why why you would think -- you think public opinion on this issue has shifted so dramatically. >> i think the key question is do you know, work with or have a relative who is gay? that number is a direct link to how people feel about same-sex marriage. the more likely they are to know, have a relative, have a good friend, work with somebody who is gay or lesbian, the more welcome and excepting they are, and understanding. that has been part of the divide, andl that has been the key. >> and the reason people know or have friends or family who are gay is because 10 or 20 years ago gave people decided, and the

pioneers were extremely courageous, in coming out, even at a time when there was a lot of disapproval and it could hurt them in their lives and careers. and once that started, an example was set. it became a lot easier, so now with people out in the open, you know who in the family, who in your circle is gay, and that, i think, is what ultimately contributes. >> there is still an enormous generation gap. i am really struck by this. in a school teacher and part- time, and for kids, the debate -- i am a schoolteacher part- time, and for kids, the debate is over. why are we even talking about this? >> how about the supreme court? were they considering public opinion when they heard the oral arguments this week? >> i actually do not think so. they were thinking about what their view of the law is and it was not at all clear what

direction they were going in both cases. the role public opinion place, i think, is that i think the court does not want to be hugely out in front of public opinion. it does not want to force states to do something they do not want to do too fast. >> here is justice roberts on the politics of this. the enacting of same-sex marriage in different states is politically powerful. political figures are falling all over themselves to endorse the gay marriage side. he is paying attention to it. >> he is, but it is a kind of interesting. first of all, the people do not have the same kind of power that some other groups do, but powerful people still have constitutional rights. chief justicethat

roberts did not worry about the power of corporations when he struck down the mccain fine gold campaign finance laws. mccain-feingold campaign finance laws. hagan, youre kay believe people have the right to marry, even though her voters do not. hagan is from the only battleground state president obama lost in the last election. in the last election, 51% of voters opposed gay marriage. it really is a bold decision on her part. some of these people jumping on the bandwagon right now were

just reelected. they have six years. she will be a heroine to those in the same sex marriage movement. they can be a source of great campaign funds, but i think it is a risky political strategy. >> and most are democrats, although rob portman, because his son is gay, has changed his opinion. liza mikulski says her views are evolving. hashe president himself said his views evolved. i would not be so ironic using the word when applying it to republicans. aboute thing i would say the supreme court is i hope they learned the lessons of roe versus wade. ruth later ginsberg said that that decision stymied -- ruth

bair ginsberg said that decision got in the way of a political process and took it out of a political arena. it gave a lot of people the sense that they had been robbed of the opportunity of being involved in the process and that is why 40 years later you have marches. i hope they understand that to do this, as you showed with the pupil, with opinion changing so rapidly -- with the pew poll, with opinion changing so rapidly, the best thing the allow this to is change with the expression of popular will. even if they end up on the wrong side, they had a legitimate shot and a decision has legitimacy in and of itself. >> for the record, north dakota this week enacted the toughest restrictions on abortion in the nation. opponents say they are trying to

roll back row versus wade. >> he is completely right. in the case of gay marriage, it is going to have been -- going to happen, but you can slow down by feeding the backlash. that is what happened in the case of abortion. they said a backlash that is alive and well. >> justice ginsburg said they moved too quickly, not that they should not move. the question here is when should the court to intervene, if at oliver -- when should the court intervene, if at all? you do not want to be in the position of being too far ahead. that is where the accord is. i want to say one other thing. thing, whichon 8

is what this case is about, it is pretty clear that four justices voted to hear this case and the fifth vote, justice kennedy, was not at all happy about it. it is clear that roe v wade has remained an unresolvable question. the competing rights between the pre-born and a mother carrying , this is, in large part, i think, because we did not come to a political, democratic resolution of it. >> six states allow civil unions but not marriage. nine states allow same-sex marriage. but because of the defense of marriage act, the federal

government does not recognize same-sex marriage in those jurisdictions. it is a very odd situation. >> it is a very odd situation. what is interesting about these two cases is that justice kennedy, who really is the linchpin in these two cases, was really not very interested in the e quality argument. what did interest tampa -- what was that thetamphim federal government would not recognize marriages in states where they are legal. the government has always allowed states to define marriage. why canis the case, california not define marriage

as between a man and woman, which is a of the case now -- which is the case now? >> i stand in defense of obama in this. you can have a view that a law is unconstitutional, but you do have a duty under the constitution to faithfully execute the laws. i think obama was right in not deciding that just because a law is unconstitutional, he thinks, and that he is not going to enforce it. it is not his call. it is the high court's call and you wait until you get a ruling. >> i know a very smart person who says that the solution to this problem is to take the word marriage out of the lot and just use the phrase civil unions. >> i have been married 47 years, and she is absolutely right. >> is it a civil union?

>> that is a judgment to be made by her. it is fascinating. and if you want to see the velocity at which this has changed, the default position now for republicans is essentially the same position the president had two years ago. i believe in civil unions but i don't believe in same-sex marriage. >> all of this is a civics lesson in the system actually working. we live in a time when congress cannot function. but this is slowly getting in line with public opinion to produce a constitutional result. i predict they're going to knock down the defense of marriage act but uphold prop. 8 or not not decide which -- it, of which will let it go through another cycle.

>> the question of freedom of religion, that no church can have imposed upon it -- >> if your church wants to call a marriage, fine. >> it gets really sticky. if the court were to decide that to deny same-sex marriage is an unconstitutional, then you have georgetown university, a catholic university, of which has married housing. it will decide that is only for heterosexual couples. it will get sued. i think religion is will be under attack. >> same-sex marriage is already legal in the district of columbia, so if georgetown is going to get sued, they can be sued already.

>> but they will be sued allover, everywhere in the country. >> don't sue georgetown. they have had enough trouble with the playoffs and their basketball team. the president wants progress on gun control. >> it has been barely 120 days since 20 children and six brave educators were taken from us in gun violence. >> 90% of americans support background checks. agree on% of americans anything? michael bloomberg spent $12 million on a background check ad blitz this weekend. we learned that the shooter had carried 1030-round magazines into the school. three of the magazines were still in his house. in his house they found an arsenal. would any of the laws they are

talking about have stopped him? >> i don't think so. the gun check thing would not have made a difference. it was his mother's. >> yes, and she gave him money to buy it. had nine knives, a lot ofurai swords, ammo. coaste guilty of east elite is some, but as a parent, yourn't you be curious if kid had an arsenal like that? >> she was supporting him. and if the people in the school were armed, it would not have made any difference either. it probably would have gotten more people killed. >> he was disturbed, and probably the mother was as well.

hard to see, it is how a law based on irrationality would have any effect. all of bp debate about a a -- all of the debate about guns wn has been about acquisition. is the tucsonle shooter. everybody knew and was saying out loud this guy was dangerous and they knew it. but until he killed, you were not able to apprehend him. >> your colleague wrote a fascinating column this week. he talked about how homicides have been reduced 80% in new york city. they focused on the area where most of the killing as. really, isy change,

in the acquisition of firearms, according to david brooks. >> i read the same piece. i would just add this. countryat how the change so profoundly on same-sex marriage. the country has changed on gun control. when george h. w. bush was president, 80% of americans were for stricter gun control. when bill clinton was president, 70%. that has gone steadily down. in the obama years, we are in the low 40%. a little blip after tucson. but that is why the president is trying to remind people of newtown, because that is the only thing that can generate a level of public support. >> dealing with background hunters are sending e- mails saying we are not going to hunt in your state. we are going to boycott your

state. you will never convince them that the federal government is not out to take their guns. >> i doubt that will make a serious dent in the sporting world of colorado. if you really think that citizens of this country can beat the united states army of the comes to that, come on. >> one thing about all of this is that it stirs up statistics you did not know, at least i did not know. of the 30,000 gun deaths in the united states, a a 20,000 are suicides. people are using guns to kill themselves. australia, when they took away guns, the big change was in

suicides. also of your homicides. the bank in cyprus reopen this week after being shut down whilearly two weeks bankers negotiated a bailout the agreement. 4000 people marched through this -- marched through the streets package.t the bailout they were holding pictures of angela merkel in a nazi uniform. how did they get into this mess? >> they took a lot of money from russia. took out money seven times the cyprus economy.

a lot of that is now gone and confiscated. half of it is taken away. it could not happen to a nicer bunch of gangsters. the problem is they had put all their money in greek bonds. that is not a good idea because creek bonds are essentially worthless. a huge betd bet, russian gangster money. >> i read that vladimir putin is $40 million. he must work a lot of overtime. >> he does work nights and weekends. i think somebody has to stand up for people who put their money in offshore, nontaxable places.

let's remember -- look at it this way. cypresses became an islands of a different time zone. we don't want rich people paying taxes, whether they are russian or republican. >> you do not think there is a difference between the way the russian economy works and how people get rich. russia does not have steve jobs. russia has people who steal and you get your money if you are a crony of putin and his people. >> i was not defending how one gets it. i was merely addressing the compulsion to keep it and never to surrender any to the public weal. >> there is a difference between gains which are ill-gotten or fairly gotten. >> i am not sure the a lot of the people mark is talking about who are not russian got it so

fairly either. in the long run, it could have been a domino that really hurt uro that got them to finally bail them out. but if somebody is going to lose be rationedould does the us. >> that is very -- it should be ussian despots. could have purchased cyprus and turned it into an island campus. euro in the long run is just not tenable. >> north korea is acting ugly again. >> we have to take seriously

every provocative word and action that this new young leader has taken so far. >> the new young leader has put all of his military forces on standby, cut off communication to south korea, threatening to attack the united states. hat a b-2 stealth bomber looks like. the message? don't poke the bear. the bear does not think it is funny. >> you have to think about the long run gains. i talked to some people this week who were involved in negotiations with north korea before who said they really did not work. the problem with the obama administration policy at the moment seems to be that they want to get china to lean on north korea. but what they should be doing --

who is our main competitor in the world? china. john kerry is going there. it would be far better if they got the chinese to lean on the north koreans to get to the table and then we negotiate for a verifiable removal of nuclear weapons. >> but they do not want to lean on north korea, china. >> know, and until china decides it is conducive, nothing will happen. the subtletyoyed of our response, but to send a 2's.le of b- north korea rattle the saber, and we send a e-tube. -- rattles the saber, and we send a b-2. are not murders.

however much they rattle their .words, -- are not martyrs however much they rattled their swords. >> but people are starving in north korea. >> we have learned through history that leaders, whether despotic or not, one of the quickest ways in the world to unite your people is with a foreign dillon, an enemy. that is part of it. , an enemy.villain that is part of it. this is the first time the u.s. has ever announced stealth bombers flying anywhere, especially in the caribbean. >> japan and south korea are both worry. you do not know what is going

to happen in this part of the world. it could get incredibly unstable. >> if they try to go nuclear, i guarantee the chinese are going to get serious about taking care of north korea. >> thank you. last word. see you next week.

from washington, "the mclaughlin group." the american original. for over three decades, the sharpest minds, best sources, hardest talk. >> "the mclaughlin group" is brought to you by siemens.

across the country we're ng the siemens, answers. issue one. gop easterring? >> we're a little bit too math focused and not focused in people's hearts so that we don't relate to, i think, average americans more than we should. stuffy, old guys too much. and it really is painful to hear, because reality is we've got a very young party.

>> after failing to win the white house five months ago, the republican party has begun a $10 million analysis of how to resurrect itself. the party especially wants to reach minority voters who voted by huge margins for president obama last november. 93% of african americans. 73% of asian americans. 71% of hispanic americans. the gop is holding listening sessions across the country to figure out why minority voters were turned off by the party's 2012 message. it's also sending canvass to areas republicans rarely go. by order of republican national chairman the party has issued a blunt assessment of its problem that details why when it comes to the presidential level the party leaves the impression