go through fire

drills every month and we have not had our lockdown drill yet this year and i think a change that will increase all the trainings and protocols so if god forbid another shooting does happen at least all the teachers we've prepared and can hopefully keep their students calm. president trump: that's great. thank you very much. please? >> my name is arianna. i'd just like to say thank you for leading the country. you're a great leader and i appreciate the direction that the country is going in. i'm a junior and i attended stoneman douglas and i just want to say that everybody right now is so stuck on what they believe that they're not even listening to what other people believe. we need to listen to the other points of views. we all need to realize that we all have different points of views and that we need this solution is not going to be a singular thing. it's multi-faceted and it's

going to be created by a collection of different people working together and we all have to realize that we all have our opinions and together we're going to be able to work toward a solution and this is not just parkland any more. this is america. this is every student and every city and everywhere as everybody it's not small. it's everything. thank you for having us. president trump: thank you very much. appreciate it. >> my name is fred and i'm car son's dad. i'm going to pass the microphone along to some of the other students, if we have a chance later on perhaps i'll speak or other parents could speak but i'd like the students to get their chance. president trump: very nice. >> my name is justin and i was at the school at the time of the massacre. i'm only 15 years old, i'm a sophomore. 19 years ago, the first school shooting columbine high school happened and i was born into a

world where i never got to experience safety and peace. there needs to be significant change in this country, because this has to never happen again and people should be able to feel that when they go to school they can be safe and because there needs to be a change, i'm sorry, people need to feel safe and parents shouldn't have to go through the idea of losing their child, as i know, for my dad, he's panicking and he couldn't imagine it, so that shouldn't even be a possibility that should go through a parent's mind and there needs to be some change. thank you. president trump: thank you. thank you very much. appreciate it. >> i'm justin's dad, and i'll be brief. you know, justin was texting me

hiding in a closet saying if something happens, i love you. if something happens i love you and you can't imagine what that's like as a parent and then his phone died and i didn't know what happened for another hour, so 17 lives are gone, i was lucky enough to get my son home but 17 families. this is not left and right. it's not political, it's a human issue, people are dying and we have to stop this. we have to stop it. if he's not old enough to buy a drink, to go and buy a beer, he should not be able to buy a gun at 18 years old. i mean that's just common sense. we have to do common sense. please, mr. trump, these are things we have to do and in israel you have to be 27 years old to have a gun. you're only allowed one. they tax the guns. you have to go through significant training. we've got to do something about this. we cannot have our children die. this is just heartbreaking.

please. president trump: thank you. >> thank you. >> hi, my name is shannon morris i'm a local administrator for a school in d.c. and i really want to continue the conversation for our students. >> hi, my name is vielka marcus and i'm a local ed you caught or in washington d.c. for friendship public charter school so i will allow our students that are here to voice their opinions as well as get some of their ideas to do that at this time, and my condolences and my heart truly go out to not just the families that have lost children in this horrific horrific incident that has occurred but also to our families here in the district of columbia that experience gun violence outside of our schools

that directly impact our schools , because they are our students. president trump: thank you. >> hello. my name is aliah and i go to the friendship technology prepatory academy in the heart of southeast d.c. my condolences to every family here that experienced the shooting and all of the students that experienced that and i'm here on be half of my school and all of the friendship schools in d.c. to be able to prevent those kind of things happening in our school because in southeast d.c. , we do encounter a lot of violence and things. most of the time at night but a lot of the times it's like the daytime too, so our schools we do take preventive measures and everything to stop that. like we check bags at the door and everything and it does make us at first we're like no, we

don't want to do this, but then we realize it's for our safety, but we wanted to make sure that it continues and that nothing can ever slip up for this, for these things to happen, like in school, counseling for our students who are struggling with fear and bullying. bullying triggers emotions that will make a student want to bring like a weapon to school to protect themselves or to get revenge for a person who that did something to them, so we just want to have a lot of preventive measures to be in the schools and also outside of school, to make sure that nothing can happen to us while we're in school. president trump: thank you. thank you very much. >> hello, mr. president. thank you for having us. i'm christine, the mayor of the city of parkland.

we have a great city. its been one of the safest cities in america and the fact that this happened in our city means it can happen anywhere. we are blessed that we are very close knit family oriented city and our community is coming together. we lost 17 lives but the ripple effects throughout the community are devastating. i've spent the last week going to funerals. friends of mine that lost their children. we have to at some point care enough and be strong enough to come up with solutions and i hope we will and if i might, i had two parents who lost children text me some of their thoughts if i might share them with you? president trump: yes. >> thank you. i spoke to jennifer and tony mon talto. they just buried their daughter gina yesterday, and their

comments were so tony is an airline pilot and he said he supports the second amendment but he does not believe there is a need for assault rifles. he also said that the fbi, there were signs missed and it reminded him of 9/11 so we do have to work on making sure that our protocols are in place so that people don't slip through the cracks literally in this case. we also talked about the red flag laws. i think there's a little progress being made in florida now on the red flag laws which is when somebody shows signs of hurting themselves or someone else, you can take their gun away from them. fred guttenberg, a service for his daughter, jamie was last week, on friday, and he would like the administration to publicly acknowledge the role of guns. now these two parents talked

about guns and there are absolutely lots of areas where there's room for improvement lots of areas from mental health , from teacher training but also part of that is also the gun issue so it's not that. it's just those and not the gun. it's all of them, and in the debate world in the high school debate world the kids talk about when they bring up legislation you want to have impacts. you're not bringing up legislation that doesn't have a positive impact, and what is the positive impact of having legislation that stops assault rifles? bans assault rifles? it could save a life and that needs to be a priority in any case and when we talk about rights, so we have the right for free speech but if free speech in any way endangers someone, it gets restricted and i think i appreciate that we're coming here to listen and i appreciate that we're coming here to look at all different perspectives

because we need action and we need to be solution-oriented. thank you. president trump: thank you i appreciate it. >> we're here because my daughter has no voice. she was murdered last week and she was taken from us. shot nine times on the third floor. we as a country failed our children. this shouldn't happen. we go to the airport, i can't get on a plane with a bottled water but we leave it for some animal to walk into a school and shoot our children. it's just not right and we need to come together as a country and work on what's important and that's protecting our children, in the schools.

that's the only thing that matters right now. everyone has to come together and not think about different laws. we need to come together as a country, not different parties, and figure out how we protect the schools. it's simple. it's not difficult. we protect airports, we protect concerts, stadiums, embassies, the department of education that i walked into today that had the security guard in the elevator. how do you think that makes me feel? in the elevator they've got a security guard. i'm very angry that this happened because it keeps happening. 9/11 happened once and they fixed everything. how many schools, how many children have to get shot? it stops here with this administration and me. i'm not going to sleep until it's fixed.

and mr. president, we're going to fix it because i'm going to fix it. i'm not going to rest and look at, my boys need to live with this. i want to see everyone. you guys look at this. me, i'm a man but to see your children go through this, bury their sister, so that's what i keep saying because i want it to sink in, not forget about this. we can't forget about it. all the school shootings, it doesn't make sense. fix it. should have been one school shooting and we should have fixed it and i'm pissed because my daughter, i'm not going to see again. she's not here. she's not here, she's in north lauderdale at whatever it is, king david sex terry. that's where i go to see my kid

now and it stops we all work together and come up with the right idea that school safety, not about gun laws right now. that's another fight, another battle. but let's fix the schools and then you guys can battle it out whatever you want but we need our children safe, tomorrow, whatever day it is your kids are going to go to school you think everyone's kids are safe? i didn't think it was going to happen to me, if i knew that i would have been at the school every day if i knew it was that dangerous. it's enough. get together, work with the president, and fix the schools. that's it. no other discussions. security, whatever we have to do , get the right people, the consultants. these are our commodities and i'm never going to see my kid again. i want you all to know that. never ever will i see myid. that i wt it to sink . my beautif daughter i'm never gog to see again and it's simple. it n's that we can f it.

this is my son who has to deal , son? >> iust want to add that it's imperative to the safety of everyone that to support free market and free flow of ideas and listen to people, listen to radical opinions on both sides and that's how we'll find solutions. you let people battle it out in the free flow of ideas, censorship has got to shop and that's how we find the solutions , by listening to everyone, having an open mind. >> this is my son hunter.

>> hello. i'm walter, class of 15, marjorie stoneman douglas. i walked the same hallways where they got shot and all 16 other victims. first off i want to thank mr. president for having us. we had a very effective meeting before we talked in this room. mr. vice president as well and madam secretary, i put all my trust into them and my father that together we'll be able to find a solution and that's all i have to say. thank you for having us. >> my name is sam z eith. i'm a student from marjorie stoneman douglas in parkland and i just want to take a second first to thank you for having me , mr. president, mr. vice president, madam secretary.

i was on the second floor in that building, texting my mom, texting my dad, texting three of my brothers that i was never going to see them again and then it occurred to me that my 14 year old brother was directly above me in that classroom where scott beagle was murdered. scott beagle got my brother in the class, he was the last kid to get back into that class and i'm sure a lot of you have read my texts on the internet to my brother. i didn't plan for them to go viral. i just wanted to share with the world because no brothers or sisters or family members or

anyone should ever have to share those texts with anyone. and that's why i'm here. i lost a best friend whose practically a brother and i'm here to use my voice because i know he can't and i know he's with me cheering me on to be strong but it's hard and to feel like this, it doesn't even feel like a week. time has stood still. to feel like this ever, i can't feel comfortable in my country knowing that people have, will have, ever going to feel like this and i want to feel safe at school. you know, senior year and junior year are big years for me when i

turn my academics around started connecting with teachers and i started actually enjoying school and now, i don't know how i'm ever going to step foot on that place again or go to a public park after school or be walking anywhere. me and my friends we get scared when a car drives by, anywhere. i think i agree with hunter and huck and how we need to let ideas flow and get the problem solved. i don't understand. i turned 18 the day after, woke up to the news that my best friend was gone and i don't understand why i could still go in a store and buy a weapon of

war, an a-r. i was reading today that a person, 20 years old, walked into a store and tought an ar-15 in five minutes with an expired id. how is it that easy to buy this type of weapon? how are we not stopping this after columbine, after sandy hook, i'm sitting with a mother that lost her son. it's still happening. in australia there was a shooting at a school in 1999. you know, after that they took a lot of ideas, they put legislation together, and they stopped it. can anyone here guess how many shootings there have been in the schools since then in australia? zero. we need to do something and that's why we're here, so let's

be strong through the fallen who don't have a voice to speak any more and let's never let this happen again. please. please. >> mr. president, vice president , madam secretary, my story is far too well known. i had two sons who were at sandy hook school. my eldest who was eight at the time survived and my six year old son dillon did not, and i've been working tirelessly on this issue for over five years now. the organization that i helped lead sandy hook promise is very focused on keeping kids safe at school, because no parent should

go through this. every parent who sends their kid to school should know without any question in their mind that they're going to be coming home that day. this is not a difficult issue. you're absolutely right. there are solutions and this administration has the ability to put them in place and after sandy hook, they said we wouldn't let this happen again and yet it has continued to happen for five years. how many more deaths can we take as a country. how many more teenagers and six and seven-year-olds can we allow to die? don't let that happen any more on your watch. there are things that you can do right now. mental health you mentioned earlier, funding for that would be very much appreciated. the stop school violence act, enabling prevention programs and reporting systems in schools across america has already passed through the house. it's in the senate right now.

urge swift passage of that, that can get a lot of help to schools i absolutely agree since sandy hook there's been an increase in school safety and security. we've invested a lot in the bricks and mortar of our schools and invested a lot in the security of our schools and i think we also need to focus on prevention. how do we prevent these acts from happening. how can we help identify and get help for them who are at risk of hurting themselves or others before they pick up any weapon. that's what we need to focus on, by preventing these acts and you have the ability to do that. there's legislation available to you right now. there are free training programs such as our know the signs program available across the states right now. you could mandate these sorts of programs. you could ensure that schools, students and educators are trained how to recognize these signs and to know what to do when they see them and then to ensure that those tips are followed through. this is not difficult. these deaths are preventable,

and i emplore you, consider your own children. you don't want to be me. no parent does and you have the ability to make a difference and save lives today. please don't waste this. thank you. president trump: thank you. >> mr. president, vice president , and mrs. devos, thank you for inviting my wife and i to be here today. i'm a little bit weak i had surgery last week so i'm kind of weak in the voice and body but 19 years ago, i went through what some of the folks here are going through now because my beautiful daughter, rachel, was killed and my son craig was in the library that day. two of his friends were murdered beside him. he laid there covered in their blood looking down the barrel of two guns aimed at him and he

knew he was going to die and a split second before eric and dillon pulled the trigger the alarm system went off and it distracted them and they never came back to the table where craig was at or i would have lost two children that day at columbine so my heart goes out to you, sir and to every one of you in this room that have experienced the trauma that you're going through at parkland our focus has been my beautiful wife the most beautiful lady in the room is right there in the blue and white house, sandy. we started a program called rachel's challenge and it started a year after rachel died and we have worked with some wonderful partners over the last few years. we work closely with chuck norris and his wife gina in a program they call kickstart for kids. we work with call ripken jr. and his brother bill and have created a program for athletes called the uncommon athlete based on something my daughter wrote in one of her diaries and

we partner with one of the top k -12 researchers in the country and the program called why trial dear friends and another program called love and logic, dr. jim f aye, one of the largest parent ing programs. all of us combine our efforts together. our organization has reached over 28 million students in the last 19 years and we have seen seven school shootings prevented we see an average of three suicides prevented every single week of the year, over 150 a year. i have a little book with me that i'd like to leave with you. its got letters from students, we don't edit them. these are e-mails from students who are planning to commit suicide and we see three of those every single week. students that change their mind, and if you don't mind i just want to share one simple principle with you that we've learned over the years as we worked with millions and million s of young people and it

comes from something you said last week in your speech and it was that we must create a culture of connection, we must create a culture in which our classmates become our friends. that's something we've learned how to do over the years. we have over 28 different programs and we see children connect with one another. every single one of these school shootings have been from young men who are disconnected and we talk a lot about the mental health issues but it actually goes deeper than that because there's a lot of mentally ill children that are kind and compassionate, and so we work with those children every single day of the year of the school year but there's always the one with the propensity to violence and so one of the things we have learned and we trained young people and we train teachers that the focus must not be just on unity or diversity, because if you focus too much on

diversity you create division. if you focus too much on unity you'll create compromise but if you focus on relatedness and how we can relate with one another, then you can celebrate diversity and you can see the unity take place. i'm all for diversity. i'm all for unity but the focus really needs to be on how can we connect and that's something that we and our organizations have learned. one thing we have learned is how to connect students with each other with themselves with their teachers and with their parents and i would love to share more as we have a chance to do so. thank you again for having us today. president trump: thank you i appreciate that. this is an incredible group of people and we really do appreciate it. some of the folks in the back and some of my friends sitting right back here i'd like to have you say a few words. we can learn a lot from you. we want to learn everything we can learn and we're going to go

starting about two minutes after this meeting we're going to work this is a long term situation that we have to solve. we'll solve it together and you've gone through extraordinary pain and we don't want others to go through the kind of pain that you've gone through. it wouldn't be right, so would you like to say something, please? >> thank you, mr. president. my name is curtis kelly. i represent thoroughgood marshall academy in the district of columbia, thank you vice president and madam secretary for having myself and gregory baldwin. my tragedy started september 20 of last year where i have two twin sons that