accounts and will rein state them once they show a human is behind them. all of this misinformation. thanks for joining us. i'm christine romans. >> i'm alex march cart. new days starts now. >> if you are 18 years of age, you should not be able to buy a rifle. >> anyone who is willing to show change no matter where they are from is somebody we need on our side. >> thank you for coming out. that's a lot more for what can be said about our so-called president and governor. >> if you had a teacher adept at firearms it could very well end the threat. >> that is an insane idea. >> people who are crazy getting their hands on a firearm. >> we as a country failed our children. >> we will not falter. we will not stop this movement.

>> we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. chris is in new york this morning. i am in parkland, florida for an amazing conversation. last night was extraordinary. the world watched this remarkable townhall on cnn about guns sand school safety one wee after the massacre that killed 17 at the school you see behind me. they came to confront their lawmakers and national rifle association. senator marco rubio showed up and faced his critics who are demanding action. senator rubio said he was breaking with the nra on some of their policies. he says he supports raising the age to buy rifles and will consider a ban on high-capacity magazines. he went even further. he did not say he would no

longer take millions of dollars from the nra. it was riveting to watch the exchanges. >> it was a lot of emotion. it was brave of senator rubio. we invited governor scott. the president took a big stop as well. there wasn't going to be any media. he changed that. he said come in. everybody needs to hear this conversation. incident was a good move. the president took heat for suggesting teachers should be armed as a solution to the crisis facing our nation. president trump said he supports improving background checks for gun purchases and vows to look into raising the age to buy assault weapons. sur is sraoeufrs of marjory stoneman douglas took their #neveragain to the state level.

what will state lawmakers actually do once the talks again? dianne gallagher is live in tallahassee, florida. dianne? >> reporter: chris, for the past 24 hours, you can only describe it as emotional, the tense exchanges between people impacted by these schools with mass shootings and their elected officials. i just got a text from some of the students who left here in tallahassee on the buses. they're just getting home. they are pulling almost 24-hour shufts. they h shifts. they want to know what their elected officials are going to do to prevent this from happening ever again. >> why do we have to speak out to the capitol? why do we have to march on washington just to save innocent lives. >> republican senator marco rubio coming face-to-face with survivors of the high school massacre, defending his opposition to an assault weapon

ban despite being heckled. >> your comments and that of the president have been pathetically weak. >> my daughter was shot in the back with an assault weapon. the weapon of choice. >> yes, sir. >> it is too easy to get. it is a weapon of war. the fact that you can't stand with everybody in this building and say that, i'm sorry. >> rubio breaking with the nra on a number of key issues, announcing he supports raising the age requirement to buy a rifle from 18 to 21. and that he is reconsidering his support for large-capacity magazines. >> i do believe that in this instance it didn't -- it wouldn't have prevented the attack but would make it less lethal. >> this would only be obviously for people that are very adept at handling a gun. it would be -- it's called

concealed carry. a teacher would have a concealed gun on them. they would two for special training. and they would be there and you would no longer have a gun-free zone. >> the notion that my kids are going to school with a teacher armed with a weapon is not something quite frankly i'm comfortable with. >> one grilling rubio on the 3.3 million dollars he received from the nra over his career. >> can you tell me right now you will not accept a single donation from the nra? >> no. the answer to the question is people buy into my agenda, and i do support the second amendment. >> dana lash repeatedly stressed that enforcement of mental health laws, rather than new gun restrictions are the answer. >> none of us support people who are crazy, who are a danger to themselves, who are a danger to others getting their hands on a firearm. i'm not just fighting for my kids. i'm fighting for you. i'm fighting for all of you.

>> you just told this group of people that you are standing up for them. you are not standing up for them until you say i want less weapons. >> cnn's townhall followed an emotional listening session at the white house with students and families who have lost loved ones in school shootings telling president trump their stories. >> all the school shootings, it doesn't make sense. fix it. it should have been one school shooting, and we should have fixed it. and i'm pissed because my daughter i'm not going to see again. >> i turned 18 the day after, woke up to the news that my best friend was gone. and i don't understand why i can still go in a store and buy a weapon on of war. >> consider your own children. you don't want to be me. no parent does.

and you have the ability to make a difference and save lives today. please don't waste this. >> across the country, hundreds of students staging walkouts with the students of marjory stoneman douglas high school. outside florida state capitol, survivors demanding changes from state lawmakers. calling for a ban on assault-style weapons like the one used to kill 17 of their classmates and teachers. >> we stand for the people who were slaughtered like animals at school. >> help us so children don't fear for going to school. help us so mass shootings aren't inevitable. help us so children, grabbed children after that don't have to march for their lives. >> reporter: now, the stone man douglas students did meet with governor scott yesterday

afternoon. one of those, a senior, tells me she played a video inside the school. she asked the governor to close his eyes and listen to the screams is and panic of the children and imagine those were his own children, his daughters. she said that the governor seemed forred and frozen in that moment. most of the kids tell me they felt he was receptive. governor scott is expected to present a proposal tomorrow for what to do about gun violence here in florida. alisyn, the president is going to have a school safety meeting with state and local leaders a little bit later today. >> man, dianne, these kids are just making their lawmakers talk a wide open look at this, hearing the horror, seeing the horror. obviously it has gotten their attention. thank you very much. joining us is a student who survived last week's shooting massacre. she lost her close friend and a favorite teacher.

kelsey, great to see you again. >> nice to see you again in what was the moment that most stood out for you? >> when cameron asked the question if senator rubio would still is accept money nra, it kind of stuck out. i want to know the same thing, and he didn't answer the question. >> and your friend cameron wouldn't let it go. he kept saying, but are you going to take money? we give him complete credit for accepting the invitation. he graciously did so. he said i happen to agree with their agenda and they agree with my agenda. so basically he was saying, yes, i am going to keep that money. so what is that message to you? >> that message to me is very shocking actually. as a person, as a human who did lose my close friend peter and

new teacher mr. beigel, he should try. >> we were down here one week ago when we first met you. you gave your memorable and emotional message to mr. beigel's family. he was your geography teacher, your favorite teacher, you loved him. and you said he saved your life. we played your message to his mom. she talked about how much she appreciated that and how much that you recognized her son for being so wonderful. how are you feeling now a week later? >> i still miss him like crazy. i keep waking up to the five shots. i keep waking up that when i go back to school, someone is going to enter my school again. i understand that the cops are now here and they're going to stay, but i still have that haunting thought because that

valentine's day i just wanted to show new love for my friends and family and a guy that i liked. and then my teacher dies and so does my friends. in yeah. that's not what is supposed to happen for a freshman on valentine's day. so what are you going to do? you're supposed to reopen on tuesday. are you going back? >> oh, yeah. i'm going to march in there and be proud of being an eagle. because it's the only strength i have right now to see my friends, see my teachers. even though i will not see my teacher mr. beigel again, i will march in there and give my principal a hug. and see the teachers that i haven't seen for a week. >> your principal, oh, my gosh, he had such a round of applause last night in the arena when he was introduced. i can tell how much the kids love him. he talked about how he is going to give out hugs. listen, you're haunted of course by what you saw and what you endured. i don't really understand how

you will be able to focus on school. >> i'm going to focus as hard as i can, but i know in the back of my mind i would still be thinking about it. i'm going to try my hardest. that's what my teacher would want, what peter would want, keep living my life that they couldn't finish. >> what do you think about the pundits, the commentators mostly on on right wing tv who say that you are being exploited, being taken advantage of on, you kids. you shouldn't be able to speak. you're too young to tell the media how you're feeling. >> for them, it was my choice to come out the day after. it was my choice to accept the interviews. it was my voice. it wasn't me. it wasn't you guys or 7 news. >> because you all have a message you want to get out.

>> i'm proutd of myself because i got my message to my teacher's family. and i'm proud that i got to meet them and i'm proud that i have done this. if i wouldn't have done this, i probably would still be a wreck right now. >> thank you for being with us. we will check back now through tuesday and beyond. take care of yourself. okay, chris. >> all right. alisyn, so, look, this emotion is so emotional. the eloquence is so unusual. what will it make lawmakers do? this was a big part of the story last night. let's talk about what we saw in terms of potential for change in the townhall, what happened with the president, and all of the surrounding momentum. all right. so last night senator marco rubio's break with the nra on guns was a big deal. let's bring in john avlon and cnn political analyst ron brownstein. the first thing we have to say

is good for you, marco rubio. this is the time when lawmakers hide but when leaders lead. we asked you to come on the show early on, you didn't do it. last night you did something a lot more brave. you went in and faced the emotion, faced the parents, and spoke the truth even though it wasn't always popular. that's what we need. with haven't heard from ryan. we haven't heard from mcconnell. bravo to marco rubio. at least he was there and being represented. fair point? >> fair point. he knew he was walking into a room of constituents that was angry, frustrated and wouldn't agree. that is the courage of your convictions facing constituents. good for him. he broke with the nra. >> what are the two things he did last night they wouldn't want him to do. >> the nra came out against the age of buying an ar-15. he was in favor of it. the president has backed bump

stocks. they will ask the justice department to move forward. rubio said capacity magazines, going a little further. that is significant. he didn't please the audience on everything. he was forth right on that. he said i will keep take the money from them. he gets more than anyone in the senate. 3 polyp $3 million. >> he broke with the nra. >> go ahead, ron. >> he broke with the nra around the edges. capacity magazine is important. raising the age is really at the periphery i think of the debate. the central issue, the central front on assault weapons, you know, there was no movement at all. and i think the other lesson from the immigration debate is that even if you have folks saying, for example, they wanted a solution to dhaka, they tied it to conditions that were

completely unacceptable and essentially poison pills. the same analogy could totally apply here. you could easily see republicans accepting some minor breaks with the nra in return for accepting a nationwide concealed carry, reciprocity that would require every state to accept a gun permit in any state, overriding state law. the house has voted for that. no chance in the senate. we still have a long way to go until we see the republican majority be willing to do something the nra doesn't want to do because they represent the parts of the country where the nra is the strongest. i don't think it's the money. it is the geography and the culture. >> but ron, i just want to stick with you for one second. >> yeah. >> you just hit on the very rub, which is do you do things around incrementally or monument alley.

luke we have seen with the health care, obamacare. there is an argument to making the small baby steps and letting that be the progress. hoarse what marco rubio tweeted out right after the townhall. he said banning all semiautomatic weapons may have been popular with the audience at cnn townhall but sit a position well outside the mainstream. he was not going to go that far. >> yesterday a majority, 51% supported an assault weapon ban. the quinnipiac it was up to 67%. it passed in the house in the '90s. the striking point in the way the gun debate has evolved since is the '90s, people focus on the loss biff democrats of all of these rural and small town seats and replacement with republicans are kind of strongly opposed to gun control. most of those democrats voted against the brady bill. 77 democrats voted against the assault weapon ban in 1994.

the reason they passed was because large numbers of suburban republicans felt they had to vote for them. 46 republicans, he most of them suburban, voted for the assault ban when it was in the crime bill. what's change sd suburban reps in the house felt much more comfortable voting in the lock step. that is the point i think when all of this, alisyn, is going to come to a head in this election. it was those white collar suburbs where most in danger because the way college educated voters view trump. it is there where they may be most out on a limb post this horrible episode in parkland. >> they feel morin tim dated voting against the nra because they are more geographically polarized than they were in the 1990s. >> they are the ones on the other side of the divide.

northern virginia, pennsylvania is not big gun stock. >> the question framed is incrementally on or monument al? we have to deal with it as it is. congress controls the senate and the house. the universal background checks, 97% of americans support it. congress can be held hostage by 3% of the nra. let's try to see if we can make that gain. 67% support is still high. let's focus on what can get done. let's make measurable progress. >> that would not be in decremental. >> well, ron is right based on where we are. that's not where we are any more. you're hearing more about background checks. there is a reason president

trump seize odd that issue. he has a good ear for where to be in awe place that may be popular. let's take a break. we're going to talk more about this in terms of age limit, does that matter. background checks, should that be the starting point. we'll talk about all of that. president trump suggesting arming teachers. is that part of the solution? he heard from a father he yesterday who said you have to make our schools safe or. is that the way to do it? we'll go through the plus and the minus. the minus. ♪ ♪ (vo) you can pass down a subaru forester. but you get to keep the memories. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. (avo) get 0% apr financing on all new 2018 subaru forester models. now through february 28th. sometimes you need an expert. i got it. and sometimes those experts need experts.

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president trump suggested concealed carry by teachers. >> they would be there and you will no longer have a gun-free zone. >> he is struggling with this and for good reason.

alisyn and john avlon and ron brownstein are with us. when people talk about fortifying schools, they're talking about armed guards. you have to be trained. you have to know how to use it under stress. these are not things they teach you when you are learning how to be a teacher. how do you think that solution goes over? >> not terribly well for the reasons you just laid out. >> we know the teachers union said no. and others said i don't want that responsibility. >> not only is it well outside their core competency. we will find money for them to be trained to use a weapon in a classroom full of kids. it is a solution that is satisfying for members of the nra. to be fair, members in the odd wre

audience suggested it, they teed it up. but it is what he gravitated to in his statement most. that was really telling. he is backing bump stocks, telling the justice department to move forward with that. open on other issues. this is not only highly polarizing but problematic and could easily cause more problems. >> we remember during the campaign hillary clinton said he wants weapons in the classroom. wrong. now he is in a different place. that doesn't mean that's where he winds up. >> yeah. by the way, last night i had the luxury of taking the pulse of the arena. i had this instant 4,500 person focus group. when this came up, and it might have come up before the televised part because the sheriff was speaking to the audience beforehand, the crowd didn't like it. the crowd full of students and teachers didn't like it.

they booed. they want teachers to teach. the sheriff doesn't like it here. if you go to ground zero, it is not popular idea here in parkland. >> guns -- i've covered this debate since the early 1990s. it is a tough issue. it divides the country. yes, there is a preponderance for many of the specific gun control initiatives, particularly universal back ground checks, which is not what the president has been talking about. we have been divided about 50/50 since 2008. this is a debate about culture even more than practicality.

there is no easy way around that. but i do think if you look back at the 1990s, there is a pathway toward really executing that majority that wants some further restrictions. and the central difference i see between the 90s and today, as i said, in the 90s suburban republicans in places where the nra was not strong felt they had to vote for gun control. in the recent years, the successors in those kinds of districts in denver, chicago, new york, orange county, california, have been willing to vote to loosen gun restrictions. the house has two votes since president trump's election to loosen gun restrictions. it will come to a head in 2018. >> it is being taken as an article of political faith instead of thinking through it carefully. it is urban versus rural.

people use guns differently. howard dean when he ran for governor of vermont had had an a rating from the nra. it reflects the reality. it's about self defense, culture and all of those issues. if you take away the emotional underpinnings, there are ways to get to majority support. it is whether we can divorce the debate good guns from the larger culture of identity. back in 2000, he backed the assault weapon ban. he was for it before he was against it. >> george w. bush said he would sign if congress extended it. but house republicans let it die. the problem, john, is there is no way -- it should be entirely possible to detach this from culture. it has been caught up in all of this other issues. but as you point out, it is metro and nonmetro on issue after issue. >> you also have to change

approach. what these tragedies give you is a chance to reset. you're seeing different issues being brought up than just traditional ones about more guns or less guns. you have school safety and what that means. you have background chemicals when it comes to people mentally ill. the school safety issue is brought sharply into focus. with saw what one father in particular meeting yesterday. here is his emotional plea for change. >> i'm here because my daughter has no voice. she was murdered last week. and she was taken from us. shot nine times on the third floor. we as a country failed our children. this shouldn't happen. we go to the airport and i can't get on the plane with a bottle of water. but we leave some animal to walk into a school and shoot our

children. >> alisyn, this was something that got a lot of resonance p. but this is going to be a new phase of this debate, especially for democrats. it will be, all right, here's change. here's a way to make the kids safer, have the schools be safer. buff that will probably mean more keeps in schools on some level. whether it's teachers, that's unlikely. but more armed security. what were you hearing about that last night? >> well, first of all, chris, i couldn't believe how effecting that father's plea was. he used easy to understand examples. i can't get on a plane with a bottle of water. i got on an elevator today athee was an armed guard. but not at my child's school. he was measured. you heard a lot of anger saying this should have happened soon or. why are we having this conversation today?

it's too late for my children, ron. that was a big echo. why didn't we have this and fix it after columbine, people kept saying. >> don't forget the generational aspect of this. also the post millennials. they are even younger. they are emerging by 2020, the first will be voting. they will be the largest generation of voters. this could be a galvanizing cause for many in that generation. #. >> the left and right have to make changes. this idea about having more armed presence in schools was brought up. i brought it up and others did. and the left did not meet it well. have he they changed on this? we'll see. let's leave this part of the conversation for here. we have a lot more to get into on this. there's another shakeup in the

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after months of tension, h.r. mcmaster may be on his way out. barbara starr live at the pentagon with breaking details. it is not unusual to hear rumblings that someone is in trouble. how is it different with mcmaster? >> he may be on his way out but he may be on his way somewhere else, back to the pentagon. the pentagon now looking for the possibility of a four star job. mcmaster is a three star. he leaves for the white house. he comes back. they give him a four star job. but it is going to be tough. in the ranks he is seen now after all of this time as a political operative of the white house. could he come back and be a credible four star general offering his best military advice even if it differed from what the president wants.

that's the ultimate dilemma. mcmaster leaves. they found him a far star job. he stays for a while. or perhaps the president -- the defense secretary says to him time to retire. we don't know how it is going to sort is out, but we do know now they are looking for a four star job to possibly put him into. why is it so important? this is the year when they will have to make decisions from everything from north korea to syria to iran and getting in a national security adviser that he can work with is really going to be key. chris? >> all right. barbara, thank you very much. appreciate the update. let us know if anything else develops on that front. now, here's another story coming out of the white house. the white house is insisting it's being tough on russia about election interference. they say the u.s. warned the

kremlin not to meddle in the upcoming election. if it is news to you, it is news to us as well. abby phillip is live in the white house with more. we have never heard about anyone in the white house or any of the extensions of government going at russia about interference except for the president to say it's a hoax. >> reporter: well, that's right, chris. and this is all coming in part because the president himself made a claim on social media that he had been far tougher on russia than his predecessor, president obama. in order to prove it to be true, administration officials said they had taken direction action against russia and warned putin against meddling in the 2018 election. now, these officials wouldn't give a whole lot of details about what that means and what exactly they have done. they cited national security concerns, that their actions were classified. however, we also know, as you just pointed out, that the trump administration has in the past declined to impose the sanctions

by congress for russian meddling. they continue to do so to this day. officials were asked, has president trump actually made these comments to vladimir putin directly, as he warned putin against meddling in the election. and the officials wouldn't say that either. they suggested these comments came from professionals in the ranks of the foreign service who talked to their counterparts and warned them directly. all of this is coming as sarah huckabee sanders put out a new statement warning russia against their actions in syria as well. the white house trying to make good on president trump's claim that he is doing more to stop this meddling in the election, chris? >> all right, abby. thank you very much. so a lesson in gun politics was really on display for everybody yesterday. survivors of the florida massacre were just stunned as state lawmakers rejected a ban on on assault rifles with students watching the vote.

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on tuesday, florida state legislature voted against even debating a bill to ban assault weapons and assault-style rifles, including the one used in the stone man douglas massacre. it would have banned high-capacity magazines. one came from state senator randy fein, and he joins us now. good morning, mr. fein. >> good morning, alisyn. >> why did you vote no on even opening the debate of the ban on assault weapons. >> so we in florida do it a little differently in congress. we read the laws before we pass them. this would have forced us to vote on a bill that no one had actually read and disenfranchised millions of

floridians for those who have the right to testify on those bills. that was something i simply wouldn't stand for. >> so are you saying this motion to even debate it was rushed through? that you all hadn't considered this issue before this shooting behind me? >> neither me nor any of my colleagues were informed this motion would have been made. if it was a serious effort and not a political stunt, the sponsor could have let us noe few days before that he was going to do this. we might have been able to read the bills. he insulted the hundreds of students from parkland who came the next day in order to share their ideas with us about what they thought we should do about the problem. they hadn't even arrived in tallahassee left. >> how did it insult them to introduce a bill to ban assault weapons? >> the debate would have had to have happened immediately after

that motion passed. i promised 12 students when i agreed to meet with them in my office that i would hear what they had to say before i agreed to do anything. and for this political operative to pull this stunt the day before those students even arrived was very disappointing. in fact, representative moskowitz was at a funeral for one of the victims at the time this stunt was pulled. it was disrespectful to him and to those victims who died and with whose funeral was going on at the exact moment they tried to wool over the eyes of florida voters. >> because what the kids who came into the gallery told us who watched you all said they felt demoralized by your no vote because they wanted to at least hear debate. >> i understand they were demoralized. and i feel terribly for them. what was done to them was

horrible. we weren't even aware the students were in the gallery. i would have loved to have gone up and talked to them before the motion and hear what they have to say. you know how i found out the students were in the gallery, when i heard them crying after the vote. that was not the appropriate way to treat the students and the sponsor is of that stunt should be a shamed of what he did to those kids. >> so are you all going to do something in the florida state legislature to fix gun violence? >> we're going to try to fix the problem. i absolutely believe that. and at the same time the stunt was being pulled, republicans and democrats in the house were working together to put together a comprehensive solution. see, we wanted to wait until the students came yesterday to hear what they had to say before we came out with our solution, which i think you will see either today or tomorrow. >> and will you commit to opening the debate as soon as you have had a chance to read the bill on an assault weapons

ban. >> we're going to have a debate on a comprehensive bill. as it moves through the process, any member can make any amendment they want to that bill that is germane and it will be discussed and voted on by the membership. >> so let's talk about it. let's dive in. i know you say you will have a comprehensive plan. we heard the details last night on the cnn townhall. senator marco rubio of your state seemed to suggest is, in fact, i think he overtly suggested he would be be willing to ban high-capacity magazines. how do you feel about that? >> i'm not a big fan of taking away folks's second amendment rights. i think we need to look at the issues and see where we can play around the edges. but people have the right to keep and bear arms. there are tens of millions of gun owners who are responsible

every day. we don't punish the many because of the few. >> the vast majority of gun owners are responsible people. but you can make the argument that the fore fathers also didn't mean to have 100 capacity high-capacity magazines to be attached to ar-15s. so are you saying you're not open to fixing that? >> our fore fathers couldn't have imagined networks like cnn, yet we fight every day to make sure you all have your rights under the first amendment. just because something wasn't contemplated had the bill of rights and the constitution was created. >> i get it but we are talking about the spirit of the law. it was for a well regular litted militia not a 19-year-old when could get his hands on a

high-capacity magazine and ar-15. do you agree? >> i agree that we have an issue when kids who have been reported to the department of family dozens of times, when someone calls the fbi and says this kid is going to come in and shoot up a school and the government doesn't do anything about it, that we have a real problem. we need to not only look at the instrument that this depraved killer used, but we have to look at what led him to do it and how he wasn't caught in advance. we can't just focus on the fact that he used a gun. >> all right. representative randy fine, we will look forward to seeing what that comprehensive look at all of this is. thanks so much for agreeing to be on with us. >> thanks for having he me. okay. so slipping through the cracks. that's what we're talking about. officials knitting they did miss many red flags about the schuylkiller. even if they didn't miss them, they couldn't do anything about that. what can be done to spot the

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solutions. that's what we need. how do we stop the shootings? guns matter. no question about that. but the people using them matter as well. what if we could identify the people who are likely to perform these kinds of murders before? what if you could identify them and get them help so they don't become homicidal, suicidal? the answer is we can. columbia university doctor. >> good to see you, chris. >> so the concern is, as you have explained it to me, and tell me if i'm wrong, people who are suicidal, when we look at these school shootings, yes, the

mentally ill are more likely to be victims of violence than they are perpetrators. however, in school shootings, we see a preponderance of the people who commit murders are people with some type of untreated, undiagnosed, unchecked mental illness. you're saying you can identify those people. you put it into practice and you have had success. true? >> exactly right, chris. 80% to 90% of school shooters have suicidal issues. if we're asking everybody, we can find the people who need help and get them the help they need before it's too late. and we know that this works. we know we can ask. you know what, asking will help everybody. i don't need to tell you suicide is one of our greatest public health crises, number one cause of death in adolescents. the second in 10 to 24-year-olds. it kills more people in the united states than car accidents. but sit our one preventable cause of death. what do we need to do?

we know that 50% of suicides see their primary care doctor the month before they die. we need to ask like wii monitor for blood pressure. many who show up to the emergency department who tried to take their own life are not there for psychiatric reasons. if we're not asking everybody like blood pressure and vision testing, we are not going to find those suffering in silence. but that is not enough. the undersecretary of defense wrote an urgent memo saying we must have a public health approach and put it in everybody's hands. >> anybody can ask these questions. people will hear this. they say this is academic, theoretical. these people won't tell you the truth. they're sneaky. they want to come in and kill everybody. you're saying the data, the science proves otherwise. how so? >> it absolutely proves otherwise. when people are suffering and they want help and when you ask, they're forth coming. and the overwhelming majority of

people who are suicidal will never pose any danger to society. but in cases like this we can find people who are suffering and get them the help they need. and we know that this simple thing can be so potent. these particular questions, the the columbia suicide severity rates scale have been rolled out across the nation. you know what happens when the marines put it in even's hands, what that means is support workers, legal assistants, financial aid conscious hrors, there was a 22 percent down in suicides. it the will put it in even's hands. it helped them achieve a reduction, reversing an krupp ward trend the last 10 years. we have big data showing this. the largest provider of community health care, centerstone, 65% in the first 20 months in one state. you know what, chris -- >> 65% suicide rate going down?

>> exactly. they brought it to life by calling a man who said he was fine. he said the last time i was on the bridge. but the on the ground stories we hear, i went and trained the athletic coaches at princeton. you remember one of the suicides a few years ago was an athlete. the people that see these kids up close and personal, the front line of defense. they can find them before they ever get to a doctor's office. it is who we need to arm. >> this kid, this man who did this in florida, he didn't kill himself the way the others do. they set themselves up for death by cop. he didn't. he left. people will say, then it wouldn't have worked with him because he wasn't really suicidal. is that accurate? >> absolutely not. he certainly probably had suicidal feelings. and 90% of these cases actually

end their life after the case. but absolutely not. you don't have to die by suicide to be suicidal. >> so it is cssrs.columbia dot edu. you will learn about the protocol, where it is and where it still needs to be and where it is not. we will follow up with law makers and ask is why they are not doing it. doctor, congratulations, the highest civilian honor from the department of defense because of the effectiveness of asking these questions and the change they make. thank you very much. >> thank you, chris. >> be well. all right. students, parents, teachers, confronting members of congress and the nra at this powerful cnn townhall with just a very simple question. do something. republican senator marco rubio brave to show up there and did change some position approximately what? what difference it will make? next. it's time for the 'ultimate sleep number event'

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why do we have to march on washington just to save innocent lives? >> if we truly want this to be the last time what you have done cannot end next month or next year. >> tell me you will work to do something about guns. >> right now congress is owned by the nra. >> you cannot ask the nra to keep the monday out of your campaign? >> there is no representative of the state of florida. our governor did not come here, but marco