Washington: US President Donald Trump pledged on Thursday to protect the Second Amendment, hours after huddling with top advisers to discuss gun control measures he might be willing to publicly stand behind. Trump insisted "a lot of progress" had been made on background checks "and various things having to do with guns". But he also made clear that he's weary of angering gun proponents, suggesting Democrats' push for new gun control measures following a summer of mass shootings might be nothing more than "a ploy."

"There's a possibility that this is just a ploy to take your guns away," he said. "Democrats want to confiscate guns from law-abiding Americans so they're totally defenseless when somebody walks into their house with a gun," he said.