welcome to "inside politics." i'm john king. thank you for sharing your day with us. it is a sad day trying to make sense of something senseless. 17 people gunned down at a florida high school. i want to take you to the senate in a moment of silence for the victims in parkland yesterday. >> the senate will observe a moment of silence for the victims of the florida school shooting.

>> mr. president, t. >> the senate will come to order. >> mr. president? >> senate will come to order. >> bill nelson, the senator from florida about to speak. obviously his state struck by this tragedy. we'll go back to the floor if necessary. actually, why don't we listen for just a minute. >> those of us who are parents, you can imagine the parents of those children. wondering what else can be done. because yesterday a former student at marjory stoneman douglas high school in northern broward county, parkland, florida walked onto the campus with a gas mask, smoke grenades and carrying an ar-15 assault

rifle. he pulled a fire alarm. he waited for the students to come out into the hallway, and he opened fire. and as a result, 14 families are grieving. their worst fears have become reality. and more than a dozen other students who were injured, they're in the hospital and some of them in critical condition. at some point we've got to say enough is enough. at some point we as a society have got to come together and put a stop to this. this senator grew up on a ranch. i have hunted all my life. i have had guns all my life.

i still hunt with my son. but an ar-15 is not for hunting, it's for killing. but despite these horrific events that are occurring over and over, these tragedies have led so many of us to come right here to this floor and to beg our colleagues to take commonsense actions that we all know will help protect our children and our fellow citizens from these kind of tragedies. and we get nowhere. so when is enough going to be enough? >> senator bill nelson of florida, when is enough going to be enough? the democratic senator up for reelection. they're pushing the united states congress to take some action. he wants gun controls.

the president of the united states a short time ago spoke about this. he talked about convening a national conversation with the attorneys general about mental health. so the political conversation about what's next, when is enough enough and what should politicians do, this a day after the deadly tragedy in parkland, florida. last night in that community, 17 families went home without a loved one. at least 14 other families anxiously waiting and waiting for doctors to update them overnight about the injuries of a child, a parent or a sibling. most of the wounded still in the hospital this hour today. we want to warn you many of the images and videos you see throughout the hour are violent and disturbing. some 3,000 students and teachers waiting for the final bell of the school day at marjory stoneman douglas high school when a 19-year-old gunman triggered the fire alarm. teachers and staff poured out of their classroom thinking they're answering to that alarm. instead running into an ambush.

the shooter opened fire. everyone scattered, some jumping fences, others taking shelter at a local walmart. we're hearing harrowing stories today. one student said her geography teacher saved her life. >> he will forever be my hero. i will never forget the actions he took for me and for fellow students of the classroom, and if his family is watching this, please know that your son or your brother was an amazing person and i am alive today because of him. >> so many remarkable stories like that. many students and teachers took cover inside the classrooms, texting loved ones, posting on social media saying they could hear the gunman moving around the school building. teens captured the terrifying scenes on their phones. >> holy -- [ gunshots ] >> oh mirks god!

>> more than an hour after law enforcement was first alerted to the gunman, officers find and arrest the gunman. he's been charged now with 17 counts of premeditated murder. he's due in court a bit later today. today you are hearing repeated calls from the president and lawmakers that if you see something, say something. you should say something. we're learning that two people did see something and they did say something. the first on youtube, a video blog flagged this comment to the fbi and youtube last september. "i'm going to be a professional school shooter." left by a user with the same name as the alleged parkland shooter. the fbi said they searched their databases but weren't able to identify the person who made that comment. and we don't know yet when the gunman bought his firearm. but we do know this. a shooter with the same name as that commenter on youtube turned that threat into deadly action yesterday. we'll talk about that in a few moments a bit more.

rosa is live in parkland, florida the day after this tragedy. rosa, what's the latest? >> reporter: you can see this is an active scene. you can see flashing lilghts. we also learned where the fbi spoke about those alerts, and i'll get to that in just a moment, but we also learned bodies are still inside the school because investigators are gathering evidence. they are trying to process the scene, and this is a pain-staking act because imagine this. these investigators who are human beings are having to enter these classrooms, enter this school and gather and collect evidence. as law enforcement officials said during that press conference, they have to do this very carefully because at the end of the day, they are hoping that justice is served and that is with a prosecution. back to those alleged threat reports you learned from the fbi.

we heard there were two of those threat reports. we don't know what one of them was. we don't know exactly what that was, but we do know about this 2017 report. and here is what the fbi special agent in charge said. he said, quote, in september of 2017 the fbi received information about a comment made on a youtube channel. the comment said, quote rk, i'm going to be a professional school shooter. no other information was included in the comment, which would indicate a particular time, location, or the identity of the person who posted the comment. the fbi conducted database reviews and other checks, but was unable to further identify the person who posted the comment. and, of course, john, what everybody is thinking right now is, we always hear from law enforcement if you hear something, say something. in this case something was done, somebody did speak out. but here we are in this tragic event covering yet another mass shooting in the united states. john? >> rosa flores on the ground in parkland, thank you so much.

i just want to say, just in to cnn, seven patients remain hospitalized 22 hours after the shooting. with me to share their insight and expertise on these questions, senior cnn analyst shimon prokupecz. tom, i want to start with you because you are hearing a youtube blogger contacted youtube, contacted the fbi and said, look at this. this person who spells his name exactly the same way the shooter spells his name said, i want to be a professional school shooter. let's listen to this. this is robert lasky, the miami special agent. he said, yes, we got these charges and this is what happened. >> in 2017, the fbi received information about a comment made on a youtube channel. the comment simply said, i'm going to be a professional

school shooter. no other information was included with that comment which would indicate a time, location or the true identity of the person who made the comment. the fbi conducted database reviews, checks but was unable to further identify the person who actually made the comment. >> take us through how this works. in the sense that -- and i want you to explain what the fbi can and cannot do, where they run up against the law, where they run up against civil liberties and private rights. most americans, who don't understand the law like you do thinks, i have one of these. the government can find out exactly where john king is sitting right now. the government can find out who the last person is he texted and if they want to they can find out the last place he used his credit card. so why can't the government knock on the door and say, is this you? >> in this situation, they sent agents to talk to the person that made the call in the first place to the fbi reporting that

it read this on youtube from this nikolas cruz, the person who said he wanted to be a professional shooter. is it a friend, a neighbor, someone you know? no, i don't have any idea who that is. this is the posting and the name used. they go to that. people could post on youtube anywhere in the world using anybody's name. this could be a friend of his who just knew he was having mental problems and had guns. it could be anything. so they went around their databases to try to locate, do we have any information on a nikolas cage -- >> nikolas cruz. >> sorry. they couldn't find anything on him. they went back to the same complainant and still couldn't find any identification about the person who put that on line. i should add one of the biggest problems you have with youtube, twitter, facebook, many of these social media networks, is that

they can do this anonymously, they can do it from anywhere in the world, they can post these things and it can be very difficult. and what's worse is there are thousands of people on a regular basis posting that kind of ominous message about what they're going to do. they could be wanting to join isis, they could be domestic terrorists in some white supremacy group, they could be any number of things. the bureau tries to track them down and identify them. in this case they weren't able to find him. >> let's listen to the blogger of the youtube personality in question here. he did exactly what he was told to do. if you see something, say something. let's listen. ben is his name. >> i think in today's on-line world it is very difficult to narrow down who does what without more information, and unfortunately i wasn't able to provide them with much. >> well, you gave them the user's name, right, which is the same exact name as the shooter? >> i did.

>> so shimon, when you talk to your sources, here's the frustration again. the parents in parkland and people watching around the country are thinking, well, they had a name, it was spelled right, and the technology exists if you had a warrant in a federal crimes case, could you not trace at least an ip address or take that message and try to go back to where did it come from? >> that's exactly the question. when you pose that question to the fbi, i don't think they have that answer right now. it does not appear they went beyond any steps other than talking to the man who alerted them to this threat and doing an internal database, their own government database searches. beyond that, we have no indication, at least at this point, that they went and did anything else. there is some issues with -- as you talk about, privacy. the fbi is limited in what they can do. in order to take some further steps that they would need to, they would have to open a full investigation to get subpoena power. we don't even know if they went to youtube to try to talk to them to see if they can help them find out the ip address,

where this threat was emanating from. so they gave us a very simple answer, but i think for the families, they are going to need to answer this question. because again, while we can talk about gun laws and despite all that, there were signs here that this man was trouble. and nothing was done about it. no one was alerted to it, and i think that's some of the questions that people, certainly these families, are going to have as we go into days of this coverage and as we start to learn about this. >> what's your perspective on this? there will be people out there saying the fbi dropped the ball. that's what they'll be saying. it's not that simple. what do you do? if you're the senior official at the fbi, you know he was expelled from school, you know he's doing some stuff on social media but there is no clearinghouse to connect all those dots, what has to be done? >> the fbi doesn't know every person expelled from a school in this country, so they wouldn't know that. the school has a troubled person, and they know he's troubled. disciplinary problems, repeated problems. they expel them, they're done. so off he goes.

secondly, he's 19 years old. at the time maybe he was 18 not that long ago, but when that happens, you have an adult kid. even if the parents, his parents are dead but the foster parents or any other family member, they're not even allowed to find out the status of treatment, if he's getting mental treatment under the hippa laws. so that privacy is protected. they don't know if he's taking medication or if he quit taking medication, so that part is done. let's say the fbi finds him and they go interview him. what do they do for the next step? they can't take his gun away. even if he says i bought this ar-15, i bought it legally, i've not been convicted of a felony, i've not been judged mentally ill and put that in the database of purchasing firearms. so the fbi would say, we hope you're a good person and won't do anything bad. that's all they can do legally at the time. >> and again, it's a lot more complicated in these quick conversations because you're not sure. if there was a way to search the specific spelling of this

name -- i know it could be anywhere in the world using a fake name. but if you searched that name and you found out this was a person that was expelled and is threatening people, i would assume if you had that information on line saying, i want to be a professional school shooter, was expelled from school for threatening behavior, shouldn't that stop you from getting a gun? >> not legally, it wouldn't stop you from being a gun. you have to be convicted of a felony to not be able to buy a gun, and until that point, that's the law. there's not much more they can do about it until that person commits a felony or makes an overt threat. >> that's the mental health aspect the sheriff was talking about. >> both come together and both should restrict law enforcement from taking the next step. >> we'll continue the investigation and please come back if you get any new information. when we come back, the president of the united states did speak on this information. he made no mention of a gun debate. he planned to reconvene a

national conversation on the mental health part of this latest tragedy. [music] [music] [music]

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welcome back. president trump at the white house just moments ago with a message for the nation. pray. hold tight to your families. and answer the violence yesterday by coming closer together. >> you are never alone and you never will be. you have people who care about you, who love you, and who will do anything at all to protect you. if you need help, turn to a teacher, a family member, a local police officer or a faith leader. answer hate with love, answer cruelty with kindness. >> and this, too, both from the president and from the republican house speaker. talk of changing how the country handles mental health issues.

>> we are committed to working with state and local leaders to help secure our schools and tackle the difficult issue of mental health. >> if someone who is mentally ill is slipping through the cracks and getting a gun, %-pp people from getting guns, and if there are gaps there, then we need to look at these gaps. >> cnn's jeff zeleny joins us from the white house. the president says he wants to visit parkland. any idea when that will happen and when to expect the president's conversation at least about mental health? >> the president said he would visit with family members soon. we're told the planning is still under way, that planning is being discussed for a potential trip to parkland on saturday. the president is already going to be in mar-a-lago, florida, his retreat. he's scheduled to go down tomorrow for that. this school is some 42 miles from mar-a-lago, so it's an area

the president knows very well, south florida. it's an area where he has a lot of supporters, and he is close to it. so potentially a trip on saturday. the white house is still working all of this out. one official says he does not want to be in the way there, so it could come as early as saturday, perhaps later over the weekend. john, in terms of mental health, that is something this white house has spent not much time talking about until today. one difference in all of these similar messages from republicans about mental health, you heard speaker ryan there talk about guns. he mentions the word gun policy. that is not what we heard from the president in his address. so this white house does not want to address gun policy. we'll see if they put forth something on mental health. the president said he would talk about it with the nation's governors when he meets with them later this spring. but as of now, john, no specific legislation or ideas for what to do that could have stopped this horrific tragedy. >> jeff zeleny, quick ly on thi point, the president spoke about

22 hours after this happened. there was conversation with the white house about whether the president should have come out sooner. what were the calculations internally? >> the calculations were this was still an ongoing situation last evening, that he was going to monitor it and address this the next day. john, this is pretty much in line with what president obama did after these horrific shootings that happened all too often. if the shooting happened early in the morning, he would usually address it later that day. if it was later in the day, he would usually address it the next day here. so i think the timing here is something that the president cannot be criticized for. the substance, though, is under much debate here in washington, john. >> jeff zeleny live at the white house. appreciate the reporting. the president this morning channelling this question. why do people do this? a lot of parents are having to explain that to their children who might be a frifraid of goin school. juliet is here. juliet, we're tired of having in

conversation. i spoke to my six-year-old son about this last night. i also texted my daughter about this. how do you explain this whether you live in parkland, florida or anywhere in the country? >> i've been in this field a long time. i have three children. i wrote a book called "security mom." the fact is your kids know what's going on. there is no way to protect them from this if they're over the age of five or six. you don't need to explain it. this may be inexplicable. it's the parent's job to provide their child with the tools and knowledge of what might be out there. so things like, you know, active shooter protocols that all of our kids do in high school, middle school, elementary school. don't be the parent who rages at the idea. actually tell your child to the extent it is important of what's going on, whether it's an active shooter or fire drill or anything else. the best we can do in a world in which there are too many guns is to protect our children and

reduce the risk to them individually and, of course, collectively. >> let me move you from your parenting skills to your experience both at the state and federal level in terms of homeland security. when you hear there's accounts that someone did exactly what they're supposed to do. a guy posted on youtube, i want to be a professional school shooter. reports it to the fbi, the individual with the same name turns out to be the suspect in this. is this a failing of the fbi? should this information have been developed further? and if it's a failing, how so? >> so the problem i have, what i don't know is to the extent of which things are post and had then the fbi are notified. in other words, are there hundreds of thousands of these a year? if that's true, then maybe what the fbi did is explainable. but if this turns out more information was developed and we just don't know, john, now, then the nfbi needs to explain why they stopped this investigation.

there's only one person to blame here, right? the criminal, the mass murderer. but the most important thing is for us as a society to stop looking at the solution as binary, right? it's either/or. either mental illness or not mental illness. gun control or not gun control. in a world as sophisticated as ours, we talk about layered offenses, multiple things that combine that will reduce the risk to our children in particular. that's emergency protocols at schools, it's mental health access for people who are showing signs of violence. and, of course, it's making sure a teenager who cannot buy a beer is not able to buy a weapon that has no place in civilian society. it's all of the above. and i think that the white house sort of tried to make it this binary thing. it's not a binary thing. we need to reduce the risk across all verticals. for our kids, it's ridiculous at this stage. we failed them, right?

we failed them. >> i would say it would be at least nice if we could have a conversation about all these things and see what happens with the results, but at least having a civilian conversation about it might be a way to start. juliet, i appreciate you coin t studio. let's start there and let's add this. i apologize to the people of parkland and i apologize to people all across america watching this conversation who will say, do i want to get into politics right now? we work in washington, d.c. it is an election year. you see it playing out. bill nelson was at the floor in the top of the program. he's going to join us on the floor. he's likely going to run against florida's republican governor who is, of course, front and center as he should be dealing with this tragedy in his home state. we heard from president trump as juliet noted. he did promise to talk to the attorneys general about this and talk about the mental health equation. the president made no mention of even a conversation or a question, should we address gun laws? in an election year.

after this, we've had the conversation too many times, is there anyone at the table who thinks washington will have a serious adult conversation, even just should we have new gun laws? >> no. even if you look at the aftermath of the las vegas shooting, there was sort of bipartisan acceptance that something should be done about bump stocks, sort of limiting that. it's been months and we still don't have a federal solution. so states are doing this in a sort of sporadic way to address that. so even on things you have bipartisan buy-in on, this congress cannot get done. >> two of the three most important people on this issue signalled very strongly this morning that they want to have absolutely nothing to do with guns. one was the president who never mentioned the word once in his statement, and the other was paul ryan who said it's way too early to talk about this. this is 2018. it's an election year. there is not a republican in washington who wants to pro actively pick a fight with the nra in a midterm election year.

for them, it is a politically stupid decision because i think they understand that in their districts, the nra can have enormous amounts of sway. they spent so much money helping president trump get elected and he's fully aware of that. i think no one wants to step on that issue right now. >> we saw the president of the united states last hour. we saw the the previous president of the united states i can't count how many times in the same position. it doesn't matter in you're democratic or republican, it doesn't matter if you're barack obama or donald trump. it's your job to address this at this moment. the former president tweeting a short time ago, we are grieving with parkland but we are not powerless. caring for our kids is our first job. until we can honestly say we're doing enough to keep them safe from harm including long overdue gun safety laws that most americans want, then we have to change. you have the current president not mentioning guns, the former president saying let's have this debate. again, this is going to be an issue in the elections this year, but not an issue where the

congress will have a conversation. >> yeah, they'll have a conversation for maybe 8 to 12 hours, then they'll leave town, they'll be on recess next week, and by the time they come back, this will all tragically be forgotten. this is a horror film on replay. it's the same thing that happens. there is a tragedy, everyone looks to congress for action. t democrats say it's time to stand up to the nra and talk about gun control. and then people stop talking about it until the next tragedy. i just came from the hill. the same thing is going on there with paul ryan saying this is not the time to have this conversation. i was talking to senator royer as he was walking to the floor. he said ryan is calling for silence on the floor. that is not enough. but even he's at a loss. they try to sit in and they get a lot of press for it, but

nothing really changes on that. republicans, this is not an issue they really want to talk about so they're hoping it moves on quickly. >> what about i'll call -- i don't mean it disrespectfully -- the lowest hanging fruit. should we bring in police? broward county was saying today when people post this stuff on social media, we should be able to pull them in for involuntary screenings. will that all be left to the states as well? >> i think the first step to having a conversation is having that specific conversation, as you said. you have to talk specifically. is it an assault weapons ban? democrats would argue that would keep the most lethal weapons out of people's hands. republicans will argue you can do a lot of harm with a typical handgun. i think whether or not someone makes some specific threats on youtube, if they were able to find him, would they be able to keep the gun out of his hands? that's where the debate should be specific and substantive, not

just talking about doing something. >> if you get him in a room, don't try to preordain the results. have a respectful conversation. you might come up with nothing, but they won't even have the conversation. that's the frustrating part. i want you to listen to marco rubio on the senate floor just a few moments ago. >> someone has decided, i'm going to commit this crime. they'll find a way to get the gun to do it. that doesn't mean you shouldn't have a law that makes it harder, it just means understand, to be honest, it isn't going to stop this from happening. you can still pass the law per se, but you're still going to have these horrible attacks. or even trouble with recall.s, thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown

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>> as i get to the hallway, i see students on the ground, just blood everywhere. so traumatizing to watch. >> there were tears, there was crying. some of my classmates did not know if they were leaving the school alive. >> seven people remain in the hospital in south florida today as we hear those stories one day after the deadliest school shooting in years. cnn's diane gallagher is outside broward health north where some victims are recovering. diane helping us keep track of something we must emphasize, the families who are still waiting to see if their loved ones are going to make it. >> reporter: that's true, john, and there are still three patients who remain in critical condition of those seven you just mentioned. the families optimistic this morning talking about the fact they were able to discharge some of the people they were treating from that shooting today and are hoping to do more today and into tomorrow. i'm at broward health north. this is the hospital where the

majority of the patients were brought to afterward, including the assistant football coach for the j.v. and varsity team, iron -- aaron feis. he is someone we have heard quite a bit about because of his story, john. according to the football team koord natiocoordinations direct his body as a human shield, jump ng fro jumping in front of someone to take the bullets so he wouldn't have to. he spoke that there would be a lot of people at his funeral. the way he lived is also the way that he died. here's what one of the students had to say about him. >> i had a close relationship with coach feis. a very selfless man. he made sure everybody else's needs were met before his own. he was a hard worker. he worked after school and on

weekends mowing lawns, helping people as much as possible. very a approachable and very selfless. it's sad because it won't be the same at school without him, that's for sure. football definitely won't be the same. >> we also were getting some other confirmations of victims slowly. the athletic director, chris hickson, was killed according to the football communications department. we're also hearing now that nicholas duaret was killed. he was a student. he was supposed to be a swimmer at the university of indianapolis, and from her father's facebook page, we learned that jamie guttenberg also died. she was slated to go to skidmore college next year, john. >> our hearts go out to students who were killed and those still waiting for word. will the senate do anything to respond to a massacre, another massacre, in his state?

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welcome back. for most of the students attending marjory stoneman douglas high school, it started like any other school day and then took a horrific turn. a tweet, this morning i woke up excited to wear a cute dress and celebrate valentine's day with my close friends. today i came home terrified and worried about the people i care about most. lila joins us now. she's 16, a junior. you're right, nobody should have to go through that.

how you doing? >> i'm doing well. i'm coping. i'm physically okay so that's what matters the most right now. >> amen for that, and i hope you're getting all the support you need from your family and others in the community. take me back into the school. the second fire alarm of the day goes off. how long did it take for you to realize this one was not a drill? >> a good 30 minutes, because we were all just sitting in there, and because we often questioned things, we were like trying to figure out if it was actually a drill or not, because we knew, like, there was a rumor going around that we might have one. so we were all just in there, and i got a text message from my friend saying that she hears gunshots and that one of my friends was wounded. so that's when i kind ofde to s. >> okay. so we were in there for maybe an hour and a half, maybe two hours. once the police officers came to our room, they had us all drop

to the floor and we had to leave our backpacks in the middle of the room. so we all had to exit with our hands up, and i think the scariest part was just running out of there because actually seeing what was happening outside of the room is kind of scary because we didn't know, we were just in there waiting, and all we heard was sounds, we couldn't see anything. so we got towards the main road over there, and once we got over there, i saw a bunch of police cars and other students, and they just made sure that everyone was okay and that we weren't wounded or hurt or that anyone wasn't in the room, still. >> you know of the suspect here, nikolas cruz. what do you know about him? >> i didn't know of him personally. i heard that a lot of people thought he was a little weird, a little off. but that's mainly about it. a lot of people would joke around and say, oh, if this were

to happen to our school, it would probably be him. i never really actually expected it to happen, but it did. >> friends, people you know at school, said if this is going to happen at our school, it would be him? >> yes. >> did they say that before this happened or this is the conversation after it happened? >> no. this is a while ago, like last year. it's just something that people would say, like, oh, if we were in this situation, the person who most likely would do it would be this person. and in that case it was him. >> one of the remarkable things, and i'm going to put you at the top of the list, is listening to the students at the school talk about this horror the day after with such poise and such clarity of memory. i applaud you for that. take me through in your school -- this is a horrible question to ask, i'm a parent. you prepare for this, you have drills for this. explain that. >> every month or so, we have the occasional fire drill to make sure that we know procedure and what to do, where to go.

and we started doing shooting drills, school shooting drills where every single teacher, they had us all hide in place at the drill to make sure we knew what to do. for certain drills we had zones we were supposed to go just in case we needed to evacuate. so we knew what to do, we just didn't know at that moment that was happening, so it threw us off a little bit. >> i don't know how much you're following the news in the aftermath of this, and you're 16 years old. you don't get to vote for a year-plus. i assume you're past your birthday. so you'll see whether it's your governor, we're about to talk to one of your senators. the people i work with in washington, d.c., there is a debate about gun control, a debate about mental health. there is some people who will say there is nothing you can do if they want to, they'll find a gun as a matter of law. as a 16-year-old with your

friends, what would you say to the adults? >> i would ask them if kids aren't even allowed to have their first -- like if they're not able to purchase their first drink of alcohol, then how are we allowed to buy guns at the age of 18 or 19? i feel like that's something that we shouldn't be able to do. and i feel like they need to create some more, like, better gun laws because obviously whatever we have going on, it's not working. and i feel like as our legislators and leaders, they shouldn't be offering prayers and words because those mean nothing. we need action because action is going to change what's happening. >> i understand you're at your grandparents right now. you're going to go to town for a candlelight vigil tonight. tell me a little about what you expect from your friends your, community, from yourself as you try to cope with this and, i assume in a few days, get back to school. >> i expect everyone to be there for each other because that's how our school is.

it doesn't matter who you are, what color you are, race, whatever, it doesn't matter how old you are, what you do, because as our school, we are always together. we're very united, and i feel like everyone is going to be together and we're going to support each other because this is a hard time, so that's what we need. >> lil iryliah, i want to thank for being with us today. i want to wish the best for you and your friends. thank you for being with us at a difficult time and thanks for sharing your insights with us. >> no problem. from washington rk, florida senator bill nelson. she can't vote yet, but hearing all these students, i am struck by their poise. it's remarkable, so we're building new heroes out of this tragedy, i hope, but when you

hear her -- i heard you at the top of the show. when is enough enough? i want you to be as specific as you can be on what you think should be done, but when you hear a young woman like that say essentially adults should stop talking and do something, will you? >> absolutely. i tell you, this senator will. that lady, that young lady was very per septembceptive. she said, if we aren't allowed to drink alcohol, why should we be allowed to purchase guns? and the follow-up question, why should anybody be allowed to purchase an automatic assault weapon that is not used as "i am a hunter." i don't use an ar-15 hunting. that's not for hunting, that's

for killing. and so that young lady put her finger right on it. >> and yet, senator, you've been in town long enough. you understand the math. you're in a republican-controlled senate, a republican-controlled house. the republican president today said he wanted to have a mental health conversation but made no mention of gun controls. on a scale of 1 to 10, i assume zero is the prospect of any gun controls being passed by this congress this year. would you agree? >> unfortunately, i would agree, but let me say, you talked about my speech on the floor of the senate saying when is enough enough. with the accumulation of all of these mass slaughters, maybe even these 17 innocent children are going to be the tipping point with enough people speaking out now in response to some official saying, oh, now is not the time to talk about it, i

have thoughts and prayers. so do i have and i've been praying, but now it's time to act. >> the governor of your state, the republican governor of your state, most people believe will be your opponent in the senate election this year as you seek reelection in the state of florida. he spoke today at the scene of the crime and said he wants to talk to everybody in tallahassee where the legislature meets, of course, about what should be done. do you think your governor should introduce an ar-15, an assault weapons ban, in the state of florida if congress won't act? >> of course. and we ought to be supporting senator feinstein's assault weapons bill to ban assault weapons. but, john, you know -- remember, senator feinstein offered a bill that we voted on, and it was just on the terrorist watch list. the people who can't get on

airplanes should not be able to buy a gun, and as you know, it was defeated. so it's an uphill climb, but at some point, we have to confront the reality of what's happening on the ground with these slaughters. >> how much opposition would you get from other democrats, those who say president trump carries a lot more than you carry yours. >> in some states you have a problem, but you have some republicans in urban states that clearly have a different opinion of this. and, again, i remind you, i'm a hunter. i grew up on a ranch. i support the second amendment. but it's one thing to be able to acquire assault weapons, military weapons. that is where you should draw the line. >> i hear you, senator.

in my business we don't get to pick sides of how it should end, but i would like all the people to get in a room and have an adult conversation about it instead of the finger pointing. we'll see if that happens. thank you for your time today, bill nelson, senator of florida. wolf blitzer picks up our coverage of this continuing breaking news story after a quick break. your brain is an amazing thing. but as you get older, it naturally begins to change, causing a lack of sharpness, or even trouble with recall. thankfully, the breakthrough in prevagen helps your brain and actually improves memory. the secret is an ingredient originally discovered... in jellyfish. in clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve short-term memory. prevagen. the name to remember.

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i'm anderson cooper in parkland, florida. i want to welcome our viewers here in the united states and watching around the world. a stunned and grieving community and possible warning signals that were missed. we're following up-to-the-minute developments in the florida school massacre that left 17 people dead, at least 14 others wounded. here's what we know right now.