with the national urban league president. then the army corps of engineer's. ♪ ♪ 1/3 of americans are gunowners and there's estimated to be over 300 million guns and private hands in american society, about 12,000 people were killed by guns in 2014. this first segment of want toton journal" we talk to gun owners only. we want to hear from you, what do you see as a solution to prevent gun violence?

if you cannot get through on the phone lines, try social media. you have probably seen the video we are about to show you but this is andy parker, the father of allison parker, talking about how to prevent gun violence. [video clip] potential andmuch it's senseless that her life and adam's lifework taken by a crazy person with a gun. walshave to be the john of gun control, look, i am for the second amendment but there has to be a way to force politicians that are cowards and in the pockets of the nra to

have sensibleand laws so that crazy people cannot get guns. it cannot be that hard. politicians from the local level to the state level to the national level sidestepped the issue and kick the can down the road. this cannot happen anymore. i know that the nra position is -- they will say if they were carrying, this would never have happened. i've got news for you, if adam had been carrying an ak-47 strapped around their waist, it would not have made a difference. they could not have seen this thing coming. host: gun owners only this morning on "washington journal." we want to hear from you and the numbers are divided by region -- and central time zone,

pacific time zones. the lead editorial in "the washington times" --

lee is calling in from maryland, you are a gun owner? caller: yes. host: what kind of gun do you have? glock 40 have a caliber. host: why do you have that? i have it for a number of reasons. i enjoy going to the range. it for self-defense for my family. we have a lot of things that are going on. we haveers are open and a legal's coming into the country. of the fbi threat domesticated terrorists. how are we supposed to defend ourselves if we cannot protect ourselves? i believe the mentally ill should not put everybody in the

same basket. they should not infringe upon our rights. us law-abiding citizens are trying to protect ourselves and you don't put everybody in the same category. host: what is a solution to prevent gun violence? caller: a solution is to get rid of the illegal criminals that are coming across the border. you can maybe tighten up on the , if they have a medical background where they are not psychologically passing a test or something, you can go that way. prisoners who have been released out of prison -- it seems like never in history have we had so many random gun violence like we have seen lately. i just don't understand. if you look at the fbi

gunistics, the crime rate, violence is down but the random shootings taking place all over the place, that is something that we have never seen before. host: thank you for calling in this morning. next up is jim in reading, pennsylvania. what's the solution to prevent gun violence? i believe in stricter laws. i am a gun owner and i have a 30:30. host: is that a rifle? caller: yes, and a 12 gauge double barrel shotgun. i have them put away. i used to hunt. i'm 57 years old. i used to hunt pretty much. , they are nra corrupt. the secondn

amendment but the constitution is so outdated. that was 200 years old. host: you said at the beginning that you would like to see stricter laws. what do you mean by that? what, iwell, i tell you would like to go through verification of the people. if you have a gun, you have to be sensible. i don't like handguns because you can carry them everywhere. assault rifles, none. that is military. i do not believe in that. host: thank you, sir. from maryland in the suburbs -- caller: i have a unique

perspective because i am a law enforcement officer. i carry for work and personally. the number one issue i see as a law enforcement officer is the mental health issue. laws one plenty of gun the books. that is not the problem. i don't have issues with law-abiding citizens carrying a weapon. we have many issues on a daily basis with individuals who suffer from mental illness. many years ago, when we changed thesegot rid of institutions, these individuals became homeless and there is no have anyr them to proper treatment or diagnosis or any medical services. basisappens on a regular you can ask any law enforcement wither, they interact

police officers because the police officer on the street does not know this person suffers from this illness. these individuals self medicate with drugs and narcotics because they cannot get the appropriate treatment. host: do you carry all the time? caller: yes, i do. i carry for my job. unfortunately, many individuals in the public could potentially try to harm me so i carry to have the ability to defend myself in whatever situation i am in. host: thank you. park ridge, illinois. we are talking gun owners only in this first segment. what is your solution to prevent gun violence? strategyy prevention

would be for companies to not be able to produce as many guns. aremajority of topics we talking about -- we are talking about people who are mentally ill taking guns and shooting people and causing mass trauma. the truth is, the majority of people who own guns are law-abiding citizens and the people who are committing crimes are not legal gun owners. even those who are legal gun owners, they slip through the cracks. the guy from sandy hook took his mother's guns and she was a legal owner and he was not so he took the guns from her and caused a crisis. if they were -- only allowed to produce so many

guns per license, we would have less people with guns. that do not have permits or licenses where anybody can get a gun seems crazy to me. in that case, you don't even have people who have been -onfirmed as capable i don't even know the word. host: that's daniel in park ridge, illinois. from our facebook page -- in chicago, according to the

"chicago tribune," there has been 1897 shooting victims. in bedford, virginia and is a gun owner. what's your solution to prevent gun violence? anybody can carry a gun but unless government does their job and we have better control over background checks and we get the gun manufacturers to come up with something like a trigger lock or whatever, there is not much that we can do. i am a veteran. i am saying this to any veteran out there -- if you go out to the range, you have no live ammunition. you don't carry. whilerry live ammunition you are carrying live ammo and you come off the range, no

brass, no ammo. let's make some sense about this. host: are you a gun owner? caller: yes, sir. host: what kind of background check to do go through? any? caller: of course. host: what was the process like? caller: i had to wait three days. it's not hard to do. actually enjoy target shooting or if i need to kill something for food so that i can survive instead of going to the grocery store, that's something i need to think about. as for shooting down your average joe on the street because i don't trust you and i don't like you and i will like the way you look or whatever, there is a lot of stuff going on here. host: another comment from our facebook page --

josh in odenton, maryland, will kind of gun do you have? them,: i've got three of handgun, a rifle, and a shotgun. host: why? caller: why not? saymain thing i wanted to on the gun violence thing, it's already done. it's just crazy people out there. proposingon you are as to what to do to gun violence, what do we do about violence? if a guy is crazy, chances are he will go out and do what he plans on doing. he might have grabbed a knife instead of a gun. when't like the direction they keep people from having guns.

let's have the discussion about trying to help crazy people out. there was one gentle man that brought up the point of [indiscernible] maybe that's the direction we should be looking. host: virginia governor terry mcauliffe spoke after the shooting in the roanoke, virginia area about how to prevent gun violence. [video clip] >> why i say it should not be political is my job as governors to keep our community safe. it's an important part of being a governor of a state. secondly, i spend all my time and economic development. thest announced last month largest surplus in virginia history. you can bring business to your state when communities are safe so this should not be political. why does a certain both have a sign that says we do not to background checks? who do you think will go to that booth? we should eliminate that.

for background checks, it's a simple procedure and takes 2-3 minutes and i have done it myself. you talk to responsible gun owners and they believe in that. i had to veto to bills this year in the general assembly that came to my desk, one that would allow for jeans to buy machine guns and a second bill that would allow you to carry a loaded gun in your car. those pieces of legislation and they could not override my veto. host: in response, here is "the washington post" -- val in burlington, north

carolina -- as a gun owner, what's your solution to preventing gun violence? caller: the first thing i would like to say is education and knowledge. it's not the gun that is the problem, it's the people carrying them. i may smith & wesson owner and i advise all women to learn about how to handle a gun and what state has different laws. the gentle man who commented about the knife. felon who gets a knife. you cannot carry certain things in your car. every state has a process. it might be hunting something but if you are 16 are older, your parents can go with you. i advise everyone to get education and educate yourself and then do it the right way.

get a concealed weapon permit. i'm a single mom and i don't want my gun taken away from a. i have children. i have a young lady and two boys. and with violence against children these days, i will protect my child. that's what god put us here for is to protect our children but we also have to teach them safety. unfortunately today, most parents are working or going to school or even both parents in the household. it's not like when we grew up. it's totally different. they have tv shows and all of these videogames about war. immune tog our kids the sensibility of killing. killing to them is nothing because of all the games they have. we are doing that. we are producing games to make your kids numb. up and sawe growing someone die, we said oh my god.

it's nothing for them to see blood spurting out. that goes back to the parent. it's what you allowing your household. the government has some responsibility but as parents, we have the most responsibility of our kids. host: what was the process like to get a concealed carry permit? in north carolina, you have to take a class. you take a gun safety class. it's not that expensive and it does not take all day and you can go on saturday morning or in the afternoon at your convenience. colleges that have gunsmithing like in roxborough, north carolina, they offer it and a couple of places in greensboro offer it. andcan go and take a class you have to fill out the application and you do a background check. then you get your gun. that piece of paper, so

you are not violating any laws. you have the right to carry it. for all the citizens who are complaining or don't want guns taken away, do with the right way and get your concealed weapons permit. you are ayou law-abiding citizen protect yourself and what the law allows us to do. there is approximately 300 million guns in the united states. over 100 million gun owners currently. is one in philadelphia. you are on the air. what's your solution to prevent gun violence? caller: good morning, i am a gun owner and a paramedic for 30 years. we have -- evaluation like they do in south carolina if you're going to have a carry

permit. you should have to qualify for a test. you should have more guns, not less guns, because there is a lot of bad people out there. you have to make the rules more even so people can survive. host: what are the regulations for owning a gun in philadelphia? pass a testhave to -- excuse me, you have to fill out your paperwork and as long as the state says yes, you can get it. host: thank you. sandra, pomona, california. caller: hello and thank you for taking my call. this is a great subject because the question is how to prevent gun violence. honestly, there is no way to prevent it. guns?st said 3 million host: 300 million.

caller: i worked in psychiatric care for 30 years and even the mentally ill, the vast majority, are not violent. gun and have for 40 years. i grew up around guns. in an in a neighborhood urban environment where there are gangs and things like that. background checks will not do anything because people who obey the law and people who are mentally healthy are going to do the right thing and get a background check and take the safety class and not break the laws. orple who are mentally ill people who are criminals or gang members and things like that are not going to do that. it's ridiculous to think that i can go down the street and buy in a legal gun in probably 30 minutes at 1:00 in the

morning. host: thank you. by motherstudy in jones and it's a columbia university cooperated study. it shows gun ownership state by state in the u.s. the darker the state, the more gun ownership. this, which is alaskaed in the journal, has 62% of adults saying they own a firearm and delaware is at the bottom with just 5%. jack is calling in from to gunee, we are talking owners only in this first segment and looking for ways to prevent gun violence. caller: good morning, a number of gunshot guns, rifles -- i have a different take. there are a series of things rather than one or two.

enhance to really sentences when criminals commit a crime with a gun and we don't. there are many criminals using guns that are not sentenced for the gun use. we should sweep the ghettos where people are arming themselves to the teeth and doing drive-bys. we should have gun education in schools. if sex education and domestic violence remediation education is worthy, certainly people uneducated about how to use guns should be educated. use of looking at people on parole or probation and former convicts, these are the people that are really mucking up the system. they are the repeaters. finally, we could use mental health records more intelligently. some states like massachusetts

over multiple years, they withhold and do not report anyone with a mental illness when a background check his order. states have the right to either be forthcoming with mental health records or totally withhold them. that needs to be looked at. to me, there is a series of practical steps that can be taken that could ratchet down and help keep them out of the hands of people not worthy to have them. host: you are down by chattanooga? caller: right overlooking it. host: you just had a shooting down there. caller: correct. host: do you think any of those steps would have prevented what happened at the recruiting office down there? if wemo added another like we monitoredsques

did after 9/11, perhaps. the radicalization, the sudden radicalization of these islamicists is another category. they are getting trained in the art and science of making killing fields in whatever country they are in. host: thank you for calling in this morning. new jersey governor chris christie talked about what happened in virginia. [video clip] to have more information about people's mental health background but we don't need new laws in this country to do that. we need to enforce the ones we have. >> he should have been profiled? >> i don't know the particulars about him or anybody else. in general, the problem i see is a governor is that we are not focusing on mental health. all you hear now is let's have new laws. we don't enforce the laws we have. enforce the gun laws against

felons who held guns and they were committing most of the violent crime this country and we want to call from our laws. it's just for members of congress to feel useful and that's not what we need to do. host: from the pew research center -- where the guns are -- broken down by region -- guns andutherners own 35% of those in the midwest and 34% in the west and 27% in the northeast. al in the northeast in charlestown, rhode island -- as a gun owner, what's a way to prevent gun violence? caller: good morning. we are looking at all the wrong answers. one, the movies and videos that kids see, you see them in the streets. the videos and the movies are big causes for gun violence. about two, no one talks

the crime in the minority community especially among the black population. they are shooting each other left and right in every city there is an no one talks about it. you get a shooting like this and all of a sudden, it's gun violence. we've got to restrict the guns. it comes from the family, the videos, the movies -- as far as mental health, you can blame that on the bleeding heart liberal democrats. if someone has a mental problem, the states don't want to be known. they hide it. we don't want the person to feel bad. that person gets a gun and commits murders, it's because we were not able to tell people what it is. you are looking at all the wrong answers. thank you for c-span. back to the pew research center study on gun ownership -- the new research suggests a paradox. while blacks are significantly

to beikely than whites homicide victims, blacks are only about half as likely as whites to have a firearm in their home. 41% of whites and 19% of blacks -- hispanics are less likely than blacks to be gun homicide victims and have as likely as whites to have a gun in the home. nolan is calling in from alton, missouri, gun owners only this morning -- solutions to prevent gun violence. caller: thank you for taking my call. donehing that needs to be is where they have the gun shows, those need to be watched closely. that's where a lot of the guns are getting on the streets. i have been to gun shows.

buy 30 or 40 unless someone is going to sell them on the street and make money? that's something that has to be have to be gun shows policed somehow. have you ever bought a gun at a gun show? caller: yes. host: what is the process? you hand the money to them and you buy it and go home with it. host: all right. we are listening. caller: ok. host: anything else you want to add? caller: yeah, i am 60 years old. i have never taken a gun out of the house, not one time since i was 12 years old. i don't carry a gun with me when

i go out. i am not scared the whole time. there are people who are scared and those people kill people. the people who are worried someone will hurt them. host: if you've been listening,val called in from burlington, north carolina, a single mother and has a concealed carry permit. what do you say to her? well, that's fine if that's what she wants to do. i don't have a concealed carry permit. i've got 12 or 15 guns. i carry my guns out in the open when i want to carry them and that's legal in the state of missouri. i am a hard-core liberal democrat and i believe we should have firearms, i really do.

there is not a lot of jobs here in its rural and people hunt and fish to feed themselves and their families. country iss in this a necessity. for a lot of things. anything in shot at my life that i did not know i was shooting at. turkeydeer, i fish, hunt , i don't go out and kill coyotes. i don't mean to, is not a necessity. host: i want to ask you about another caller we had come a gentleman from tennessee, who ghettosshould sweep the of guns. maybe that was from rhode island. what do you think when you hear that? in springfield, they have had gun buying days

and they will buy guns from people. host: the police. they are handling it that way. we've got to get the guns off the street in the cities. that's where a lot of the problems coming from. a good place to start is the gun shows. this is sam and shady grove, texas. caller: good morning. we should remove the exception to background checks. there is no ultimate solution but that is a partial solution. if we had real parity with mental health and physical health, families would be better off. host: what kind of gandhi loan? host: -- what kind of gun do you own? caller: i have shotguns and handguns. host: why do you have an ak-47?

caller: just for target practice. host: as a hobby? caller: yes. what if one of the solutions proposed was let's take away automatic rifles? for what my purposes are, i don't mind losing it. that's partout, if of the solution, fine but there is no one universal solution to the problem. we can whittle at it but i want to keep my guns. host: thank you. the front page of "the new york times "--

this article continues --

kathy is calling in from cherokee, north carolina. caller: good morning. it starts at home. families are going have to be more together. parents are going to have to know what their kids are looking at on the internet, facebook, any of that stuff. if parents can start watching their kids --

i understand parents work but you should know what your kids are doing at all times. don't let them get on the computer unless you are at home. the signs will start showing when they are a kid. the doctor or whoever is seeing that child needs to step in. it's not the guns that's killing people. kidsnot keeping up with starting out with mental problems. they don't get mental problems overnight. it comes along. you can see it at the start. if you have a child at home and he is getting in trouble in school and not coming home at night, you need to do something about it. suggesting that there should be may be restrictions on gun ownership for the mentally ill or people

who have been diagnosed? caller: yes. it starts while they are young. it does not happen when they are old enough to get a job. it starts when their kids. people nowadays are not watching their kids. they are not listening and seeing what they are doing on facebook or the computer. all that needs to be monitored, not just the guns. host: what kind of gun to you have? caller: i have a 22. host: what if you are required to keep a gun lock on your 22? caller: we have them locked. host: what if you were required to? i lock them. they are already locked. they need to be where kids cannot get a hold of them. my kids were raised around guns. i could leave it laying out in the corner and they know not to touch that gun.

to is the waydown people are raising their kids these days. a long time ago, people had guns sitting out. their kids did not touch them. if your kidst know will touch it or not because you are not disciplining them and keeping them on the right track. you need to go down the good road or the bad road. host: what if there were restrictions put on the number of guns you could own? caller: that's still not take care what's going on. do, therere what you will always be people that do crimes and they get guns. people who respect to guns. don't disarm them. that's not going to fix it. that would make it worse if anything. individual people get hurt and

we will have more break-ins and it will continue on. host: clarence is calling in from louisiana, you are on "the washington journal." caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. who aree people enthusiastic about the second amendment, they want to own a gun. i wonder if they have ever actually shot another human being if not killed them, shot them. how would they feel about guns then? host: what's your answer? caller: a lot of friends of mine are from new orleans, guys that come back from the war, and they swear they will never pick up another gun in their life. base for they will never pick up another gun in their life. life --another persons i have seen a guy get killed who

is nine years old. the guy that shot him ran behind and then he stood over him and started crying. he went crazy. if they thought about taking another human's life. -- i've got wonder six guns, i've got 42 rifles and others, why? do you intend to kill people? that's all they are for. what they mean is they are planning on killing somebody. host: are you a gun owner? caller: i used to be. host: why did you get rid of it or why aren't you anymore? caller: like i said, i have seen too many friends of mine get killed.

a guy was fighting his and she got the gun and shot him in the head. ever since i was nine years old and saw the first guy get killed in front of our house. another guy was in bed with this one -- the gun is in the house. the husband and wife are arguing. the gun is in the house on the argument gets heated and someone will get the gun. i have seen friends of mine get killed like that. we are talking to gun owners only this morning and solutions to prevent gun violence. el cajon, california. if you my suggestion want to do psychiatric evaluation and everybody who buys guns, it will be very expensive.

at thehat they can do national rifle association p is che technician and do a quick test to make sure the guy is in the right state of mind. suspicious, they can refer them for psychiatric evaluation. en other words, a psych technician and every gun store and do a quick quiz and anybody who wants to buy a gun and make sure they are in the right state of mind. if anything is suspicious, doing more evaluation. withshould be done along the other test, the safety test another things, just a rapid psychiatric check. on every gun owner.

just train 20 psychiatric technicians to do a quick psychiatric evaluation. host: so, down to mental health in your view? the peopleolutely, who do crazy things with guns are crazy people. upyou initially can pick it in a quick evaluation that is cheap, that's a good way to go about it. host: what was the process like for you when you bought a gun? caller: i passed the regular test, the safety test. another paperad to have a quick psychiatric test. owner inert is a gun chicopee, massachusetts, what is your solution? for the guy in