Trump rips officers over Florida shooting: ‘I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon’

WASHINGTON —- While urging governors to work with him on new school safety measures, President Trump again attacked officers Monday for not entering a Florida high school building and somehow engaging a gunman who killed 17 people dead with a military-style rifle.

"I really believe I'd run in there even if I didn't have a weapon, and I think most of the people in this room would have done that, too," Trump told a group of state governors gathered at the White House for talks on multiple issues.

More: Calls for action in wake of Florida school shooting, but prospects in Congress uncertain

Trump singled out a sheriff's deputy assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., and described the lack of action by him and others during the Feb. 14 shooting as "frankly, disgusting." But he also added that "you don't know" how anyone would react until they're tested.

Noting that local law enforcement officials had received warnings about the shooter's behavior, Trump said, "the only worse job is they didn’t nab this guy earlier.”

Broward County Sheriff's Deputy Scot Peterson, the target of the criticism, said his actions have been misreported.

According to a statement issued by his lawyer, Peterson thought the shots were coming from outside any school building, and he followed training that says "in the event of outdoor gunfire, one is to seek cover and assess the situation" and communicate with other law enforcement officers.

“Allegations that Mr. Peterson was a coward and that his performance, under the circumstances, failed to meet the standards of police officers are patently untrue,” the statement said.

While berating local law enforcement, Trump also outlined a gun control and school safety program that includes expanded background checks, increasing the age limit for purchase of semi-automatic weapons, eliminating "bump stocks" and other devices that turn semi-automatic weapons into automatic ones, and emphasizing mental health issues, and arming "highly trained" teachers and school officials.

"We have to take steps to harden our schools so that they're less vulnerable to attack," Trump said.

Yet it's unclear what, if anything, Congress will do; Republican congressional leaders have not said how they plan to address the gun issue, given an array of opinions on the subject.

Some of these ideas have drawn opposition, including governors who questioned the proposed to give teachers guns.