DONALD TRUMP backed plans for strengthened federal gun laws today in the wake of the latest US school shooting.

Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the president spoke on Friday to Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, about a bipartisan Bill designed to strengthen the FBI database of prohibited gun buyers.

Mr Trump spent the weekend at his private golf course in Florida, 40 miles from the Parkland high-school shooting. Police named 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz as the man who shot dead 17 people. He reportedly had links to white supremacist groups and bought his gun legally.