fireworks and then you just heard people yelling. >> he's shooting little kids, he's shooting adults, he's shooting our friends we went to school with. >> the suspect identified as a 24-year-old, james holmes. a former medical student. he was taken into custody immediately outside the theater as police and fbi search his apartment, apparently wired with explosives. >> we could be here for hours, we could be here for days. trying to figure out how to get in there. obviously we're very concerned about getting in there to get whatever evidence there is, but the pictures are pretty disturbing. it looks pretty sophisticated in terms of how it's boobytrapped. >> security at movie theaters across the country is being increased. in paris tonight's red carpet premiere for the movie has been canceled. president obama and mitt romney both canceled their campaign events today and their tv ads in colorado to respond immediately to the tragedy. >> my daughters go to the movies.

what if malia and sasha had been in the theater. as so many of our kids do every day. michelle and i will be fortunate enough to hug our girls a little tighter. i'm sure you'll do the same with your children. for those parents who may not be so lucky, we have to embrace them. >> ann and i join the president and first lady and all americans nof in offering our deepest condolences for those whose lives were shattered in a few moments. a few moments of evil in colorado. >> federal and local officials do not know how long it's going to take to get inside that boobytrapped apartment of james holmes. we have the latest from aurora police. they will hold a press conference due to begin in about 30 minutes from now. in the meantime, let's go to jeremy jojola from kusa, who has

been on top of this situation since it broke. jeremy, as we saw, they broke through the window, they were spotted with cranes and cameras to see what was inside and they concluded there were explosives. what can you report now? >> we can tell you at this point it appears to be -- i can see from the vantage point i'm at, it appears to be a waiting game. i think it's quite safe to assume that you heard the chief of police say that they snapped photos inside the apartment. you can bet given the safety issues here and the severity of this case and the enormity of this case, they are probably dissecting everything they can out of these photos. that way they can approach this apartment very carefully and not only protect the emergency crews that have to do this dangerous job, but also possibly to try and preserve what evidence there could be inside this apartment.

this apartment is a very unassuming building. it's a red brick, square building, very unassuming, very generic. we were told that the suspect lived on the third floor. when i first got here shortly after they evacuated the several block radius in this neighborhood, i talked to several people that did not know this james holmes, but i did talk to a former bouncer just about half an hour ago who lives in this neighborhood and he recognizes james holmes and the former bouncer was, you know, working at this bar around the corner, pretty popular for the folks who live here, and he describes james holmes as a laid-back guy that would go to the bar every now and then on sunday nights for karaoke night, and that he mainly kept to himself and that he would show up to the bar by himself and that he was really never seen with anybody. so at this point, we are watching the scene unfold and then there's no doubt, with the neighbors here that are caught

up in this chaotic situation, there's no doubt this incident is going to be, you know, burned on the consciousness of colorado for many years, given this incident. it's astonishing watching this unfold. >> you know the area and you know what happened overnight. this was the multiplex in suburban denver. we know it's very close to an air force base and that there were some military active duty service members also in the theater. people got evacuated very quickly from the movie theater and apparently, james holmes was outside near his car and was immediately arrested by the police. can you tell us a little bit more, the back story before they got to his apartment? >> reporter: from what we understand, i can only report what the neighbors had told me here because i did not deal with the police directly at the scene of the theater. when i got here to where the neighborhood was evacuated, people were just caught off

guard. there were people in pajamas, there were people, one woman was halfway wet because she was in the shower and police were just banging on these poor folks' doors saying you got to get out, there's possibly explosives in an apartment here. so that's what i can report. these poor folks whose lives have been kind of shifted over are taking it all in stride because they understand what they are dealing with is in no way, doesn't compare, you know, to what the families are dealing with who are losing loved ones, unfortunately. but i can tell you what we reported is that the suspect in this case initially told police that he may have had explosives in his car but from what we've reported, from what my station has reported, when police did find the vehicle, that there were no explosives in that car. >> jeremy, stay with us. thank you so much for all your reporting. we'll be checking back with you. joining me now, nbc news justice correspondent pete williams who covers homeland security and all

the related agencies. pete, you have been reporting on the guns that he had with him and what we know about the fire power there. >> right. well, he apparently purchased these guns -- we don't know when. they're trying to trace them right now. but he had four weapons when he went to the theater. two glock hand guns, one of them was a .40 caliber, i don't know what the caliber on the other one was, a remington bolt action model 870 shotgun, single barrel shotgun, one of the most popular and commonly possessed shotguns in america, then something like a smith and wesson ar-15 type rifle. as you can see that thing that sticks down there by the grip, that's the magazine. that's the clip that holds the ammunition and these weapons can accommodate a high capacity magazine. we don't know exactly what capacity magazines he had when he went there. he also had another of the hand

guns in his car. so four in all, three that he took into the theater. witnesses say he fired the shotgun first and then picked up the rifle and resumed his attack with that. he apparently grew up in the san diego area, came to the denver area, came to aurora about a year ago to study at the university of colorado, to study neuroscience in denver, but the school says he was, in their words, in the process of withdrawing in june of this year. so precisely what his status was with the school, we don't know. but witnesses say when he went into the theater, he was dressed in black wearing a gas mask because he set off tear gas or some kind of smoke grenade before he began firing, and also a bulletproof vest. >> pete williams, thanks. i know we'll have updates from you throughout. with me here in the studio, chuck todd, nbc news chief white house correspondent and host of "the daily rundown" and chris

cillizza, msnbc contributor and the blog, the daily fix. thanks to both of you. this of course has interrupted everything else that has happened. we are now in a national day of mourning here. this is close to columbine, 17 miles from columbine, but we can think of all the other shootings that have taken place. chuck, the president suspended campaign events, spoke and i think we have a little bit more we can play of what he said but he was in florida for a two-day trip. he's headed back to the white house. >> they canceled one event entirely. he woke up, was told about this a little before 5:30, woke up in west palm beach, where he was overnighting. they decided, they were sort of playing it by ear. they thought the president needs to say something. the next scheduled event was ft. myers so they said okay, hop on air force one, go to ft. myers, give this, it was a campaign rally but of course, they tried everything they could to derally it. >> they took down the bunting and the signs. >> that's right. i think they wish the crowd would have reacted a little bit differently. i think they wished they didn't

have that applause and things like that. then he went wheels up there to here. i'm told we won't hear from him again today at this point. if there's -- nobody knows for sure if there's a memorial service and they want him there, he will of course go but that's at this point in the hands of colorado officials. and that's where -- >> let's listen to a little more of the president this morning. there were crowds there primed for a campaign event so this was not the sober moment in the rose garden you might expect. >> they did try to quiet, they had somebody before the president spoke, they had somebody give a prayer. as a way of trying again, you do what you can. >> it's hard to turn from the high volume to the sober. >> we have seen this, you can't control everybody in the crowd. the president can control what he can control. >> i can tell you, in a perfect world, they wouldn't have had crowd reaction. >> let's see more of what he had to say at that event. >> such violence, such evil, is

senseless. it's beyond reason. but while we will never know fully what causes somebody to take the life of another, we do know what makes life worth living. the people we lost in aurora loved and they were loved. there were mothers and fathers, there were husbands and wives, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, friends and neighbors. they had hopes for the future and they had dreams that were not yet fulfilled. >> chris cillizza, the president then and of course mitt romney was due to do a campaign event in new hampshire with kelly ayotte and they changed that as well, and the rest of his day. the other thing is that both campaigns have taken down all of their campaign advertising in the state of colorado. >> i hate to say this is what we normally see because you hate to have any kind of normal but in

the wake of events like this, this is the way campaigns typically handle it. my guess would be in the next couple days when they go back with negative ads, there will be people who say this is too soon, this isn't soon enough. when do you start campaigning again. we had this after gabby giffords' attempted assassination, after columbine, certainly after september 11th. the politics of tragedy is very difficult for a politician to handle. i thought president obama and mitt romney both did as well as you possibly could. i would say people do look to their leaders to lead at moments like this. they want to feel like we are one country, we are unified and both of them tried to hit on that. >> they did and you saw that but i tell you, talk about coming at the end of what was a particularly petty and small week in this campaign. this was one of the low weeks and yes, maybe i'm being a little more cynical because i was away and got to watch it as a consumer and it was like really, it felt small. then this event, and you wonder,

does it have any impact? i'm a cynic and i assume it really doesn't. >> you hope it does but you think it doesn't. >> you have been looking out of touch already and boy, is today a reminder. >> there could not be a more normal event than going to the midnight opening of the "batman" movie. it was expected to be the -- >> gotten rave reviews. everybody is looking forward to this. >> in the suburbs of denver. >> in america. >> near an air force base. >> that's what makes it so terrifying. we have all done that. we have kids. i mean, i think that's what -- i would just say just with the booby-trapping, one quick point. the frightening thing is this was not -- it certainly doesn't seem like a spur of the moment thing. this was a planned over time event. >> peter alexander is on the ground in new hampshire with the romney campaign. peter, they also called an audible obviously and made the speech that he made moments ago.

>> reporter: yeah, they did. just now, mitt romney has left this area. he was here making the remarks that you heard a short time ago, then there was sort of a receiving line as opposed to the rope line where he shakes hands after making his remarks today. there was a receiving line as people exited, where he and the senator from new hampshire, kelly ayotte, as well as the priest from a nearby church here in concord, new hampshire, shook hands. governor romney hugging some of the women as they left. about 300 people in total and just as he was leaving moments ago, my producer, scott foster, was there when the governor said to the priest who was involved thank you and said those remarks were very moving. from the governor, we did hear i think what demonstrates something he's very familiar with. remember, he was what they call in mormonism a stake president. he oversaw multiple congregations, that means thousands of mormons in the boston community where he lived. his responsibilities included being there for families in times of personal crisis and you could hear his comfort in that

position as he spoke today, saying he was speaking before them not as a man running for office but i think he said as a father, a grandfather, a husband and as an american. he said this is a moment to grieve and to remember, to reach out and to help. is obviously changes the circumstances of the campaign for the time being going forward, we anticipated this might be the moment where he would announce who his running mate would be. obviously that's not going to happen. we knew that in advance it wouldn't happen because his wife ann, who you would have expected would have been with him when that announcement was made, had an event scheduled in michigan today. that event was scheduled as well as she comes back to rejoin her husband. but it does sort of change the considerations for the campaign as they go forward. they were scheduled to have the weekend off the campaign trail here at their vacation home. next week, remember, they travel overseas with scheduled stops in london for the opening ceremony, in israel as well as in poland but they were supposed to make stops in california early next week as well as in reno, nevada. we're still waiting word to determine whether or not those

political stops will take place or what they may do going forward. >> thanks, peter. we want to hear a little bit of what governor romney had to say there, at the event in new hampshire where he spoke about the tragedy in aurora. >> our hearts break with the sadness of this unspeakable tragedy. ann and i join the president and first lady and all americans in offering our deepest condolences for those whose lives were shattered in a few moments, a few moments of evil, in colorado. >> eyewitnesses have been describing the horror of what happened. this is one eyewitness talking to kusa in denver. >> a man walked through the exit, he walked in through the exit door, was wearing all black, looked like he had a gas mask on. bulletproof vest. and he threw, he threw one gas, like one tear gas can -- >> landed in the row right in front, hit the girl right in front of us.

>> but he threw another one. i don't know where that went. i think that went to the right of us. >> did you see him start to shoot people at that point? >> he actually waited. he looked so calm when he did it. it was like scary. he waited for the bombs to explode before he did anything, before he made any type of move. then after both of them exploded that's when he began to shoot. >> the first shot was in the air. then after that he started shooting towards -- >> no specific target. he just started letting loose. >> what kind of gun did he have? >> looked like a hand gun. i couldn't tell, really. >> yeah. all we know, it was like really loud. he was all black, like and everything kind of blended in with him but it was a pretty big gun. it was really loud. >> did he say anything before he started doing this? >> he didn't say a word. not a word the entire time. >> so he came in through the exit door of the theater. >> the emergency exit door. like he came in from the outside of it. >> what were people doing at that point? >> when he first opened the door no one knew how to react. >> just looked at him. they thought it was part of the movie, honestly.

everybody thought it was part of the show. >> he stared back and no one knew how to react. even when he threw the first tear bomb, nobody really reacted until they exploded. then everybody dropped to the ground and couldn't breathe, couldn't see. >> what were you guys thinking at that point? >> honestly, i thought i was going to get shot. i thought there was no way in the world i would get out of there without getting shot. >> i felt a splatter on my back and i thought, i didn't know if i was hit. i didn't feel anything but maybe somebody else had got hit behind me. >> we're just really thankful nothing happened to us. >> what do you think about all this? >> this is ridiculous, man. we really want to know what was the point of it. it's like there's no sense to it. we have no idea what to make of it. he's shooting little kids, he's shooting adults, he's shooting our friends that we went to school with. >> yeah. >> it's just like sad. >> did you see anybody dead in the theater? >> no. >> we didn't see anyone dead because we were on the ground ourselves. then by the time we couldn't breathe and we were choked up, we had to get up and run.

but we saw people outside the theater covered, faces covered in blood, backs covered in blood. it was just, it was a terrible sight to see. >> we basically grew up going to that theater. >> defense officials tell nbc news that several military service members, active duty service members, were wounded in the shooting last night. jim miklaszewski has the latest. this is right five miles from an air force base so i'm assuming that these are air force members? >> reporter: right, andrea. it's buckley air force base located there in aurora, and we just got off the phone and got an update minutes ago, and there are now a total of four u.s. service members who were wounded in that shooting spree overnight. two of them air force reservists. also, two u.s. navy service members who were temporarily assigned as we understand to buckley air force base. now, their identities and the extent of their injuries are not available. it's not being released right now. and we're not getting any word

as to whether any of these individuals were accompanied by family members and whether they were among the dead or wounded. military officials and defense officials are saying there were no, as far as they know, active duty service members who were killed in this shooting spree. now, at nearby buckley, officials there have set up a family emergency crisis center complete with clergy and counselors to help assist family members and friends get through this ordeal today. >> thank you so much. we'll be back of course with the briefing from the police officials and the governor of colorado as well. more eyewitness reporting when we come right back. breaking news right here on msnbc. ♪ [ acoustic guitar: slow ] [ barks ] ♪ [ upbeat ] [ barks ]

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we were just sitting there watching the movie. about 15 minutes in, suddenly, you know, there's a gun fight onscreen and so it's the part where we're going to see batman and everybody is real excited and into the movie. suddenly we just hear a lot pop, pop, pop, pop and everybody kind of got startled by -- it was super loud, louder than the sound track. so my wife got really scared and said that was -- something ain't right. me, being into the movie, was like no, that's part of the movie, probably good sound effects or something. so she said no, that's real. that is real. >> that was real. a terrifying account from a movie goer who escaped the bloody shooting rampage in aurora, colorado last night. so far, 12 people have been killed according to local police officials. president obama and mitt romney both changed their schedules of course to address the tragic shooting in aurora, cutting short planned campaigning in

florida and new hampshire, pulling ad ns colorado off the air. chris cillizza is an msnbc contributor, managing editor of post politics.com. mark halperin with "time" magazine, both joining us now, mark in new york. thank you very much. susan, we have seen moments like this before, moments of national crisis where candidates and presidents, commanders in chief, become console ers in chief. it's a very important talent and i say that in most admiring way of political figures to pull us together. we saw it with president clinton, with president reagan. we saw it with this president after gabby giffords was shot and now this is a moment of reckoning for political leaders as well as for the nation. >> for some presidents, recent presidents have been so defining. what defines george w. bush's tenure more than that night on september 11th, 2001, or after the oklahoma city bombings with president clinton or with the

"challenger" explosion. there are moments we remember and not in a kind of partisan divide that colors everything else we do here in washington, it seems. it's a way in which we feel we really count on the president as a leader of all americans to express what we are all feeling. >> bill clinton, oklahoma city. mark halperin, you have watched these leaders and the way they respond at moments, at times of emergency, and this is when as both president obama today and mitt romney described us as the american family. >> just the nature of our politics. barack obama has a reputation in some quarters of being aloof. mitt romney as being someone who can't relate to people. you saw in both their statements today, both referencing their families, both of them at moments like this, it's clear, think about their own families, their own human situation and what this would be like for them if their families were going through it. we all are thinking about what happened in the tragedy.

anyone who knows about it is first and foremost concerned on a human level and i think they both showed that today and they both i think rose to the occasion in a difficult situation. behind the scenes, it's clear their aides are making calculations whether to cancel events, what to do about the television advertising. i'm not sure how long the suspension of politics will go. but i thought again, i thought they both did just fine today in speaking from the heart and talking about the situation as, as you said at the beginning, leaders of the country. >> mike bloomberg was one political leader who went where others are unwilling to go. this was mike bloomberg on his wor mayor show today, the radio show in new york city, talking about gun control, one of his passions. >> soothing words are nice but maybe it's time that the two people who want to be president of the united ates stand up and tell us what they're going to do about it. so many murders with guns every day, it's just got to stop. and instead of the two people, president obama and governor

romney, talking in broad things about they want to make the world a better place, okay. tell us how. >> we don't know the circumstances, chris cillizza, of this gun. we don't know this suspected shooter. we do know that gun control has been a hot button issue in presidential politics and that president obama according to the brady campaign and other gun control advocates, has not lived up to their hopes, has not done anything really important in terms of the assault weapon ban or other big issues. alternatively, mitt romney and the republicans, mitt romney spoke to the nra convention, and the nra has been trying to raise money and raise support against president obama, saying he hasn't done anything so far but if he's re-elected he may feel free to take on the gun issue. >> let me first say i think it's difficult for people in these three chairs and mark up in new york and chuck and all of us, because the tragedy is the

tragedy, and none of us i think go beyond the humanity of that tragedy. at the same time, we do know and mark made reference to this, we do know that the campaigns are calculating, what's the right response. how should mitt romney address it. how should president obama address it. how long should we take off campaign ads. what tact should we take. should we issue a statement in the next days about the need for further gun control or not. what does this all mean. that's what's difficult about it. an event happens, it's a tragedy. no one would disagree with that. at the same time, it happens in a political context, in a presidential year, and i think the campaigns are still grappling with it. i was struck by watching both mitt romney and barack obama. it's kind of an obvious statement i guess but leaders should lead. they don't often in this day and age in politics, but we look to them in moments like this to provide some genuine leadership that this country can come together, that we're better than these shooters, and i think both

of them, to mark's point, did that quite well. >> and jennifer seger was an eyewitness. she was inside the theater when gunfire broke out just after midnight. she joins me now on the phone. jennifer, first, how are you doing? because we can imagine the shock and the emotions. >> you know, it's kind of been an emotional roller coaster, to be honest. i've just been having ups and downs. i've just been trying to be really strong for those people that have lost and have family members that are injured out there right now. i'm trying to just be a tough person for them because you know, i was lucky enough to have my life, you know, granted for me another day and that's a beautiful thing. and i just, i don't take that for granted so i'm just trying to take it one minute at a time and just count my blessings and be strong for those people out there. >> tell me where you were sitting and what you saw, jennifer. >> yeah. i was in -- the front row, which is literally right next to the screen, i was the second one in. i was on the very end aisle, on

the very right side. so when he came in, he came from the right side, from an exit doorway, and when he came in, i literally was four to five feet away from the man. i didn't know what was going on. i thought it was part of the show. i thought it was part of the premiere to make it more appealing or something because he looked like one of those guys that would be an actor in the show, and everybody thought that, too. they didn't know what to think of it. then he came in and he didn't say a thing. he just took this canister of tear gas or some kind of gas and he took the top of it off and threw it into the theater. at that point everybody thought it was just some kind of special effect but then he shot once at the ceiling and everybody knew at that point he was real, they were panicked, it was chaotic, and at that point, he went and took his gun from the ceiling and pointed it right at my face. i panicked. i had no idea what to do so i just, i realized i had a five-second window to do something in order to survive so all i did was dive forward and pulled myself underneath a chair, underneath of the chairs

and just kind of duck and cover as far as that goes. at that point, he had shot people behind me and the bullet casings were falling on my head and singing my head, they were so hocht. i was in a panic, i told everybody stay still, don't move. when he moved up the stairs, we could crawl to the end of the aisle and try to get out of here. he walked up the stairs and just started shooting like a number of different bullets as far as that goes. all i heard was women screaming and children screaming and i mean, there was little kids in there. there were like 6 year olds, 5 year olds and 14 year olds, there were all kinds of kids in there. they were getting shot and any time somebody would get up, he would just shoot them. it didn't really matter who they were. he was on a mission to just hurt everybody possible. and i don't even know why at that point. the gentleman, he was wearing a gas mask and i couldn't see what he looked like. all i know is he was about six foot tall and about 185 pounds and he was covered from head to toe and he was wearing a gas

mask with a rifle. then it was in my face and i honestly couldn't tell you what i was thinking during that moment. i was just trying to survive. when everybody finally got to the exit, everybody started running back in and i didn't understand because i wanted to escape and they were saying that he was going up to the people trying to get out and shooting them, so everybody was running back inside trying to get away from him again. at that point i was like everybody just lay down, pretend you're dead, lay down in the aisle, just don't move, be still, and we'll try to get out of here. at that point there was just so many bodies. so many bodies that were just lifeless on the ground. i was devastated to see like a 12-year-old girl lifeless on the stairs. and at that point, i thought i was going to die. i was like i'm going to suffocate, this tear gas is getting to me, i can't breathe, you know. i was having a panic attack and i was like i've got to stay calm and get everybody out of here, especially my best friend. i got over it and i pulled myself together and walked out,

as i did so, i brushed up against a young gentleman, he might have been 18 years old, he had a bullet wound in his back. he was bleeding everywhere and i have had previous emt training, so what i did was i naturally went to go check his pulse to see what his condition was and he was really critical. he was needing to go out. so i tried to pull him underneath his arms, pull him out, then everybody said no, no, no, let him go because the gunman's coming back and he's going to shoot you. i said oh, no, i can't do this, and i just ran. i left the young man behind. but i would gladly take a bullet for him to be able to survive. and he's a complete stranger to me. everybody is asking if he's okay. i'm like i honestly don't know. i really pray to god that he is, you know. and i pray god that everybody out there is getting better as far as people that are injured. my condolences go out to all those families that lost somebody today or yesterday. >> jennifer, you are an amazing eyewitness. how did you end up getting out? were you crawling out? >> i was crawling.

i was crawling. i was bear crawling. i was flat on my stomach and all i did was stay as low as i possibly could on the ground. so i couldn't really see anything above me that was going on. all i heard was gun shots and screaming and firing and it was just the most brutal sound you ever heard in your life. just curdles your ears. i was trying to get out and there was a bunch of smoke and i was coughing and i couldn't breathe. all i was doing was crawling at that point. once i got into the hallway i just ran at that point. >> jennifer, did everyone who was with you get out safely? >> yes. yes. my best friend's with me. he's been here with me all day. he got out safely as far as i can see and the two other people that i knew of that were with us trying to get out, they also got out safely. i saw them get out of the door and the cops came in. everybody in my aisle that i know of was pretty safe. >> what do you normally do, what is your job, if -- do you work? >> yeah.

i work. i work -- well, to be honest, i'm going to school to be a firefighter paramedic right now. i start my paramedic school in january and i did my emt last summer and my fire academy last fall, and i've just been working in between just to make money. i work at a place which is a phone company that answers phones for at & t. so that's what i'm doing right now. just as far as bills and making money. everybody has to survive. meanwhile, i'm going to school to be a paramedic firefighter. i actually yesterday just did my first portion of my testing to be an aurora firefighter yesterday which is ironic. >> well, it's remarkable but our first responders are the front line and you are obviously just totally prepared for this kind of emergency. what is your next plan in terms of coping with this? >> honestly, it hasn't really -- i mean, i've had ups and downs emotionally but it's kind of --

it's kind of hasn't sunk yet fully in. i think as coping with this, i'm just going to need as much support and love as i can from my friends and family and everybody's been really supportive. they also have people out here that can help as far as counseling and everything else. i'm a pretty tough cookie as far as that goes and i have a really great support system at home. i have a wonderful family and great friends that love and care about me. they are definitely going to be here for me to get me through it. >> well, we wish you good luck in everything that you do and especially training to become a paramedic. thank you so much. >> thank you so much. >> nbc's jay gray is on the phone from aurora. the press conference with the police officials is about to start. jay, what can you tell us from the scene there? >> reporter: andrea, what a difference here after that graphic description of what happened last night. there's almost an eerie silence here.

i can tell you investigators are still here and dozens of them. the coroner is also on site now and they are doing work inside the theater, work that they say will last for days here. this is going to be a very intense, a very thorough investigation and they are going over every inch of that theater right now looking for any evidence, any clues, any signs of what may have sparked this or what happened inside that theater overnight and into the early morning here. >> jay, at this point, is the fbi involved? >> reporter: the fbi is involved. they are not the lead agency at this point. i've been told within the last 30 minutes that they are actively helping the police department and the sheriff's department here and that they are lending every resource they have to those investigators and will be here for quite some time. so they'll be on the ground. they'll be helping in this investigation for awhile. >> with me here in the studio still, chris cillizza and susan page and i think mark halperin is still in new york. we were talking earlier about gun laws and just to give you

the rankings on the brady scale of gun laws, they rank on a scale of 1 to 100, colorado ranks 15, so they are the low end of gun control and the laws basically show background checks, comportment with some of the tougher laws, new york city, district of columbia. but as many of the mayors who have been strong advocates for gun control point out that with state borders being as porous as they are, there's no checks from one state to another, that without a national gun law, chris cillizza, these kinds of rankings really are only just a guide. >> right. right. it's kind of a rough estimate, not a hard truth. i would say this morning, i took a look at public opinion on gun control broadly. it is a remarkable trend line. if you go back to 1990 polling, they have been asking would you

prefer more strict or less strict gun laws. in 1990, almost 8 in 10 people said they prefer more strict gun laws, 10% less strict. in 2011, 55% either less strict or the same laws, 44% more strict. it just shows you, and over that time period, we saw bill clinton and the assault weapons ban, don't see barack obama, you have not seen, i should say, barack obama talking regularly about gun control. you certainly don't see mitt romney talking about guns and gun control. chuck said earlier he didn't want to be cynical and i don't, either. my guess is this will be for a brief time a topic of real conversation on the campaign trail and my guess is that we will then return to the economy and jobs, not that that means the economy and jobs aren't important. they are and lots of people are struggling but i think we have a tendency in these moments to assume that this will fundamentally alter the debate. >> i don't think it will alter the debate.

i remember first covering politics in the '70s and '80s, especially after the reagan assassination attempt, it became a very big issue. >> that's right. but what did democrats find when they pursued gun control, they lost in places like colorado and ohio, place -- >> the nra, national rifle association, is still a very powerful lobby and they can really marshal the strength against any candidate, especially in some of these swing states. >> also, one thing that will affect this debate as it goes forward, when we know more about what happens, how did he get the guns, were they legally obtained. what an incredible interview with jennifer. one thing she said is he wanted to hurt us all and we don't really know why. that's a question we want answered before we can talk about what's going to happen next. >> we will take a break. we'll have breaking news, the news briefing from the officials in colorado coming up next. [ male announcer ] drive a car filled with as much advanced technology as the world around it. with the available lexus enform app suite, you can use opentable to make restaurant reservations. during the golden opportunity sales event,

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where we are awaiting a police press conference moments from now, and we should point out that many woke up to the news of the aurora shooting, immediately thought of the columbine high school massacre in 1999. only 17 miles away from the denver suburb of aurora, colorado. dave cullin is the author of "columbine" and joins me now. first, i want to talk about what you experienced after columbine, how that community came together and point out that mark kelly obviously, the husband of gabby giffords, has tweeted gabby and i were horrified to hear of the tragedy in colorado last night. our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. that is mark kelly. this of course does remind you of what the families and the victims' families and what the community in columbine experienced. talk about that. >> it sure does. that was a terrible day.

you know, i remember really vividly the morning after the victims literally had changed overnight because i was out there while it was going on, tuesday afternoon, and there was all sorts of massive confusion, people were running around crying, hugging each other. it was kind of pandemonium and what you would expect, but by the next morning, none of the kids were crying and they weren't really emoting at all. they were walking around like emotional zombies, i hate to say that, but with no emotion at all, and they were really open about talking about it. they could all tell you exactly when they had stopped feeling anything and it was 1:00 or 2:00, 3:00 a.m., none of them had gone to sleep and they knew exactly when it happened because it was like a light switch going off. it was not a gradual thing, where their minds kind of shut down, and i was actually kind of happy to hear your previous guest, jennifer, with that kind

of horrible but amazing testimony. she sounded like she wasn't in that state at least yet, where she wasn't kind of cut off from her emotions. she was still very emotional about it which is probably healthier. it may have been different becae these were kids. the kids reacted very differently than the adults. but most of them stayed pretty -- they were pretty messed up for quite awhile. i was surprised over the years, the kids for the most part got better and they adapted and dealt with it better than their parents. the parents had more difficulty over time. >> you are a freelance writer working out of denver at the time so you know that whole community. how did the community come together in columbine and deal with it and come to grips with the tragedy of their loss? >> yeah. that's a little complicated. because i would say 99% of the

community really came together and were there for each other. things got a little dicey in the case of columbine because it turned out there was a cover-up with the local police, covering up some of the information about the killers and there was a lot of animosity. some things happened where one of the victims chopped down two of the crosses, there were 15 crosses erected for the victims and the killers and one of the families chopped those down live on television, and some of the -- some of the animosity got a little out of hand. that was unfortunate. and that got a lot of the coverage and actually, within the community, it caused a lot of difficulty. but i would say that was really the aberration and not too much of the headlines. for the most part, people are nicer to each other for quite awhile. you would notice it at the gas station, there was a snowstorm

and i needed new wiper blades and you know, i went into a place and he's like i'll take care of it, don't even worry about it. he wouldn't even let me pay him. just little nice things people would sort of like stop for you at the light longer. that lasted a couple months which i think is good, people sort of needed kindness. >> thank you so much, dave. here still with me, susan page and chris cillizza. of course, in the studio. chris, when we talk about this issue and the way americans pull together, that's one of the things we saw both president obama and mitt romney drawing upon, the strength of the fabric of america. >> i thought fascinating, too, that the family both touching on their own families, president obama, malia and sasha and mitt romney. shows you the core of who we are as a society. >> there's the news conference. we are expecting the police chief in aurora. this is first the mayor.

>> all right. so obviously, there are no words that can express the intensity of this tragedy. our hearts are broken as we think about the families and friends of the victims of this senseless tragedy. really, one thing, i do hope people, i mean, this is the act apparently of a very deranged mind. this is a safe city and a safe state and a safe country and we need to recognize that we can't allow people that are aberrations of nature to take away the joys and freedoms that we enjoy. again, for the victims and their families, they should know that president obama called mayor

hogan this morning, called me, and i think his words are the same. there's not one of us that doesn't meet or hear this story, certainly anyone who has children, and think about it being your child in that movie theater, your cousin's child or your child. and that reality makes the pain and the grief too intense for words. but we can't let it keep us from our lives. so we will, in colorado it's a state that has always come together and supported the entire community. aurora is one of the great cities, not just in colorado but in this country. without question they have the right leadership and police chief oates and mayor hogan, we will come back stronger than

ever although it's obs will you going to be a very hard process. so with that i will turn it back to mayor hogan. >> thank you, governor. clearly this is a tragic day for this community and for this city. as tragic as it is for the community and the city, it is an absolute horror for all of those people who were in those theaters and their families. our hearts go out to them. we will always wish that no matter how much we do now that we had done more. we need to thank everybody who responded as quickly as they did. the police department, fire

departme department. the hospital staffs in the emergency rooms. everyone who addressed this situation deserves to be thanked. i want to thank also all of the jurisdictions in the metropolitan area that have contacted me this morning, offering whatever help we need. whether it's from denver or arapahoe county or state of colorado or the united states government. we have taken a blow today, but we will get back on our feet. and we e will move ahead. if i can say anything to our

citizens and particularly to those folks who have kids, no matter whether they are small or teenagers, it's talk to them. talk to them. they're going to feel this and it has to come out. we're going to do our duty as city officials, caregivers whether it's aurora mental health or any other organization. we've got to talk to our kids, let them know that this is an isolated instance. it's tragic. it's horrible, but it's isolated. we've got to talk about it. it's a tough day. i'm joined here by a number of the aurora city council members, state senators, state

representatives, other members of the community. we will all come together. we'll survive this. but there is no way around it. it's tough. you can't have that many people die and that many more people be injured in an absolutely senseless situation and not see it as anything but tough. with that, i would like to introduce police chief dan oates. chief? >> thank you, mr. mayor. also joining me -- us here today besides the mayor and the governor is the united states attorney john walsh for the district of colorado. mr. jimmy cohen, special agent in charge of the fbi in colorado and carol chambers, district attorney for the 18th judicial district. i will give you a briefing. i will ask district attorney chambers to make some comments

and the fbi. excuse me, but i have a lot of notes here. there is a lot of information to impart to you. our suspect's name is james eagen holmes. date of birth, 12/13 of '87. he resides at 1690 paris street in aurora, apartment 10. i will be discussing the situation at his apartment in a few minutes. his history with the aurora police department is one traffic summons for speeding in october of 2011. we have no other criminal history on mr. holmes. this event began at # 0039, so 39 minutes after midnight the first calls came in to 911. you can describe it as hundreds of calls coming in within roughly one minute to a minute

and a half police officers were on scene and apprehended mr. holmes in the back of the theater. there were approximately 25 officers on scene within minutes. they spent, besides searching the theater, a good portion of their energy on taking victims and placing them immediately in police cars and driving them to local area hospitals. in the end, with the assistance of our colleagues in law enforcement in this community there were around 200 officers on scene here. mr. holmes was apprehended outside his white hyundai parked in the back of the theater. he was apprehend ed with three weapons in the car. one was left at the scene inside the theater. the weapons are as follows. they are a 15 assault rifle, remington 870 12-gauge shotgun

and a glock handgun. we believe those were used at the scene and another .40 caliber glock handgun was found in the car. we are not sure if that was also used in the scene. i imagine i will be asked how many rounds were fired. we have no capability right now of calculating that number. there were many, many rounds fired. our best available count on injuries as of right now is that 71 people were shot and that 12 are deceased. two died at area hospital. ten are deceased in the crime scene at this time. we are making best efforts to identify and remove those ten. there are many critical patients. i'm not in a position to give you any update on the 59 who were injured.

we believe that as part of this assault mr. holmes set off two devices to distract the crowd. they ignited in some form and released some sort of irritant or smoke. we know that his car was parked nearby in the back. victims were taken to six area hospitals, university of colorado hospital, swedish hospital, denver health, rose medical center, the medical center of aurora, children's hospital, and parker adventist. we are not looking for any other suspects. we are confident that he acted alone. however, we will do a thorough investigation to be absolutely sure that is the case. at this time we are confident that he acted alone. during the shooting in the one particular theater, theater number nine, some rounds

penetrated into an adjoining theater. we know at least one person was hit inside the adjoining theater. the suspect was dressed all in black. he was wearing a ballistic helmet, a tactical ballistic vest, ballistic leggings, a throat protector and a groin protector and a gas mask and black tactical gloves. we had over 50 detectives respond to the scene including 150 to 200 police officers and deputies and over 50 victim advocates to work with family members. all our federal partners are here and we deeply appreciate their help. we have asked the community if there are any tips, any observances, any witnesses to this event we haven't already contacted that they call our tip line, 303-739-1862. in addition, for