Brent McLafferty shows a rifle to a customer Thursday at Fenelton Firearms.

Local Republicans and a gun shop owner stopped short of blatantly disagreeing with President Donald Trump regarding his tweet on gun control measures, but clung closely to their support of the Second Amendment.

Trump on Thursday tweeted his ideas a day after inviting teenagers, parents and others affected by school violence to the White House for a listening session.

The session was scheduled in response to the recent school shooting in Parkland, Fla., in which 17 people were killed.

On Thursday, Trump tweeted “I will be strongly pushing comprehensive background checks with an emphasis on mental health. Raise age to 21 and end sale of bump stocks! Congress is in a mood to finally do something on this issue — I hope!”

The minimum age to buy a pistol or handgun is 18, but there is no minimum age on long guns like rifles.

Bump stocks are special gun stocks that allow a semi-automatic firearm to mimic the firing speed of fully automatic firearms. They can fire between 400 to 800 rounds per minute, according to Popular Mechanics.

Sheriff Mike Slupe seemed torn regarding Trump's ideas in the tweet.

Regarding raising the age to buy any gun to 21, Slupe said an 18-year-old can join the Army and handle a variety of guns.

Slupe said his evidence room contains a crossbow, pickaxe, knives, a sword, machete and iron pipe wrapped in electrical tape.

“If it's not a gun or a bomb, somebody is going to find a way to (cause) destruction of property and people,” Slupe said.

Brent McLafferty, the manager at Fenelton Firearms in Clearfield Township, said there are numerous laws on the books to prevent people who shouldn't have firearms from owning one.

“Personally, I'd rather see them enforce the existing laws before they enact any more,” McLafferty said. “And there are a lot of cases in which people who shouldn't own a firearm obtain one illegally and aren't prosecuted fully for it.”

He agrees with Trump that mental health issues should somehow be addressed.

A full story appears in Friday's Butler Eagle.