are disappearing from the landscape. and so by documenting them, that's one way of preserving them. documenting them and through my database is also a way to share information and get it out there and learn from them. >> then at 7:00 p.m. on oral histories, we continue our series on photojournalists with an interview with lukian perkins. >> following a woman named sandy irvin who ended up on the front page of the post and the photo is of her yelling at these freshmen bleeps with her chin up like the this. and that photograph ran everywhere in the world and i'm convinced that the story helped me get a job at the post. >> american history tv, all weekend, every week, only on c-span3. and now a portion of today's

washington journal on congressional gun control efforts. >> joining us now, politico's capitol hill bureau chief john press any hand here to talk about capitol hill particularly in light of the las vegas shooting. what's the snap reaction on capitol hill? >> of course law makers in both parties are offering condolences for the victims. they are talking about how evil this whole incident, this massacre was. there has been talk especially among the democrats of some new gun control legislation. there is very little chance that happens. i think actually there is no chance that's going to happen. but there has been talk about it. there is going to be a press conference today. gaby giffords, a former congresswoman from arizona who was shot in 2011, they will she willing on the capitol today talking about this. democrats are going to be pushing for new legislation, they are going to have other pressive ends today.

i think you will see democrats introducing new bills, particularly something to do with either background checks or pardonly something on bump stocks or slide fires. these are devices that help semiautomatic weapons mimic automatic weapons. i think you are going the see some legislation possibly offer on that or proposed legislation. so there will be debate but there is very little likelihood anything is going to happen. >> are they going that route in hopes they can reach out to republicans to get at least some type of support or admission to talk about these issues. >> yes. i mean, we had -- there will continue to be mass shootings. there continually have been massed zhaoings, including the newtown shooting. after that really tragic episode, there was a long debate in the senate on background checks on requiring universal background checks. there was a bill offered by two senators, joe manchin of west

virmg and pat toomey of pennsylvania. that bill ultimately fell short of getting the votes it needed. there is some talk about maybe rerenewing the manchin/toomey bill. senator toomey said he was interested but manchin said the would have to be more republicans on board. >> if you want to talk to our guest from politico about this issue on capitol hill when it comes to guns, our leans are open. there was legislation that was supposed to be voted on this week on gun measures. can you give us information on what was supposed to take place when it comes to silencers and concealed carry. >> there are two bills that would loosen gun control. one is is the share act offered

by jeff duncan of south carolina. one of the provisions would alter how silencers or gun silencers or suppressers as they are known are sold. they are actually covered under the national firearms act of 1934, which is a lot tougher licensing requirements than on normal gun sales. duncan's proposal would chain that so silencers are regulated in the same way as regular firearms. there is also another bill by congressman richard hudson of north carolina which is called the concealed carry reciprocity act which would allow someone if you have a concealed carry permit you would be allowed to take your weapon to another state that also allows concealed satisfactory. there are some states that don't but over 40 states do. so both those pieces of legislation were being talked about as maybe moving through the house. it's unlikely now that there is

going to be a vote for instance on the share act any time soon. it's gone through committee but it had not been scheduled to go to the floor. i can't see that happening in the near future. speaker paul ryan said yesterday he doesn't think there will be a vote on that. i'm not sure that legislation can pass actually. i do think the concealed carry reciprocity act could pass the house. there is 212 cosponsors of that legislation. you would need 218 votes. there is also a companion senate bill for both of these pieces of legislation. the silencer legislation and the concealed carry legislation. very little likelihood those would go anywhere because of democratic opposition but congress is actually going -- if anything congress is going in the opposite direction. we are going to loosen up gun restriction. there is probably majority for both those measures but it's tenuous. >> with we go to calls, there is always the influence of the nra

in this discussion. can you give a sense of how widespread their influence is on capitol hill? >> the nra is a powerful organization. and other gun rights groups. they are powerful organizations. their highly -- they have powerful organizations they monitor what's going on. they push legislation. they monitor hearings, what happens inside the executive branch in congress. and nra endorses members, especially in primaries. they can be very valuable in certain states. so its a not -- there is a lot written about nra donations, the nra does give money but the nra's power is that they can raise awareness on an issue and they reach out to their nip and they can mobilize their members. s that where their power comes from, their influence comes from. they have at least 5 million members the nra and other gun rights groups. they have motivated members,

they feel passionately about the second amendment and the right to bear arm. there is debate about what exactly the second amendment means but right now the nra and its supporters are very active not only on the local level but on the state and federal level. they are knowledgeable about their issues. on the other side the gun control movement is trying to step up its game. it is not as well organized but it's trying. >> you talked about gaby giffords being up on capitol hill. let's show you a little bit of that event now taking place. >> fight, fight, fight! [ applause ] >> be bold. be courageous. the nation's counting on you. thank you very much. thank you. [ applause ] >> so we saw that short speech. we saw what happened after she got shot. how much influence does she have

personally? >> she and her husband mark kelly run a group called americans for responsible solutions which is gun control group. they have become a much larger organization. her leadership and captain kelly's leadership is important. they are very vocal. they are very high-profile. you definitely see in the last couple of years the gun control movement has become much better organized at the state, local, and the federal level. former new york city mayor michael bloomberg who is a wealthy man has put a lot of money into this movement. there definitely are much more aggressive and challenging what is happening in congress and the executive branch and at the state and local level. so you know, the gun rights movement is strong. the gun control movement is strong. i mean this is -- this is -- this is a political contest being fought at a number of levels not just in congress. >> let's go to our first call. this is bud in west virginia, republican line. thank you for holding.

go ahead. >> caller: good morning. my comment is that the democrats started a lot of hate when they called republicans racists. and that disturbs people to cause them to go off the wall. and i think they are just as much responsible and gun control is not going to stop anything. because if they want a gunther going to get it, legally or illegal. >> that's a common refrain from people that call in. what about that argument? >> there are 300 million guns or so in this country. there are -- i mean, that has long been an argument that's been used by the gun rights movement, that if a criminal wants to obtain a gun, he or she will get a gun. so there is no reason to restrict a citizen who is trying to exercise his or her second amendment right to obtain a

weapon. i think that, you know -- i mean we could spend days talking about that argument. but i think it is a powerful argument. retorically, i think there is a lot of concern about for instance in the las vegas shooting, this tragedy, the gunman had almost 50 weapons, which he obtained as far as we can tell, as far as media reports say, legally. so in the gun control movement they say why does one person need 50 guns? why can one person buy a bump stock, something to allow a semiautomatic weapon to mimic a automatic weapon, try pods, night scopes, aftermarket products that allow this person to be armed as well as any soldier in the united states military? so i think it's -- of all the industrialized modern countries, we have by far the highest

incident of gun deaths, gun shootings, suicides. you know, this debate is not going anywhere. i do think it is -- there is a socioeconomic argument to it. there is a race argument to it. i mean it is a very, very complicated issue. >> from orange county, california, independent line, allen, hi. >> caller: hi. thanks for accepting my call. i want to comment about it. all these issues that have been discussed to death. the only reason the nra is able to get their point across is because they are able to organize the vote. if the people wants to change, they have to vote, go out and vote. because the politicians looks at money and look at vote. and if they have the vote, they ignore the money.

and we -- if the people really wants to get rid of some of these automatic weapons, they have to come out and vote, and outvote them. thank you for your time. >> i think the caller raise as good point. i mean lawmakers in both parties are going to pay attention to which -- you know, a group or a movement that would help them get reelected or help them get elected. i think, you know, we'll see this play out. we are going to see the gun debate play out in the gubernatorial race in virginia. this is already coming an issue. >> the nra pulling ads. >> postponing. they were going to run some ads there. they are postponing them for a period of time, i think it was at least a week. they say it was not related to the las vegas incident. that was their normal practice, they were going to postpone the ads anyway but the timing is

something everyone has noted. but you can see the republican candidate, gillespie, a former bush administration staffer is using this argument that the department northham wanted to restrict gun rights. and this is an issue in virginia. you have virginians -- like a lot of the country you have a split between southern virginia and northern virginia over gun rights issues. and you do have some very strong -- the nra and the gun rights lobby is very powerful in richmond. you do have some very loose laws in virginia in terms of gun restrictions. there is open carry. there's -- you know. so we could see that play out in the charlottesville incident. there were people on both sides of that episode, including the white supremacists and militia people who were rmd a, heavily armed. so -- armed. heavily armed. so i think it's shocking for some people to see.

but look at a state like nevada, where this last incident -- they are open carry law. they have very few restrictions on gun sales. i mean in the south and west, the state legislatures who make decisions on that that would not play in other parts this country, on the coast, in the northeast. this is a very, very passionate debate on both sides of the issue. >> let's hear next from jimmy from pensacola, florida. >> caller: hi. how are you this morning? >> good morning. >> caller: i think that gun control is not going to be a solution to this problem. i feel like maybe in a high value soft target situation like this maybe the answer would be to have a highly skilled sniper on duty there in case something like this was to happen, he could take out the perpetrator, you know, pretty quick. but what i really feel like is

the problem here is the divisiveness in this country. the president, i feel like he needs to start talking more softly about getting together instead of how these people are bad and those people are bad and trying to divide us. it's kind of going on a lot. i hear it in the news. democrats against republicans, and this and that. it's just really, really bad. and i think that would be more the solution, and to boost mental health issues. >> jimmy, thank you. >> i think that caller raise as good point again. clearly the partisan divide in this country is very sharp. president trump has made it clear that he is a strong supporter of second amendment and gun rights. he raised that issue repeatedly during the campaign, against democrat hillary clinton. she supported background checks, she supported more restrictions on gun sales. in fact she came out again after the las vegas shooting and called for a renewal of this

debate. i think it is very unlickly that we'll see -- we would see president trump sign even if that legislation got through congress that he would sign it. i don't see any way that that moves through through congress. >> senator diane feinstein sending out a tweet when it comes to automatic weapons. she said they are illegal, individuals are allowed to purchase bump stocks and semiautomatic weapons that fire 800 rounds per minute. talk about her comments. >> diane feinstein her political career was marked by gunfire violence. she became mayor after the mayor was assassinated. shot and killed. through throughout her career she has been an advocate for stricter gun control legislation. this is consistent with what she has proposed throughout a very long public career. i do think though that this issue, this latest incident has raised new concern about this

issue of bump stocks or slide fires. these are devices, these are aftermarket devices which you attach to your gun which can mimic an automatic weapon. i was watching some videos of this last night. there were a couple of guys on. they had a 100 round magazine and they were going through it as fast as an automatic weapon. you don't change the internal mechanism of your weapon when you add this device to your gun. so the atf has allowed these to be sold. i think they are -- they could -- administratively they could change their policy on that. that's been in place for a couple of years. so there wouldn't necessarily need to be legislation on. that i think there will be debate on that. i think you will see congress push the white house on that. i think you may even see some republicans do that. again these are perfectly legal devices. but i don't think there was a lot of widespread public

knowledge about them until this incident. >> david is in maryland. independent line. >> caller: my question really revolves around the fact that this particular issue we are told that the individual from the early reports got many of these guns legally. and my concern is, eventually we are going find out it is a good possibility that those guns were acquired within a rather short period of time. my question is specifically this, with all the money we have in our country from a computer standpoint you mean to tell me that we don't have the ability to ask a person at the time they purchase that gun they immediately dial in and it's recorded the social security number, name of the individual, and the location and the gun dealer and put into a computer database and determine whether they have purchased many guns in a recent time period. now we could do this certainly with automatic -- you could do it with computer checks. and then it would be overseen by a group of people.

i can't understand why we would continue to let these kinds of purchases be made when we have red flags. we are just not putting the system in to do it. i think it's incompetence and impotence of both the legislators and the president. >> well, the caller raises some good points. there are instant background checks or there are background checks if you buy from a federal firearm licensee. if you purchase one in a private person to person sale from a private seller there is no background check. everything i've seen so far is that this gunman purchased his weapons legally. there is no national database, federal database on gun sales n. fact, congress has prevented that from happening. so there is no place for the fbi, you can tap in and say who owns a gun? that has been something that congress has said they can't do. that was an issue the nra and

gun rights supporters have been very adamant about. their thinking is that if there is a database a federal database on who owns guns and how many they own that's the first step in the government going to be able to take your gun. they feel very passionate about that, there should be no federal database. at the state level you can check that. that's up to the individual states. and there are no elements on how many guns you can purchase in a lot of states. for instance nevada, there are no elements on how many guns mr. paddock could have bought at any time as long as he passed the background check that was from a federal licensee. and again, in a private transaction there is no need for a background check. >> as far as the gun show option, what's the requirements put on sellers at gun shows to those they sell to? what do they have to check? >> it depends whether the person is a federal firearm licensee or not. if they are, if they are, say, a

gun dealer, licensed gun dealer there would have to be a back drun check. if it is a private transaction and the seller is not a federal licensee, does not have a federal firearm license, there does not have to be a background check. >> from high point north carolina, democrats line there, betty. >> caller: good morning. i just wanted to ask a question. i wanted to know if you are familiar with an article that was written in the "washington post" on april 30th. and it's titled "guns and religion, how american conservatives moved closer to putin's russia". it's very interesting. it appears there are groups of christians that have formed relationships that have gone to russian for a number of years, worshipping. and they have shooting clubs, and franklin graham has visited over there, nra members, not just the members but the leaders of the nra movement have been

over visiting, and they are trying to increase the -- they want -- i know russia can have rifle. they have hold the wild animals and stuff. but they are trying to get a movement of the second amendment here. >> got you betty. >> i'm not familiar with that article, i'm sorry. but there is -- there are -- there has been an effort to loosen restrictions on sales of small arms, which a lot of which are manufactured in the united states. that has been something that the gun rights movement has pushed for and there are members who pushed that so there could be exports ofut the widespread influence of the that is something that has been talked about. about talked the widespread influence of the nra. what about gun manufacturers themselves? what is their influence on capitol hill? >> i think the gunlocal wh op manufacturers, i mean, i think that's more local.

i think where they have operations, i think they have some influence, manufacturing e operations. but one of the criticisms of the share act, this is the legislation that includes the provision on silencers on suppressers is that the big gun manufacturers have bought these silencer nocompanies, which wer after market much smaller companies and they are pushing p this legislation in order to ws help improve sales. have what we have actually seen since president trump was elected was that gun sales have gone down. p they were much higher under president obama.m th lot of concern in theat gun rights movement. it was played up by the nra and other gun rights supporters thao obama wasuld going to take you guns. now trump, there is no sense that president trump would do something like that, so gun rights sales have actually slumped. what the gun control movement is

saying look you have gun line. manufacturers pushing this legislation, this silencer legislation in order to help themselves, help their own . bottom line. >> from san antonio texas, mark is next.i wa >> caller: yeah, i just had a comment. s i was watching thehoot news andu were showing the shooting and it was very dramatic and very stark but what you never heard was return fire.one in t i believe if you had 10% of thah crowd that was armed he wouldn't have gotten nearly as far as he did with his rampage. thanks. >> i don't know about the details of that.le at again, there were -- i believe there were over 20,000 people at that event.arry nevada is again a open carry state. it has loose gun laws. i do believe there were probably people armed, probably in that crowd. >> a gun-free zone, was it?ey >> well, in the casinos themselves are gun-free.ada, t

again, you are allowed to open carry in nevada, but the casinos are gun-free areas.ar so i'm not sure exactly the par territory, the property this was on, whether this was a gun-free zone but i don't know whether anybody was shooting back at paddock or not. >> cannes. >> caller: yes, this was a tragedy, first of all. and everybody is all about gun control again. butone of let's look at chicago. one of the toughest gun laws on the books is in the city of so chicago. and how many deaths have they had so far this year?f you so my question is, you want gun control, let's go back and have people control.hey ar we have too many people who

figure they are owed something,n they can do whatever they want, no consequences for their actions because it's always somebody else's fault. so my question is, to this gentleman, gun control -- we have more people die on our roads every year through accidents. >> okay caller. those are two arguments you hear quite often and you have heard for decades, that there are criminals get guns, they are going the use them, that even is areas where there are gun control, there are lots of accd shootings. i think you would see the gun -r and then of course that more people die in car accidents.ere again, a car is not designed as a weapon.ould say there are tragedies in cars. but i think what the gun controe

say about this argument is that the reason we have guns going into cities or municipalities where there are r stronger gun control regimes iso that people out go outside and g purchase them in different states where -- these guns are g flowing in from states with looser regulations and that's why the guns are going into chicago or other areas where there are a number of shootings. so if there is no national ulat standard,th we let the states themselves control this. >> you probably then heard the argument jodi submitted on twitter, australia after a mass shooting took away citizens' a guns and they haven't suffered a mass shooting since. >>ower t japan, england, suffer. violence atat much lower rate tn the united states. there is an argument about personal freedom and the right to defend yourself.

this is something that you knowa the secondt amendment is an de important part of american history. and there are people who feel passionately it should be defended. government agents shouldn't be p the only people with guns. and you want to defend yourself, your home andho your property a your family then you should have the right the do that. >> one more call. more fee, north carolina, democrats line. nancy, go ahead. >> caller: hi, i have a very ina practical solution that i think could be done, not in tracking people or background checks on people, but come up with a law that requires gun manufacturers of semiautomatic weapons or, you know, not handguns with you automatic weapons be implanted with a chip that could not be taken out and that institutions like hotels, schools, churches, wherever peopleif t want to kno when a gun like that is on the premises, some kind of red light

alert system would go on. and then they would know where the gun is. as far as i know, guns coudo no have rights. >> been a apologies for that, c. go ahead. >> there has been a lot of wayt discussion aboutec smart guns, o technology, if there is some way technology you can use to prevent non-owners of guns from using it. for instance, that a gun would be only allowed, the registered owner of that weapon could use that gun. i think there is a lot of discussion about that.echnol again i think that's something e that, youed know, technology mos at one speed, politics and legislation move at another. >> john press any hand, of politico talking about the current debate going on on capitol hill when it comes to gun control. thank you for your time. >> thanks for having me. >> today, house democrats held a briefing on the steps of the u.s. capitol on gun control. they were joined by former arizonaep