(CN) - President Donald Trump said Thursday he is planning a visit to the Florida town where a gunman opened fire on students and staffers, killing 17 and injuring several others.
Trump made his first public appearance since the shooting shortly before 11:30 a.m. Speaking from the White House he said, "We comfort the grieving and the wounded and we hurt for the entire community in Parkland, Florida."
"We are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health," he said, without directly mentioning the controversial debate over gun control.
Earlier, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he wants the Justice Department to study how mental illness and gun violence intersect, and figure out how law enforcement can better use existing gun laws to intervene before these school shootings happen.
"It cannot be denied that something dangerous and unhealthy is happening in our country," Sessions told a group of sheriffs in Washington. In "every one of these cases, we've had advance indications and perhaps we haven't been effective enough in intervening."
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