The CPAC crowd started a robust chant of “lock her up!” when Trump mentioned Democrat Hillary Clinton, to which Trump responded that the Clintons have “committed a lot of atrocities.” 
 
 In another callback to his time on the campaign trail, Trump read the lyrics to Johnny Rivers’ “The Snake,” a song from the 1960s that tells of a woman taking in an injured snake, who then bites her, chiding her, “You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in.” He would often read it at campaign events talking about crimes committed by immigrants. “We will act.” 
 
 
 
 Democrats are eager to achieve broader gun control measures and say Trump’s proposals do not go far enough. “It was the kickoff to the 2018 campaign — and the 2020.” 
 
 Calling his first 365 days “the most successful first year in the history of the presidency”, Trump went off script to rattle through a list of superlative achievements — the “biggest” tax cuts, “heaviest” sanctions and record firearms prosecutions. “It is time to make our schools a much harder target for attackers. It’s what he seems to enjoy the most about his late-in-life career switch to politics, and it’s what he gets far less of as Commander-in-Chief than he did as an outsider candidate. “Whether that’s good or bad we’ll find out.” 
 
 Trump urged the audience — about 1,000 people — not to get complacent. As Trump pulled the printed lyrics out of his pocket Friday morning, he instructed his audience explicitly, “You have to think of this in terms of immigration.” 
 
 During the off-script portion of his hour on the CPAC stage, Trump also tried to motivate the crowd for the November midterm elections – saying that if Democrats win, “they’ll take away your Second Amendment.” He asked the crowd to cheer for whether they’d rather have the Second Amendment right to bear arms or the tax cuts he passed last year, and the applause signaled a win for the Second Amendment. When we declare our schools to be gun free zones, it just puts our students in far more danger.” 
 
 
 
 The national debate over gun control has exploded over the last week following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. 
 
 Students across the nation have staged walkouts, participated in town hall events and organized protests to demand action be taken on gun control.
– “You don’t mind if I go off script a little bit?” President Trump asked the audience Friday at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Time reports the president, admitting his prepared remarks were "a little boring," mostly ignored the teleprompter (including a segment on new North Korean sanctions) during his nearly 75-minute speech. For Trump, going off script mostly meant getting back to some of his favorite rally topics: the size of his election victory, having "the most successful first year in the history of the presidency," and "atrocities" committed by the Clintons (complete with chants of "lock her up"). The president warned of the danger and treachery of immigrants, reciting The Snake by Al Wilson. Trump regularly recited lyrics from the 1960s song during his campaign. It culminates with the line, "You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in." Trump also addressed the topic of the moment: guns. "When we declare our schools to be gun-free zones it just puts our students in more danger, far more danger—well-trained gun-adept teachers and coaches should be able to carry concealed firearms," Politico quotes Trump as saying. Repeating his call to arm teachers, he added: “A teacher would have shot the hell out of [the Parkland shooter] before he knew what happened." Trump tried to fire up the audience for the 2018 midterms, warning them not to get complacent and allow Democrats to take control of Congress, the Hill reports. “If they get in, they will repeal your tax cuts, they will put judges in that you wouldn't believe, they'll take away your Second Amendment, which we will never allow to happen.”