from what he said in the days following the mass shootings in texas and ohio. >> from my standpoint i would like to see meaningful background checks. i think something will happen. but i don't want guns in the hands of a lunatic or a maniac and if we do proper background checks we could prevent that. >> reporter: and the softening coincides with recent conversations with white house officials and the nra including a recent phone call between trump and wayne la pierre in which a source trump told the head that universal background checks were off the table. la pierre tweeting on tuesday, quote, i spoke to the president today. we discussed the best prevent these types of tragedies. donald trump is a amendment president and supports our right to keep and bear arms. trump today denying he got into specifics with la pierre. >> i didn't say anything about that. we had a great talk with wayne