it seemed appropriate to wear today. in the land of ronald reagan, an open shirt would be inappropriate, but not this time. thank you for holding this hearing. i think we all benefited. i would like to remind all the witnesses that i did ask for and in writing list of those characteristics they think are most important in the way of skill sets before coming to the bench because i think the diversity of their answers could help you and myself. chair johnson: thank you, and i went to especially thank the members of the first panel who had the staying power to stay throughout the second panel. once again, thank you to all the panelists and everyone have a great day. this hearing is adjourned. >> c-span is your unfiltered

view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including comcast. >> comcast is partnering with 1000 community centers to create wi-fi enabled spots so families can get the tools they need to be ready for anything. >> comcast supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> coming up this afternoon, hearing on congressional authority over elections. watch the house committee hearing life, shortly at 1 p.m. eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org, or you can listen on the free c-span radio app. @cspanwj. you can start calling him now, we are expecting that meeting with elected officials and law

enforcement leaders to happen at the white house from 1:15 today, perhaps some remarks from president biden at the top of that coverage set to take those remarks if those do happen today. starting our conversation this morning, if you are in that meeting with president biden what suggestions would you have to reduce gun violence in the country? president biden just a couple weeks ago talking about a concern in the rise of violent crimes and gun violence specifically. these are some of his comments from the white house. >> -- pres. biden: crime historically rises during the summer and as we emerge from this pandemic with the country opening back up again, the traditional summer spike may be more pronounced than it usually would be. for folks at home here's what you need to know. i've been at this a long time. there are things we know that work to reduce gun violence and violent crime and things that we don't know about.

the things we know about like background checks while purchasing a firearm are important. a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, no one needs to have a weapon that can fire 30, 40, 50, or even 100 rounds unless you think the deer are wearing kevlar vests. community policing and programs that keep neighborhoods safe and folks out of trouble, these efforts work and save lives. over time these policies were gutted and woefully underfunded. host: president biden from late last month. we might be hearing more from him today ahead of the meeting with law enforcement officials and elected leaders on this issue of gun violence, the white house is pushing to reduce gun violence in this country, on the issue of gun violence recent polling -- this is according to the p

research center survey, that is comparable to the share that say they are concerned about the federal budget deficit, violent crime, illegal immigration, and the coronavirus outbreak. only one issue is viewed as a bigger problem by a large majority of americans, the affordability of haircare -- of health care. about three in 10 say it's either a small problem or not a problem at all in this country, asking you how you would reduce gun violence and we have that line set aside for gun owners in the u.s.. if you are a gun owner and want to weigh in on this conversation we will get right to your calls this morning. rita is up first out of jacksonville, alabama. good morning. caller: talking about the guns, i've been around the guns all my life. a gun don't fire itself, it's the people that pull the trigger

, and, this world is in such a turmoil that this is going to wind up in a war, and my son won't let me have my guns. but i might not shoot to kill someone, but i will make them think what they are doing. host: do you think gun violence is a big problem in this country? i think we lost her. eric is in elk grove village, illinois independent. good morning. caller: there is no such thing as gun violence. i don't know why the media keeps calling it that. what we have is violence. host: why do you think it is specifically just african-americans? caller: two thirds of all the gun violence is caused by them. one third is caused by hispanics.

less than 2% is caused by one p -- white people. host: according to what statistic? caller: every statistic. i've been following the news for 68 years. this is my thing, news and information. it is black man violence number one. host: that is eric. glenn from texas, good morning. caller: good to talk to you here on c-span today. host: what are your thoughts on reducing gun violence? caller: when you defund the police gun violence has gone up. there is no way of denying that. host: if you are in the meeting with president biden what would you say? caller: i would first get rid of joe biden and get him out of office. i think he's the worst thing to happen to the country. when you defund the police all over the country you are going to have gun violence and there

are going to be a lot of racial discrepancies between blacks, browns, and whites. if you do not have police control you are not going to have control of gun violence. i am an nra firearms instructor and if you know how to handle a firearm safely that is ok, but 99% of the people that have firearms are having them illegally. they do not know how to handle them. they have short tempers and when you have that you will have violence. host: glenn from texas this morning. other calls already from illinois. one of the headlines last week from the chicago tribune, two dead and three seriously injured in a wednesday night shooting in chicago. it was the headline of that story that the congressman linked to in his tweet on this

topic just yesterday, saying it's unacceptable that these kind of headlines have become normal, it's time to pass comprehensive gun reform. a couple of the tweets from your viewers this morning, tom saying the problem is violence not guns, it has taken three generations of no military -- the usa is a violent culture resulting -- resolving all conflicts with violence. john says firearms education, the draft, reducing indoctrination and the stigma of taboo was not attached to it. andrew cuomo tweeting about gun violence, declaring yesterday -- mclaren last week a public health crisis on the issue of gun violence announcing a strategy to combat gun violence in the short-term and long-term using public health approaches and making that an issue. president biden is focusing on that issue later today, a meeting at the white house, we

are focusing on the issue this morning. a special line for gun owners asking you how you would reduce gun violence. in lakewood, washington a democrat, good morning. caller: i'm certainly not a democrat, but thanks for having me on. i think that income inequality is one of the biggest issues that leads to gun violence and also racist policing where we have police going into minority communities and basically raping them of fathers and mothers and leaving children without guidance. this is a big issue and this is an issue that has been exacerbated by white liberals who wanted to pass the crime control act of 1994. host: one of our callers brought

up the issue of defunding the police, what are your thoughts on that issue? >> if we are going to have police i think it's best that we demand that they have degrees, hopefully in areas like social work and things like that, so they are less likely to use violence as well. host: this is senator ted cruz from twitter, democrats have repeatedly called to defund the police and have done so in so many cities that crime is rising and democrat policies had deadly consequences. the issue of defunding the police talked about on the senate floor recently from earlier this spring. this is senator mitch mcconnell the minority leader in the senate on that issue. >> not only do we need to disinvest from police but

completely dismantle the minneapolis police department. policing in our country is inherently and intentionally racist, no more policing, incarceration, and militarization. incredulous people ask whether this nonsense was government seriously, hopefully one member of congress clarified. defunding police means defunding police. a small set of politicians macy's selfish opportunities for fundraising if they d fame and defund the police, but american families are paying a deadly price. defunding the police is not just a terrible idea for overall public safety, it's also a uniquely awful strategy for racial justice. one study recently confirmed that larger police forces save lives and the lives saved are

disproportionately black lives. i'm not sure exactly how the rantings of the far left twitter about crime and policing became official democratic party dogma in so many places across america. what i do know is that ordinary americans cannot bear much more of this and that goes double for the most vulnerable. host: senator mitch mcconnell on the senate floor. a couple of gun reform bills awaiting action in the senate passed by the house earlier this spring. here is a wrap up of those bills from the atlanta journal-constitution. the first measure passed the democratic led house and the bill will expand background checks to those purchasing weapons over the internet, at gun shows, or in private interactions. the second bill passed to 19-to 10 with two republican supporting it it would give

authorities 10 business days for federal background checks to be completed before gun sales can be licensed. currently such sales can proceed if the government cannot complete its background check for a prospective buyer within three days, expanding the timeframe. scott, with the issue of gun violence what would be your suggestion for reducing it? caller: there's a couple of things i think we need to do. we need to go back to the days where guns were being taken out of the criminals hands by locking the criminals up by using the guns and information on the crime. the problem with people now that are killing everybody else is that they know that there is really no accountability for them. they can do what they want. i've been a gun owner since i was 16 years old.

i've had a concealed carry permit for the last 40 years, i carry my gun on me all the time. host: that's the concealed carry? caller: yes sir. i'm the only one in my family that actually has guns and that has carried a gun, no one else in my family does, they are very liberal and they stay away from them. i believe that having it in my life protects me. i'm a real estate broker. i go into houses all by myself in the middle of the afternoon and night to show people houses. i need that they as protection. friends of mine have been attacked and that is something that is there to keep it at bay. i've never had to draw my gun or shoot anybody and i don't see why the people that are shooting people in these inner cities are being allowed to just walk away without any consequences. host: why do you say they are

walking away without consequences? you don't think law enforcement is doing enough to arrest them and prosecute? caller: law enforcement is trying to do the best they can and it seems to be more in the liberal run states and democratic states is where it seems to be more. the violence that is happening in the cities is going on where they are shooting each other and they are getting caught some of them, they are going to jail and getting relief almost immediately and there are five or six years down the road before they get brought back in again. that means there have been 12 other shootings and they've been arrested three other times. it's really not the fact that they are not being caught, it's the fact that we are not locking them up and keeping them locked up. they think if you deter the crime by locking people up you will stop the gun violence, but if you allow people to sit there and shoot people it's not going

to stop anything. host: to district heights, maryland on the line for democrats this is alex. what are your suggestions for reducing gun violence? caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i sympathize with scott from massachusetts, highly regarding -- they seem to take lightly for people that do commit crimes with these guns and they seem to be back out on the streets quickly. as far as the whole defunding the police part, when you ask for defunding the police, when we have this rise in gun violence it's kind of hard to do that. there are a lot of shootings happening, i'm not in southeast d.c., but i'm near the line and there are some issues.

i can't begin to describe how many as well as the deaths reported that you see on the local news. you can't have defunding the police when there is this rise in gun violence and it prevents the police from adequately doing the job. the first caller from alabama, she is right, while guns don't shoot other people themselves it's the people doing it. i feel like there is something, i feel like it's too rampant now to really control simple legislation, i don't want to support the whole thing of everyone's guns being taken away through some sort of martial law, that sounds kind of crazy. it's to the point where the classroom, the whole classroom dynamic, that whole analogy needs to be punished. >> do you support expanding background checks whether it is these issues at gun shows or

longer windows to give federal officials more time to conduct background checks? >> i do support the background checks, the problem is even that current sort -- it's too short, it's 10 days that i don't know. 10 days it doesn't seem long enough at all. the fact that you can purchase it online, i don't know if it's mind-boggling to you. the fact that i gun costs around $2500 or 3000 depending on the type of weapon, cost less than buying the $14,000 car outside, i don't know. >> you mentioned the 10 days. the bill before the senate in the spring would give authorities 10 days, would expand it from the current

effort in the current legislative timeframe that has just three days to conduct background checks and if it's not conducted the purchase can proceed. it was senator john kennedy, the republican from louisiana at a recent hearing who talked about this issue with fbi director christopher wray about the national instant criminal background second -- the national instant criminal background system if that system has all the data it needs if these gaps appearing, it's not a lack of using the system but -- here's his conversation with christopher wray from the end of june. sen. kennedy: on the database, what do you get the information -- where do you get the information for it? dir. wray: a lot of sources, but most of the information is coming from state and local law enforcement. sen. kennedy: are they sending

in all the information they should suppose -- they are supposed to? dir. wray: we are continuing to address that. a recent act has been a good help in that regard and every year we are increasing the completeness of that database. there is still room for improvement. >> the truth is for some, but my understanding is, that for some at the state and local level it's not a priority. it's not that they are sitting around watching netflix, they just are busy doing other stuff, but that be a fair statement? dir. wray: i understand why you would describe it that way, i have to be careful to characterize our partners as distracted. i will say, i have gone there and sat with the operator and

listened to the calls to hear how it works. some of these things especially when you start getting into misdemeanor domestic violence offenses it could get complicated and if the records in whatever jurisdiction it is are not ready at hand or clear it can become a real challenge and that was magnified during the pandemic because a lot of departments, local departments were not at work. >> i read about the president and others saying that the problem is we need to expand background checks and it seems to me that a big part of our problem, nothing is perfect, but a big part of our problem is that the current system we have is only as good as the information inputted, and all the information isn't being inputted. host: senator john kennedy in a

conversation with fbi director christopher wray at the end of last month. today at the white house president biden is set to meet with law enforcement officials with elected leaders to talk about this issue of gun violence in this country and talk about strategies to reduce it. we are having the conversation, asking you what you would tell the president if you were in that meeting. john in pennsylvania, a gun owner, what would you say? caller: i would say you basically have to look at the areas where these democrats are running these cities and the states. i'm here in pennsylvania about 30 miles from philadelphia, and we have zero gun crime. i have to drive maybe an hour and it's a wild west showdown there. you talk about defunding the police, they want to take guns off of police on my down in philadelphia you can even not pepper spray or teargas them,

it's ridiculous. you let these democrats run these cities and all you get is gun violence. there is no reason for you to be passing new gun laws when you should be getting these illegal guns out of these people's hands. you don't even talk about illegal guns. people who break the law, it's not law-abiding people who will go out and get a gun and handed over to somebody or go out and commit a crime with it. these people carrying these guns don't have a concealed carry permit, they don't have these guns registered, a lot of the times they are either stolen or black marketed guns. and still you to -- until you start doing something the reason why these guns are getting in these urban areas i don't see why you should be hassling law-abiding gun owners with new gun laws and making them wait a

month and charging them more for ammunition when they are not the ones doing the crime. just like the other caller, this is black on black stuff. host: on the illegal gun ownership from the hill newspaper this is charles marino, if you don't know charles marino, the ceo of sentinel security, a global security firm previously served as a supervisory special agent with the u.s. secret service, wrote a column on friday in the hill newspaper about some of these issues you are talking about, and this is what he wrote in that column. we know where the guns come from and who is using them to commit >> we will leave this program but you can finish watching it at www.c-span.org. we take you like to hear from legal experts testifying on congressional authority over elections and the election bylaws. you