Republican lawmakers and conservative media critics pressed President Trump on Thursday to explore new restrictions on the video-game industry, arguing that violent games might have contributed to mass shootings like the recent attack at a high school in Parkland, Fla. In a private meeting at the White House, also attended by several video-game executives, some participants urged Trump to consider new regulations that would make it harder for children to purchase those games. Others asked the president to expand his inquiry to focus on violent movies and TV shows too. Trump himself opened the meeting by showing "a montage of clips of various violent video games," said Rep. Vicky Hartzler, a Republican from Missouri. Then, Hartzler said the president would ask, "This is violent isn't it?"

Trump, a Republican, cited the influence of video games after a 19-year-old gunman was accused of killing 17 people at a high school in Parkland, Florida and injuring more than a dozen others. "I'm hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people's thoughts," he said last month.

President Trump is set to pit the video game industry against some of its harshest critics at a White House meeting on Thursday that's designed to explore the link between violent games, guns and tragedies such as last month's shooting in Parkland, Fla. Following the attack at Marjory Stoneman High School, which left 17 students dead, Trump has said violent games are "shaping young people's thoughts." The president has proposed that "we have to do something about maybe what they're seeing and how they're seeing it." Trump has invited video game executives like Robert Altman, the CEO of ZeniMax, the parent company for games such as Fallout; Strauss Zelnick, the chief executive of Take Two Interactive, which is known for Grand Theft Auto, and Michael Gallagher, the leader of the Entertainment Software Association, a Washington-focused lobbying organization for the industry. Three people familiar with the White House's planning, but not authorized to speak on the record, confirmed those invitees.