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Following his talks with the NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre and gun-rights activists, President Donald Trump struck a different tone on gun regulations in the weeks after two mass shootings, The New York Times reported on Monday.

The NRA reportedly launched a campaign to contact lawmakers in the wake of the shootings on August 3 and 4 in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio. Both gunmen wielded assault-style rifles in the separate shootings, which killed 31 people.

Trump has spoken with LaPierre multiple times, according to several news reports published earlier in August. LaPierre is said to have voiced displeasure about expanded background checks, legislation that has received bipartisan support in Congress, saying that would not align with the group’s supporters’ views.

Read more: Gun control really works. Science has shown time and again that it can prevent mass shootings and save lives.

Immediately after the shootings, Trump signaled that he was willing to broach the subject.

“Well, I’m looking to do background checks,” Trump told reporters. “I think background checks are important. I don’t want to put guns into the hands of mentally unstable people or people with rage or hate.”

He added that “we have to have very meaningful background checks.”

But in the weeks since, Trump has said that he is “very concerned” with the Second Amendment and that “people don’t realize we have very strong background checks right now.”

The Times reported that Trump has privately noted the waning influence of the nonprofit organization, which was shaken by a leadership scandal earlier this year and is embroiled in numerous lawsuits, including one from the New York Attorney General’s Office over its finances.

A White House spokesman told The Times that Trump’s recent comments were not a reversal of his prior statements.

Democratic leaders said they were not optimistic about a policy shift from the White House.

“We’ve seen this movie before: President Donald J. Trump, feeling public pressure in the immediate aftermath of a horrible shooting, talks about doing something meaningful to address gun violence,” Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York said in a statement on Monday, “but inevitably, he backtracks in response to pressure from the NRA and the hard-right.”

Schumer added: “These retreats from President Trump are not only disappointing but also heartbreaking, particularly for the families of the victims of gun violence.”