Mark Kelly: Students have to ‘be quick’ to convince Trump on gun reform

Mark Kelly, a longtime gun control advocate, said he sees signs of hope for change at the federal level in the new movement of student activists but thinks “you’ve got to get the legislation passed fast” in order to sway President Trump.

Trump indicated willingness to change policy on guns in a meeting with the students and parents impacted by recent school shooting last month, but “dialed it all back” after he met with the pro-gun National Rifle Association (NRA) later that same week, according to Kelly. 

“I think you got to be quick,” Kelly told ABC’s “This Week.” “I mean, you’ve got to get the legislation passed fast. … I’m hopeful that if we could get Congress, get the House and Senate to pass some sensible legislation, we get it to his desk, I think there’s a pretty good chance he might sign it.”

Kelly — a former astronaut who also co-founded a gun control advocacy group with his wife former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) in 1993 — said that while his organization has helped pass over 200 pieces of legislation in 45 different states, there has been little movement at the federal level. However, he thinks newly-minted student advocates might be capable of making change nationwide.

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“These young people seem quite motivated and they realize that they have been dealt an incredibly difficult set of circumstances … they want to see change so that is why I think this could be different,” Kelly said of the Parkland, Fla., high school students who organized Saturday’s “March for Our Lives” rally.

After a shooter at their high school in Florida left 17 people dead, many of the student survivors began advocating for gun control, many by going after the NRA and politicians supported by the pro-gun group.

Kelly said he would advise the students “not to get discouraged.”

“You know, this is often two steps forward and one step back,” he said. 

The “March for Our Lives” rally in Washington, D.C., on Saturday drew a crowd estimated in the hundreds of thousands.

Sister rallies were held in hundreds of cities in every state in the U.S. and six continents.

“This is not the last you’re going to see of these kids,” Kelly predicted.