When trying to interpret the US president's statements on gun regulation, the key is to note when he said them. As with many of his political opinions, Trump's views on gun control have shifted to the right in recent years. Let's take a closer look.

In the 1990s and early 2000s, Trump expressed support for a ban on assault weapons. "I generally oppose gun control, but I support the ban on assault weapons and I support a slightly longer waiting period to purchase a gun", He wrote in his 2000 book, The America We Deserve.  

In 2012, Trump praised Democrat Barack Obama's call for more firearm regulation after a shooting at a Newtown, Connecticut school that claimed 26 lives.

But by the time he announced his entry into the race for the Republican presidential nomination in 2015, he was well within the mainstream of the Republican Party, which viewed most forms of additional gun regulation as a violation of Second Amendment constitutional protections. During an October 2015 Republican debate, he boasted that he carried handguns "a lot" and said government-mandated gun-free zones in places like schools, churches and military bases were a "catastrophe" and made for "target practice for the sickos".

Trump secured the endorsement of the National Rifle Association in May 2016. From then on, Trump largely echoed the NRA's hard line on firearm issues. The group would end up spending more than 30 million US dollars to support his presidential bid.

There was one moment during the 2016 campaign, however, when Trump did break with the NRA's line. After the Orlando nightclub shooting in June, he appeared to endorse limiting gun purchases for national security purposes. He tweeted: "I will be meeting with the NRA, who has endorsed me, about not allowing people on the terrorist watch list, or the no-fly list, to buy guns." But nothing came of that meeting.

After becoming president, Trump seemed to open the door, slightly, to consideration of gun-control legislation in October 2017. When asked whether the deadly mass shooting in Las Vegas would prompt new gun legislation, Trump said, "We will be talking about gun laws as time goes on."

So what's his latest stance? Trump shocked fellow Republicans earlier this month when he threw his support behind a broad set of restrictions on gun sales in response to the February 14th mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people.