Holding a listening session with high school students, parents and teachers affected by mass shootings. The Parkland High School shooting as well as groups representing survivors of the tragedy at is sandy hook and columbi columbine. Our team is covering all angles. And our panel is with me. But i want to begin with kaylee hartung. Set the scene for us out there. Reporter jake, more than 5,000 people have already confirmed they will be coming right here to the bb t Center Tonight to bear witness to this conversation. Were just about 15 miles from the high school where this community has the opportunity to come facetoface with their lawmakers. The spotlight will undoubtedly be on republican senator marco rubio who said in the past week that the Gun Legislation proposed wouldnt have prevented this massacre. Students have not been shy over the past weekend calling him out for his long standing relationship with the nra. Also on stage tonight, floridas democratic senator bill nelson, he spent time earlier today at the high schools memorial site. You will also hear from democratic congressman ted deutsche, a man who many students have told me has been an invaluable resource to them. And in addition to the lawmakers, the nra is also sending a National Spokeswoman dana lash and well hear from Broward County sheriff scott israel who has played an Important Role for this community through its healing process. And also notable, who wont be here. The president and floridas governor rick scott were both extended nf extended invitations, both declined to appear. All right. Kaylee hartung, thank you so much. In what has been an extraordinary and emotional call to action, students from Stoneman Douglas high school say they are speaking truth to power today upping their pressure on Florida State lawmakers to act to prevent School Shootings. There is no longer a chance for you to just dismiss us, for you to ignore us and keep doing whatever it is you want to do while telling us that you want to be safe and you dont want anything like this to happen again, but not taking any action. Cnns Dianne Gallagher joining me live from the State Capitol tallahassee. What are the students asking for from lawmakers . Reporter you know, jake, it is a multilayered request. Really demand if you will. But on the face of it, they want gun control. Now, if you talk to them individually as we have been over the past 24 hours about this, it may vary. Some of then arent even sure exactly what would fix this in their eyes, but overall most would like to see a reinstatement of the assault weapon ban. Specifically banning high capacity magazines. Others want to see the age limit increase where a larger amount of time that you have to wait, pull that waiting period out even longer than it is, or just have one for the semi automatic or ar15 style rweapons. But really today during the midday press conference that they held after that he had these meetings, some were very frustrated, some want to know that they are still grieving and they want people to remember that. We will not be silenced. It has gone on long enough that we just because we are kids, were not allowed to understand. But trust me, i understand. I was in a closet locked for four hours with people who i would consider almost family crying and weeping, begging for their livers. I understand what it is like to text my parents saying goodbye, i love you. I understand what it is like to fear for your life. Reporter now, that emotional testimony really from the students, jake, they will be taking some of that as well as their demands on gun control and Mental Health to rick sdot in t scott in the next few minutes. The republican governor obviously not at the town hall with cnn, but he is meeting with the Stoneman Douglas students. And cnn did offer not only to host governor rick scott, but to beam him in by satellite, but he declined. Thanks so much. Any moment now, President Trump will sit down for a listening session with students from parkland as well as other activists trying to prevent anymore School Shootings. Kaitlin collins is live for us at the white house. And President Trump has signaled that he might be open to making some changes in the wake of this massacre here in Broward County. Reporter he has. And it is unlikely that he will do anything dramatic, but we did see the president say that he had directed the department of justice to propose regulations that would ban devices that turn weapons in to machine guns. And he is open into improving the federal background check system. But the question remain, what will actually come out of this. This is a president who largely enjoyed the suchts of tpport of nrment and washington is sceptical that anything will change. But it will be fascinating to watch the president come face to face with the students who survived that parkland School Shooting here at the white house today. We are told that the president has been briefed by multiple officials. He will be there along with bets city d betsy devos who will moderate the event. But the students are grieving. T betsy devos who will moderate the event. But the students are grieving. S betsy devos who will moderate the event. But the students are grieving. Betsy devos who will moderate the event. But the students are grieving. E the event. But the students are grieving. And a lot krcritical of the president. So it will be interesting how he sbr interacts with the students without a teleprompter with a lot of raw emotion to be expected in that room. All right. Kaitlin collins, thank you. My Political Panel is here with me. Mike, let me start with you. Do you think these kids are getting through to President Trump . He has talked about several measures that you might be willing to take. I think so. And i also think if you are expecting donald trump to stand in the way of reform in this situation, you will be very surprised. He is a strong assume eg suppor Second Amendment. When we 2r50id to recruit him for government, people head of that were opponents of the assault weapons and i believe his views on the Second Amendment are rather contemporary. The president is a compassionate person and i think he will do a great job today and i think a lot of people will be surprised what comes out of this situation out of the white house. As you know, what really needs to happen is regular order in congress. Regular order in the Florida Legislature for example. You cant rush these things through. You cant fix them with an executive order. It just gets reversed when the next president comes in. I think they should lock the senate and house in the Capitol Building and give the key to donald trump about a this needs to be a term change. The president tweeted whether we are republican or democrat, we must now focus on strengthening background checks. This is ive heard a lot of conservative commentators say a nixon goes to china kind of moment for him because the nra is so strong with him, so strongly with him, maybe he actually incremental but significant changes. I think there is no question he can make a huge difference if he throws his weight behind it, if there are specific proposals that he is supporting and if he really goes out and sells this to the country, to the conservative base, to the trump base. Those are the nra members. Lets remember that the amount that the nra invested in this campaign and donald trump was tens and tens of millions of dollars, over 30 million. He has political capital. With the toughest folks to move on this issue. And it is incumbent upon him to use it. Nothing happens if you just have a round table with kids. It is good optics, good for the country. I think good morale. He shouldnt lift his thumb and have a tooth any gry grin when with them. He needs to go beyond that as does rick scott who had a round table yesterday. As does every official that shows up. Nobody wants talk anymore and that is what these kids are saying so effectively. They are such effective messengers. And you know about organize grass roots groups. These kids obviously there is something authentic and genuine, organic about how they kind of just became these spokespeople calling for change. Do you think that they fed to be directed toward specific proposals or is it just working the way it is, which is somewhat chaotic, but calling for change, we need some change . This kid asks for this, this kid asks for that, but not necessarily a professional movement. There is beauty in both. And beauty in the chaos. Young people stand up so courageously everyone in the face of what they have endured and this moment what happened in parkland is very traumatic and those young people will carry it for the rest of their lives. And it also reminds me of some of the young people during the Civil Rights Movement where you have the young people, the freedom riders for example, and even the young people who sat at those lunch kountsd counters evh they are not much younger. So this organic movement of the millennial generation, even those younger than the any l mifflenial generation standing up, you should be safe in the home, churnlgt and school. So we are at a crisis moment in this country. And all right. A lot more to talk about. And we are moments away from President Trump taking part in that listening session. That is next. Stay with us. Whoooo. Looking for a hotel that fits. Your budget . Tripadvisor now searches over. 200 sites to find you the. Hotel you want at the lowest price. Grazi, gino find a price that fits. Tripadvisor. vo just one touch. Ith with fancy feast creamy delights, she can have just the right touch of real milk. Easily digestible, it makes her favorite entrees even more delightful. Fancy feast creamy delights. Love is in the details. We know that when youre tspending time with thelass grandkids. Music tech . Every minute counts. And you dont have time for a cracked windshield. Thats why at safelite, well show you exactly when well be there. With a replacement you can trust. All done sir. Grandpa looks great tech thanks for choosing safelite. Grandpa thank you child bye tech bye saving you time. So you can keep saving the world. Kids safelite repair, safelite replace welcome back to the lead live from Broward County, florida. In just a few hour, cnn will host a live town hall with students and faculty from Stoneman Douglas high school. And at any moment President Trump will host a listening session with student, parent, family and teachers affected by mass shootings, parkland and also sandy hook and columbincol. David gergen said yesterday that the leaders in the country are acting like High Schoolers and the High Schoolers in the country are asktsicting like le. Amen. That is right. And wong poione point they are if they dont have the fortitude to act, they need to be replaced and that is absolutely correct. This is a Tipping Point moment. We have been here before. And this time we have to do something about it. And stop making excuses about why this cannot be done. The Second Amendment is not absolute above all over amendments in the constitution. Yet in this country, we run around and act as though that is the case. And if our children being died, if sandy hook didnt move folks, those were elementary schoolchildren and then in this city, if this didnt move us, what will . What kind of Civilized Society can we call ourselves . And it depends on the measure. There is a lot of discussion. There was a measure in the Florida Legislature yesterday that died to ban semi automatic weapons. Ar15 type weapons. The governor was asked about what he supported. If not that. Take a listen. My goal is to come up with something that is going to move the needle and make parents feel more comfortable that their kids will go to a safe school. That is the goal. Those two weeks after friday, well get something done. I dont think im making a crazy prediction by saying i doubt that semi automatic weapons in this state or nation wide will be banned. What go you thido you think is . One thing he could do is there is a law in this state that does not law mayors to pass their own lawyers. Florida is it a very large diverse state. Polices like miami are different. So you you should allow local leaders to put in laws that they feel address their needs. The next president of the Florida Senate has proposed the age increasing the age21. Right now it is 18 for semi automatic, but 21 for handguns. You have to be 25 to rent a car, but you can be 18 and buy would have of those guns . That makes no sense. And he has also talked about increasing the waiting period. There is a lot of things that they can do. I as floridian, i want these guns banned. But i dont think that is a realistic thing. Ive never been a gun position. But this is just too much. It is too close to home. It was, you know 40 minutes from my house. This could have been my family. This could have been your family. And i think that is how all of america is feeling. I am mad as hell at any conservative conspiracyist theory, you know that is saying that these kids are indoctrinated. Even my colleague here at cnn, im mad at him because it is unacceptable to attack these kids. It has been only a week. They are organic, they are activists not because they want to be, but because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time ashd suffernd suffer tragedy. And on the right side of your screen, they are waiting for President Trump. There has been an effort from the far, far fringe right to attack some of these kids, these survivors, as crisis actors, or the people who have been put up to this by the fbi. David hogg one of the more eloquent young men speaking after this was refuting the idea that his father who did used to work for the fbi had anything do with any of this. Take a listen. These people say this is absolutely disturbing. Im not an actor in any way, shape or form. Im the son of a former fbi agent and that is true. But as such, it is also true that i went that i go sto Stoneman Douglas high school and i was a witness to this. Im not a crisis actor. Crazy that we even have to talk about that, but lets go to the white house where President Trump just came in. Well take a listen. As were watching President Trump coming in and greeting the survivors of these massacres, what are we expecting . Well, the white house is billing this as a listening seg. They say the president will do a lot of listening. Of course this is often a very pin yatopinion greate egreated. And these are students and parents and teaches. And tomorrow he will meet with school officials. So the white house is waiting to see what result will come of this is what washington is waiting to see. Does the president change his mind, does he try to get harsher on gun control. We already know that he is open to banning devices like bump stocks. So that is why well weights to see what the president takes from this discussion. Good to have you here. We want to do something about this horrible situation going on. So i want to listen and after i listen, i thought wed ask our pastor if he could possibly say the prayer. Thank you. [ inaudible ] thank you very much. Appreciate it. Vice president , id like you to say a few words and id like to then introduce you to betsy devos. Mike, what do you have to say. First off, thank you, mr. President. I want to thank [ inaudible ] of the American People. As the president said last week, the American People are united. The president called this meeting to talk about what has happened in our country over the last years and to find out from all of you, listening by learning how we might ensure that this is the last time this ever happens. I along with the president are deeply moved by the stories of heroism and courage. And for those of you being here today. And i want you to tell us your stories. America is looking on. The president and 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, share with us not only the personal experience, but what it is that you would have us to do. And just know that as the president has already taken action, he will be meeting in this very room in the coming days with governors from all 50 states to make School Safety a top priority of this administration across this country. The president and i want to make it first. So thank you to for coming. Thank you for the courage to be here and share your hearts. And from our families to your family, god bless you. Thank you, mike. Very much. Thank you, mr. President. Students, stevteachers, parent, thank you for being here. Many of you lived through something unthinkable. Many of you, this is raw and fresh. I admire your strength and bravery to come and share your experiences with the president , the Vice President , and the world. No student, no parent, no teacher should ever have to endure what you all have. My heart is broken. What happened last week shocked us. It angers us and pains us. So we are here to have an honest conversation about why this tragedy and too many others before it happened and how we can work to find solutions. Were 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