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while -- wow. >> wow supports c-span as a public service, along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> a good tuesday morning. we are asking for your ideas on reducing gun violence in this country. to the chicago tribune, here is their story on yesterday's shooting at the fourth of july parade. on an idyllic summer morning from a rooftop high above the highland park independence day parade, a gunman aimed at the floats and lawn chairs and strollers and open fire. in high school party band member sprinted for their lives still carrying their saxophones, six people were killed, some do -- two dozen othersvictims ranged t to 85. highland park became the latest

community to be terrorized by mass shooting. it goes on to note, monday evening after an hours long search police arrested a suspect of interest. he was ultimately arrested without incident in lake forest. he was taken to highland park as the investigation continued. that is from the chicago tribune. from the front page of the philadelphia inquirer, here is their story on the shooting in that city. two officers were shot and injured in front of the art museum at the parade. it caused stampede's of people watching fireworks to flee what they believed was an active shooter. investigators were still seeking where the shots were fired, how many were fired, and if they were intentionally fired toward police. nobody else was shot in the incident. that is some of the scenes from yesterday across this country. asking you for your ideas on reducing gun violence in the

united states. statement from president biden yesterday in the wake of that chicago shooting. this is what the president had to say, jill and i are shocked by the senseless gun violence that has brought grief to a community this independence day. i recently signed the bipartisan gun legislature. that includes actions that would save lives but there is more work to do and i am not going to give up fighting the epidemic of gun violence. president biden with a few more words yesterday during a white house event honoring veterans and their family members. this is what the president had to say. [video clip] pres. biden: before i left for europe i signed the first gun safety law in 30 years. [applause] and things will get better still, but not without more hard

work together. you all heard what happened, y'all heard what happened today. but each day we are reminded, there is nothing guaranteed about our democracy. nothing guaranteed about our way of life. we have to fight for it, defend it, and earn it by voting. host: president biden yesterday from the white house, the law that he signed last month, the bipartisan safer communities act as he noted in his statement, one of the first major gun reform legislation in almost 30 years. that now law expands background checks for buyers between 18 and 21, provides access to previously sealed juvenile records, grants that can apply to read flag laws, criminal statutes banning straw purchasing, clarifies who need to register as a firearms

dealer, closes the boyfriend loophole for those convicted of domestic abuse from owning a gun, and allows other provisions aimed at reducing gun violence. that is some of what was in the law but we are asked you this morning in the wake of what happened this morning, what are your thoughts on gun violence? what are your thoughts for reducing that violence? randall is first in washington, d.c. caller: you have two areas. you have the general area where guns are being sold illegally because, unfortunately, a great number of republicans are in the pockets of business and that is what is funding the nra and stuff like that.

companies that have made weapons of war have warned us of the industrial complex. i think this is a situation where the military shows conflict of interest in order to remain viable when they are not at war. the other area is the legal sale --illegal sale of guns. no amount of police -- they are taking reports after the fact, responding after the fact. the only way to slow this down is to control how guns move through this country. host: that was randall right here in d.c. eric in tucson, arizona. caller: good morning.

i am an air force veteran of 20 years and been around the world and back and back again. i have seen in other countries things that need to be done that they do. in the united states, we have no deterrent. in other words, a situation where you got to make examples of people. you have clowns already in prison. you need to be out there and they need to be caned. when their friends see them crying on tv, they might get the idea. host: mike is next, republican. caller: i would like to give my condolences to the fallen officers gunned down needlessly

and the families of everybody in chicago, and outside chicago, especially at the fourth of july parade. once again, the protected democrats known as antifa can just gone down a parade like they did in buffalo and that was protected as well. people said, he is a republican. in his own words -- i would like to read you something -- from the buffalo shooter, i am an eco-fascist, left-wing extremist. that was in the dossier that was reported by nobody but fox news. host: what do we do today? caller: what do we do today? get rid of guns in cities. period. if you live in a city, i'm sorry to say, especially black violence. host: mike in north carolina. alexander is in brooklyn, new

york, democrat. caller: good morning. i would like to reply to mike that just called. this is for all republicans. i live in new york city and we had really good strong gun laws. because of the second amendment and republicans thinking it is an overreach for there to be laws that prevent situations like this, we do have mass shootings. to think because you have the second amendment allows you to have these extremely powerful weapons out on the streets everywhere and not expect there to be crimes like this and horrific scenes like this, it is absurd. there is no other place in the world, republicans, no other place in the world where there are destructive situations like

this. this is american exceptionalism and here we are, how many times call length? having this absurd conversation. i am calling to all republicans, this is nothing first time and it will not be the last. none of your excuses will change the fact that until we change the laws and allow people to have access in this capacity, young men that go out into the world and feel destroying and killing people is the solution is ever going to change. host: are you still with us? i think we lost alexander but you mentioned the second amendment. it is the subject of michael's political cartoon in the washington post. the body outline on the ground, the flags, markings where the

bullet cases, and celebrating independence in the second amendment. that from the washington post. marsha, north carolina, independent. your thoughts on this question. caller: good morning. i hope everybody had a good 4th except for the ones that are fallen, god bless them. i want to say this is another example of people wanting their guns. i raised two sons. none of them were outshooting and i am a single mother. they want to blame mothers with fatherless households. i was married. we were divorced and he had nothing to do with his children. and they also want to blame

republicans. this is not a republican or democrat or independent issue. this issue goes to the prosecuting attorneys and the defense attorneys and our administration. these guys probably have rap sheets a mile-long and they are out on the streets shooting people. although, we also have antifa and we have other organizations that were paid to do what they do. not by the republicans and the independents. host: marcia in north carolina. it is marjorie taylor greene, the councilman from georgia, republican congresswoman with several tweets yesterday calling on more information to be released about the shooter out of chicago, saying, while they are researching history on the

scum that kill people at the parade, they should permanently delete his name. but we should demand his records to be released, arrest record, hospitalization history, drug prescriptions, psychological, psychiatric and child abuse. is this another story were some crazy manifesto will be found? are we going to be told the amount of ammo he bought, yet not his prescription drug history? who are the people he talked to in law enforcement or fbi? if they knew about him, why? we want the records, is with the congresswoman said. other members of congress tweeting their thoughts including illinois senator tammy duckworth calling it terrifying. families from all oversee this time honored tradition and many found them souls running for their lives.

every community deserves to be safe from gun violence. nancy pelosi say, let us renew our vow to never relent until all of our children can live free from gun violence. america's hearts are broken by the violence in highland park as innocent families were celebrating. we pray for all of those who have lost loved ones and for the community ever scarred by the shooting. some of the comments from members of congress today. later today, vice president harris will be speaking at the national education association meeting in chicago. yesterday, after learning the news of the shooting, she spoke a little bit about the idea of gun violence in this country and what she can be talking about the teachers today. [video clip] v.p. harris: i will be traveling to chicago to discuss with the ama.

i was hearing from our local firefighters that part of what -- sadly i was preparing this before -- but it was a little section on what our teachers go through. they go to school to learn how to teach our children, inspire their ambition, create the future generation of leaders, and our teachers are also in training to deal with an active shooter. our teachers are learning how to put a tourniquet on a kid if they have been shot. when we look at the issue of gun violence and when we look at the dangers that it presents to communities, it ranges and is something we should take seriously. the president recently signed bipartisan legislation to address gun violence but we have more to do. host: she will be speaking from chicago today at the nea meeting.

rory in california on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. basically, there are already too many guns in america. a few years ago i heard there were three guns for every man, woman and child in america. it is too late for that. the only thing that ever happened is if you have a gun in your house, and i am not talking about walking the streets, if somebody breaks in, you shoot them. society has to live with the fact that is going to happen and those who shoot people in the streets, i hope they do not have arrests and release for those groups. no bail for them at all. anybody who uses a gun stays in jail, no matter the law. that is it. goodbye. host: the estimate according to an article from bloomberg and

the debate over gun violence in this country leading up to that bipartisan law that was enacted. the number is 393.3 million weapons according to a 2018 report by a small arms survey. that is how many guns they estimate in the united states, higher than our population of 330 million. bob in illinois, democrat. caller: hello, c-span. a common sense standpoint, when an 18-year-old shoots down some people, 19 to 20, you automatically end assault weapons. not on people like marjorie

taylor greene. you automatically get rid of the assault weapons and you need a gun on a regular basis if you are attacked. you should have a gun here or there, but it is aggravating. like this recent law. the biggest thing republicans have is the fact that a good gun will stop a bad gun. that did not happen when those 18 kids got killed. so, make a law. stop acting like store brats. host: richard out of myrtle beach, republican. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: doing good.

caller: i have been in law enforcement over 20 years and been carrying guns. the problem here we have is the mental health laws. we need to get stronger background checks and check these people because it is not the guns killing people, it is the people. you could lay a gun on a table and it will not kill anybody. you just said the numbers of guns that are out there is quite a lot. but we need to look into all these children doing this and they all seem to have some type of mental disorder. it is a sad thing in this world. to eliminate that i think we would also increase people's protection in schools and good arm to security would help the teachers. host: richard, do you mind if i

ask you a different topic relating to your background of being in law enforcement? caller: yes. host: have you been following this story out of akron, ohio? jayland walker, 60 shots from eight officers after a foot chase. have you followed that story at all? caller: very little. late last night i was out of the house. 60 shots is a lot of shots. we had 41 shots many years ago in new york city. unfortunately, in my opinion, when the bad guy -- they are not thinking about anything but hurting people and the police are thinking about saving people. you have different mindsets. 60 is a lot but i was not there. i do not second-guess people but

i am glad they neutralized the suspect. it is a terrible thing, it definitely is, but i am sure that young man had major mental problems. host: more on the shooting in akron. the mayor declaring a state of emergency yesterday and issuing a curfew starting at 9:00 p.m. after protesters damaged property over the shooting of the 25-year-old man. it came after the release on sunday of the body camera footage that shows the officers firing dozens of times at jayland walker, who was unarmed when he was shot. the akron police chief said a lot of rounds were fired and deputies are trying to determine how many. the incident started according to police when he fled an attempted stop monday morning last week for an undisclosed traffic and equipment violation. while unarmed when shot, the chief said he also had a gun and

loaded magazine in the front and a shell casing was found near the scene where an initial gunshot was believed to be fired. that investigation ongoing. randy in wisconsin, independent. caller: good morning, john. couple of quick things. they do these background checks. i went and picked up a firearm and a background check took no time and i walked out the door with a gun. they need to do a thorough check. it takes a week to get a background check after it goes through so many channels to get an eyeball on this guy buying this weapon. he is probably one of the best guys in the neighborhood, but still, get a background check and notified all of the people

in the area, whether they be a civilian or cop, hey, this guy got a new weapon. maybe we want to keep our eyes open. wouldn't it be great if you could bring back stop and search like giuliani did in new york? seemed to me sitting out here in the midwest, that seemed to work pretty good. put them in jail and leave them in jail and fine them. let them go and cma times they will come back -- and see how many times they would come back. host: you would be ok with police notification when summary buys a gun? caller: you bet. put a note at the sheriff's office that so many were bought at this place down the road. put it up with their names and

70 might say, wait a minute, this guy has just bought a gun. let them now. we have got to get the word out. there are people out there with mental illness and this might be one way we can help it on the little bit. host: this is john out of tulsa, oklahoma, democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. the big ideas nothing is going to happen until you get these white christian nationalist, fascist republicans out of office. that last caller, i am sure he was republican and had an idea about -- these fascist republicans are not going to do anything. host: can we hold off on the name-calling? caller: yeah. how are you going to solve anything without that?

am i still on air? host: yes, sir. caller: nothing will happen until you vote these republicans out. host: jim in north dakota, republican. caller: hi, john. can you hear me? host: yes. caller: white fascist calling, how are you doing? there is no solution because democrats are always looking for a band-aid for a deeper wound in the culture. all we have to go back to is nam . i am 58. and most of our people that watch the show are older. host: you would be surprised. we have a lot of people who are younger. caller: i do not believe that but the older guys would know that back in the 1950's through the 1970's -- and i was a 1970's

kid -- every top 10 shows a western. you can still see them on me tv. everything that dominated the airwaves was a shoot them up. there were guns everywhere. look at the picture of your older brothers at christmas time. they all have a toy pointed at the camera. i had five older brothers, we all had guns. there was always a shotgun in our closet. shotgun shells were in my lego box when i was a kid. the gun is not the point. we took our guns to school and high school. we had guns in the back of the truck. first day of buck shooting was the biggest day. we all had fathers, korean veterans. half of the teachers were men.

the woodshop teacher would grab you by the scruff of the neck. there was fear of authority, things that were deeper issues. host: to we have gun culture now? you talk about the westerns on tv. there are callers who will point to the top movies that are out with massive shooting scenes that may say it is gun culture today that is just as prevalent. caller: yes, but the antithesis of the ideal of western manhood that was pushed by hollywood and your father's. these were exemplified by "shane." d remember that? all of the movies, the good guy never wanted to use his gun. until he was pushed and pushed and pushed.

the rifleman with chuck connors, "gunsmoke" with matt dillon. but then you move on to the africanized asian of our culture -- africanization of our culture. caller: basically if you look at me the wrong way, i will kill you. host: next democrat. caller: you have me follow that guy. that is crazy. as far as we are talking about that, i was at the edmund burke school when they had the shooting. so long as there are guns, there will be people out there shooting.

nothing you can do to stop it until we change where guns are in this world. right now, the supreme court says folks can carry guns walking through the streets. the idea that it is some quickfix or that it is some cultural thing making this happen, we are a violent country. we kill each other. we have so many guns because we like to kill each other. how do we change? i don't really know but we have got to change how we see ourselves in this world. we start talking about shooting children. we are shooting grandmas. come on, people who are not a threat and how many good guys with guns were at these places? we had a good guy with a gun at burke. there are good guys walking with guns in the parade. host: for folks who do not recall the incident, i think it was in may that the edmund burke shooting happened.

caller: april 22. host: remind folks what happened here in d.c. caller: we were at school and getting out of school and all of a sudden we had a guy start shooting at the school from high above. started really shooting up and shot over 240 rounds at the school. nobody died. god was looking out for us on that date. that was an act of god because where he shot up the place, we got one little girl that got shot, a guy got shot badly. a parent got shot picking up a kid got grazed. the point is that this person was trying to kill children. how do you deal with that? how do you wrap around the mentality that has nobody --

when you hear the racists talking about chicago and what happened, more times than not those issues are happening because folks have beef with each other. these people in chicago were basically like, let's kill. whoever gets killed is -- host: how have we gotten to that point in this country where that happens so often, somebody wanting to kill for the sake of killing? caller: i think america was built on violence and we have never really dealt with that history. now, with what is happening in florida, no, we cannot talk about what america is or what america has done. we have to create this romanticized history of who

america actually is to fit some constructed image that needs to be put out to amplify our notions of how great we are. once we get past that and start talking about what this country is about then possibly. but so long as we are in denial about what that is, look, here is my hypothesis. all of us are going to know somebody or witness a mass shooting some point. you cannot put hardened structures around everything we do as a society and a people. host: that was alan in washington, d.c. some other comments from members of congress in the wake of the shooting outside chicago. senator dick durbin going

to highland park yesterday to thank law enforcement for their work. my heart is with the victims and their families. congressman al green, his tweet saying, if we do not pass gun safety laws and get high-capacity magazines off the streets, we will become a society where the noble idea of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is just words on paper. castro with his tweet, the tragedy is another example of the horrific violence in america. my thoughts and prayers are with the families. unless we get a senate that is willing to change this, it will never end. a few more pictures from the scene yesterday in highland park. this from the front page of usa today. some of the items that were left as people ran for their lives after that shooting happened. bicycles, chairs tipped over, seen on the front page of the

washington times shows the law enforcement efforts to search for the shooter in the hours after the shooting. one more picture from the washington post. one of the balloons left behind as people were fleeing for their lives, bobbing along the parade route saying, "god bless america " abandoned on the ground. don in california, republican. caller: yes, sir. host: go ahead. caller: i just wanted to make -- i had a question. what exactly are they saying when they say "gun violence? " host: shootings like what happened yesterday and shooting at police officers like in philadelphia. caller: do you know what happened in wisconsin when five

people were killed and 40 injured when a car went through a parade? host: i do remember. caller: why don't they call that vehicle violence? host: ok. vehicle violence and mass shootings. how to end the violence? caller: how do you end the violence has nothing to do with weapons. the reason you were able to celebrate the fourth of july yesterday is because we had an armed citizenry. they start crying about, we have to get rid of the guns because you do not need a 40 round weapon to hunt for deer. they missed the concept completely. it has nothing to do with hunting. it has to do with your freedom. if you do not have an armed citizenry, you end up with countries like venezuela and oppressive governments that force people to do things they

do not want to do. the government needs to be afraid of the armed citizenry. as far as these mass shootings go, bad things are going to happen on planet earth among humans. they always have. remember charles whitman back in the 1950's? you can research this and you can find mass shootings throughout the history of mankind. host: do you think they are happening more often these days? caller: no, i think the problem is the media guys -- i am not like you -- but this morning i am watching msnbc, cnn, and that is all they are talking about, the shooting. yet, every weekend in chicago -- and everybody's going to say, oh, he is a racist -- but every weekend in chicago people are

being slaughtered end of the cares. why is that? host: are you finished? did you want to finish? caller: that's good. i got my point across. host: keith in florida, independent. go ahead. caller: good morning. how are you doing? i agree with the last caller. it is a matter of freedom. that is why we are celebrating the fourth of july. i think we need to learn more about this criminal's background. if we can learn more about his background, we will know where he is coming from. i think he is a left-wing terrorist and i believe the deal in akron, that was a matter of a

guy shooting at the cops and the cops went after him because he shot at the cops. you do not do that. do not be shooting at the cops. the fact that they shot him 60 times, they do not know what the guy has on them. the police are defending themselves and trying to get the guy off the street. these are terrorist acts against the american public, the innocent public trying to celebrate their freedom and they are being terrorized by these individuals. that is how i feel about it. host: that was keith in florida. this is carol in kingston, georgia. caller: good morning. listening to all the comments -- i love the show. i had a couple of things but i think the guy that spoke two

callers previous about being able to overthrow your government, i think that is what is behind all these weapons things the last few years. but my comments are basically, i would like to know where all the right to lifers are when it comes to this issue? they will go out there for abortion but do all the shootings not matter? that is one of my questions. the other is, how do you put the genie back in the bottle? you have all these armed people already and i really question how you change that as far as even if you change the laws. how do you get those guns back? my other comment is on the assault weapons.

i think they should be banned. they not only kill people, they tear the body up. that is a weapon of war. host: the question that always comes up, how you define an assault weapon? caller: firing multiple times. i believe in having guns. i used to be a member of the nra and i have had so many examples of bad things with guns throughout my life and i am 79. i have had a friend who had a weapon in the house that was unsecured and her child found it and killed himself by accident. it was a toddler. i have had other incidents where my father went hunting with his friends and one of the guys got shot, just like the cheney or

the other republican who wound up shooting somebody. i believe in guns. i love shooting. i do not think we need everybody armed and all of these guns that need to fire multiple times. those are for killing people. if you got to go hunt a deer or rabbit or anything out of the country, if you need an assault weapon, that is pretty bad. host: this is john in leland, north carolina, republican. caller: good morning. how are you doing? i am a gun owner. i have seen a lot of things happen in the world. i am a vet.

these people talk about assault rifles. every gun, every knife in the drawer in your kitchen is an assault weapon of some kind. the gun does not kill, people kill. the problem that we have with the weapons comes from training. we know everybody does not have time to train and these kids get hold of weapons that have never been around them and all they see is this glorified, gangster situation and they want to be gangsters. secondly, we -- host: should we have mandatory weapons training in this country? caller: yes, we should.

yes we should. we should have weapons training class in school like we had in the 1950's and 1960's and 1970's where kids were trained how to handle guns. that being said, it is not necessarily the school's place to train, it is the family's place to train. i had a son that was a drug addict. he was in rehab several times, got out, goes claim. he did not want to deal with life and going back into being a drug addict and he took his own life. these people who do these mass shootings are too selfish to commit suicide by themselves. they want suicide by the cops to

make it look like it is 70 else's faultless happened -- somebody else's fault this happened. if that man had stopped and done with the cops had told him to do, he would not have got shot. host: sorry for your loss. nancy an independent. are you with us? caller: good morning. that last caller spoke to what i wanted to speak to. can you hear me ok? host: yes, ma'am. go-ahead, nancy. caller: i just wanted to say -- yes, i am here. host: just go ahead. caller: hello? host: we will try to get you better on the line.

we will go to ruben in philadelphia, democrat. where were you last night when the shooting happened? caller: i was in my living room watching it unfold on tv. host: what it you think? -- what did you think? caller: we need to limit the amount of ammunition going to people. in a certain section of philadelphia we have a store that sells unlimited ammo. i remember when i was in basic training whenever we would leave the gun range, the sergeants would check ask and we would have to say, no ammo, no grant. even though we had the gun with us at all times it was never loaded and we could never take ammo back to the barracks because they were scared one of us might start shooting. but they never took our guns away, they just limited the

ammo. what i think they need to do is limit the amount of ammunition these people are getting. if you buy a six shooter, you should be given six bullets at the time you purchase the gun and you should be required to register. if you come back to buy more ammo, you need to prove what you did with the bullets you had. if you need to go to a gun range, they will supply you with ammo. i think we need to register because you only need one clip for a gun. if somebody comes to assault your house, you have the national guard and everyone. how much ammo and how many guns do you need to stave off attack? are you a terrorist yourself? there are just way too many bullets, too many guns. the guns are not just killing the people, it is the ammunition killing them and you do not need that much ammo. host: thank you for the call.

this is lawrence in elk grove village, illinois, republican. how close is elk grove village to highland park? caller: about 35 miles west or so. most of the people calling in, and the politicians always speak about prevention -- which is noble -- but we are forgetting one important thing about our legal system. our legal system is one of the best if not the best in the world. it is based on laws, statutes, ordinances and consequences. everybody forgets the consequences. that is what all the new testament is based on, laws, statutes, ordinances and consequences. our legislatures do not do anything at the federal and state level about the

consequences. for instance, somebody commits a crime with a gun and murders people, the consequences need to be very tough. people don't want to talk about the death penalty but that is a consequence. life in prison without parole, those are consequences. if we increased those consequences, the laws will take care of themselves as well. we forget about that in our legal system. we forget about the consequences. what do we do when we have people commit a mass shooting or individual shooting? we have programs on television. you had one guy earlier about the westerns. we have cable stations that show back to back shootings of mass killers. no, they should be put in prison for the rest of their lives because they committed a crime using a gun. you know what?

people who sell guns illegally should be held -- the consequences need to be tougher for them too. but we pay these people to make laws and follow-up the laws, they do not do their job. that is the problem. you know what? most consequences, whether life imprisonment without parole or execution, those will prevent them too. the bible says somebody commits a murder of their neighbor, they should be sent to god to answer for their crimes and people should see them being sent to god and these things will stop happening. host: lawrence in illinois. from the pages of the washington post today a story of efforts to reduce gun violence here in washington, d.c. and in the suburbs. this is how that story begins. pushed to violence as the headline. as the band played one of their

final sets, this family headed home in prince george's county with food in their hands. the mother said she attended the crime prevention and safety rally because she is tired of our babies dying from gun violence. put the guns down, she said, keep the kids safe. the our streets, our future rally brought together counseling, mentoring resources to curb gun violence and prevent crime through the community engagement efforts. though homicides have dropped 30% with this time last summer, gun recoveries are up, carjackings remain a concern. the police have investigated 45 homicides this year. the story in the washington post about that effort if you would like to read more. one more story on a different topic from the new york times.

the open pages of the new york times keeping you updated on the passing of one well-known public figure. he worked behind the scenes a landmark legislation, serving as the first black secretary of the army died at his home at 88 years old. his daughter said the cause was heart failure. he opened the doors for black officers to rise to the rank of general, including a promising young colonel named colin powell. he saw his role sec. of the army as a key extension of the civil rights movement and inaugurated policies that were spectacularly affected in achieving his goals, said harvard professor henry louis gates. the fact of the united states military is the most integrated institution in our society can

be traced to the foresight of clifford alexander. there is a picture of clifford alexander with jimmy carter in 1980. back to your phone calls. just a few minutes left in this first segment. we have been asking for your ideas on reducing gun violence, having this conversation in the wake of two more high-profile shootings during independence day celebrations. johnny in boston, independent. caller: good morning, john. host: good morning, sir. caller: i am afraid our experiment in democracy is failing to a certain degree and i think one of the answers is that we have the technology to maybe not solve this problem,

but got a good handle on it. most of the shootings we are seeing, these people want to be acknowledged so they are on the internet and basically screaming out to us even though they do not realize it. they are screaming out that they need help. if we could form some kind of group through the fbi or whatever, we have to give up a little bit of our freedom here. we could be tracking these internet people. they are telling us what they want to do. if we gave up that little bit of freedom, we have 330 million

people in the country, but this is a handful of people and it should be easy to track them down, get them help, with warrants go in and get the guns from them, and use the law to prosecute them. even though they have not done it yet, the proof is there. like this sick person that just did this yesterday. i think we can solve it and as that happens our freedoms will come back. i am so sad. today was going to be a good day of enjoying what we did with our family this weekend and i just cannot watch it anymore. it is getting to a point where

if we do not do something about this, we are not going to be able to go down the street and watch a parade. i went yesterday just to celebrate our independence. the mayor in boston had a great speech. we had a parade and everything in the first thing on my mind walking down the streets of downtown boston celebrating our independence was, all of these buildings, there is some crazy in there. i do not want to bring my grandchildren to these events anymore. if i could say one more thing? as far as our freedoms, i am an old guy, retired, but i remember when it was just exciting to be 18 years old and be able to vote. it was such a freedom that i expressed and i pass it on with my kids how important it was.

we are losing it, john. i wish i had more answers to give you. there are plenty of ways of going as far as background checks and this and that, but they are not working. we have got a problem with mental sickness and we have to zone in on that. host: thank you for the call from boston. appreciate it. bonnie in clarksville, pennsylvania. caller: good morning. like the previous caller said, consequences. there is no consequences and it has to start when children are young. there are consequences for everything. guys doing all that shooting, killing innocent people, they ought to have public execution. hanging would be ideal.

that would deter all the shooting. people would think twice before they pull the trigger on somebody. that is all i have got to say. thank you. host: sharon in glen oak, maryland. caller: how you doing today? host: i am doing well. caller: i was listening to callers that called in and what we ought to do as a country, we have got to acknowledge god. if we do not acknowledge god, he is not going to acknowledge us. we have all of these people out here keep doing these mass killings and killing adults and innocent children and innocent elderly people and it sounds like our democracy is trying to be taken away from us. our united states, in god we

trust. it is turning into a company i -- country i do not recognize. one of the callers said i do not want to take my grandchildren anywhere because i do not feel comfortable. when i go shopping, i go early in the morning. i do not go when it is crowded because i do not trust anybody, but i put my trust in god first. i have adult sons and me and my husband, we make sure we know what they do. they are good, decent men. we make sure they do the right thing and we don't have people coming into our home and stuff. we don't allow that. host: heather in louisville, georgia, independent. caller: good morning. how are you? host: go ahead. caller: i had to call in and comment. i am in my early 30's but i agree with a lot of things people have been saying and

i don't at the same time. everybody is acting like this is a new problem we are having but the first mass shooting i can remember was columbine in 1996. since 1996 there has been on average one mass shooting per day. that is thousands, 8000 mass shootings. you need to take all of these semiautomatic weapons off of the streets. these are military weapons in nobody but the military, only military should have these weapons. i was in the service myself, i was in the national guard. and at nighttime, our guns had to be locked up. they would not let us get access to our guns. one caller said something about training, there was a trainer --

shooting on an army base. needs to be tighter restrictions. your gun needs to be registered, we have to register our cars, our cars have to be registered why not our guns? host: like the previous two callers, have you not gone someplace for fear of a mass shooting happening? caller: i haven't because i live my life on the philosophy of just live your life in if it is going to happen to me than it will happen to me but at least i am living my life. this is supposed to be one of the greatest nations in the world. i am not supposed to walk down the street in fear. i don't let what is going on in the world restrict my happiness. but there has to be something

done. there has to be. i am not saying take away guns. i believe in our right to bear arms but we also have to be able to defend ourselves. i have a situation where a good friend of mine, her young daughter was getting attacked by a man and her and her young daughter got killed. if my friend had a gun, maybe it would have gone a little differently. i truly believe that we should have a right to defend ourselves. at the same time, the types of weapons that are out here. you can go into walmart and buy a rifle. that is insane to me. you can have joe schmoe off the street going into walmart and shooting up the street. there needs tighter restrictions

and mental health evaluations. there needs to be restrictions available to the american people. there needs to be a level of compassion out there. people are being punished, the man who shot up the movie theater, he is doing life in prison. as a nation, we need to stop trying to be divided and stop finding someone to blame and work on the healing proc >> this morning president biden will award the medal of honor 24 u.s. soldiers who fought in the vietnam war. will have live coverage at

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