people. 34-year-old aaron alexis was then killed in a shootout with police. he was discharged from the navy and was working as a contractor. that work got him an access card, and it's how he got through the gates and into the facility. investigators say after he shot a guard, he moved inside to the fourth floor of an atrium where he continued shooting. he had three guns. multiple law enforcement officials tell nbc news alexis bought a shotgun at a virginia store in the last week and brought it with him to the navy yard. he picked up an assault-style rifle and a handgun sometime during the shooting spree. at least one from an officer he shot. but the fbi wants more information about who he was and where he's been. we've learned alexis has a history of arrests and psychological problems. while he was living for the last few months in d.c., before that he served as a naval base in ft. worth. he lived and has family in

seattle. and we know he was born in new york city with addresses in manhattan and queens from the late '90s until 2002. we're also learning more about the lives he took. seven of the victims have been identified including a nae veteran, long-time government workers and some who are parents. i want to bring in nbc's justice correspondent pete williams. pete, good morning. what more have we learned about the shooter? >> reporter: i think you've laid it out pretty well, chris. he was -- it turns out now, despite what the navy said last night, they now say he was in essence honorably discharged from the naval reserve. he worked as an electronics technician for the navy in ft. worth. that was his specialty. that's the work he was doing for a contractor when he came up to the washington, d.c., area, checked into a hotel, a residence inn near the navy yard and had been working at the navy yard for the past week or so. so he had a legitimate reason for being there.

it's still not 100% certain how he got the gun through all the levels of security, but it appears that when he got to the building itself, he just sort of shot his way in and during the process of that, picked up the o other weapons. there's sort of questions about why he was able to get a security clearance that allowed him to work as a navy contractor, but it's not obvious that there were any things that would have disqualified him from that. the run-ins that he had with the police in georgia, in washington state and in texas did not involve serious charges. they wouldn't have disqualified him from buying a gun. he did receive treatment from the va for some mental health issues for some psychiatric problems, but it's not clear that the va was required to report that to the people who were doing the security clearance. so there's a lot of questions about how the system works, but in any event, unlike, say, the

situation with major nidal hasan, who was talking about taking violent action or the justifications for it or internet chatting with people about it, there doesn't seem to be any kind of that kind of a trail here with aaron alexis. friends say he could sometimes be despondent. he complained about the level of pay, that he was slow to be paid. he told somebody he thought he was being discriminated against. but nothing that would indicate any kind of a huge red flag. >> all right, thank you so much, pete williams. to talk more about this i want to bring in clint van zandt, general barry mccaffrey is also an msnbc military analyst. gentlemen, good morning. >> good morning. >> clint, you're the profiler. let's start with the profile. he does have an arrest record. >> yeah. >> at least two prior shooting incidents. his dad said he may have ptsd from helping out in new york after 9/11. the other things that we heard

from pete. what's your take based on what we've learned about him so far? >> well, the two shooting incidents that pete talks about, one of them, the neighbor above him in the apartment above him played loud music, he said. he didn't like it so he has a rifle and cranks off a round and puts a round through his ceiling up into the apartment when she's playing loud music. the police come and responds and he said i was cleaning my weapon and accidentally cranked off a round. that woman was so afraid, she moved away. another incident, he didn't like people parking in front of his apartment so he shot the tires out of their car. you don't have to be an fbi profiler to say those things should be a clue. now, what you do with that clue, perhaps when you do the background investigation, if you delve into those offenses, even though he wasn't convicted, if you look at the mental health issues, if you look at the other

anger management issues, that might suggest somebody who may not qualify or you may not want to have on a military facility. but again, chris, that's with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. and realize this is a guy who loved to play video games. he would lock himself in a room -- >> violent video games, apparently. >> violent video games just like the shooter did at sandy hook where you get points for knocking people down. what does that do? it helps refine your shooting skills and desensitizes you to the grief of taking another life. >> i just want to let people know what we're watching here. it is a live picture from washington, d.c. this is defense secretary chuck hagel and there are other senior members of the defense department there who are going to lay a wreath at the u.s. navy memorial plaza on pennsylvania avenue to honor the victims of yesterday's shooting rampage. this wreath is adjacent to the lone sailor, the statue you see

there, that represents all people who have ever served, are serving now or yet to serve in the united states navy. so as we watch this, general, let me go to you because clint brought up the background investigation. this is a guy who's been treated at the va for psychological problems. he was given a general discharge in 2011, which may be a red flag for some people who are hiring, because he exhibited a pattern apparently of misbehavior. how does this system work? how thorough are the background checks to allow you to get a badge to get on a base. >> this is a terrible tragedy. we're a wonderful navy. access control on these giant military installations, some 20,000 people work at the navy yard complex in total and thousands of others come and go as visitors. it's pretty hard to sort out with any degree of reliability people who may not have any security clearance and have to

go there for a purpose. having said that, this is consistent -- clint has already said it perfectly. mental health and access to weapons. i'm not quite sure what virginia laws are, but he was able to buy legally a weapon and shoot his way into a facility. so, you know, the background is atrocious. why didn't someone call the shots accurately when they saw a guy with voices in his head and multiple shooting incidents. this is a failure of our system. >> how would this have worked, general? mik reported he received -- that the shooter received an early honorable discharge. does his c.o. call him in and say your service is no longer needed? i mean obviously anything we talk about in terms of motive is speculation at this point, but certainly people are looking at that situation. >> well, we'll find out more. general discharge, if that's the

term -- >> early honorable discharge is how mik is describing it now. is that the same as a general discharge, general? >> i'm not sure that's a legal term. i think general discharge and dishonorable discharge and honorable discharge are the only ones i know about. so i think they pull their punches. nobody wanted to go through the documentation of confronting this situation. we'll find out more in the coming weeks. but this is a serious mental health problem. a guy with gun violent behavior, as clint pointed out. there is no reason why he didn't have his security clearance pulled and identified as a risk in the workplace and a risk to his fellow sailors. >> we're continuing to watch the wreath laying. let's listen for a second. [ playing "taps" ]

>> and so "taps" being played as the wreath is laid there in washington, d.c., at the u.s. navy memorial plaza. clint, i want to play a clip from what some people who knew him are saying about aaron alexis. let me play that. >> good man. good man. you know, funny guy, party guy. >> he didn't come out of his

room much. like i said, he played a lot of the online games where they were shooting all the time. and we would joke with him about that sometimes because they were like, well, you know, his computer screen was like life like, it was big. it was like, wow, it's like you're shooting people a lot, you know. we would joke about that. and that's the only thing, like i said, that i can think of. >> clint, there is a sameness about these stories when you and i talk about them. you always find somebody who's surprised and say he was a great guy, a quiet guy and other things come out that would raise some eyebrows. one friend of his said he was a heavy drinker. he would start drinking at 9:30 in the morning. all these different things are coming out but i think enclosurely when you look at the arrest report, when you look at the fact that he had disciplinary problems in the military, i'm not going to compare them to shooters necessarily like adam lanza or james holmes, but how do you begin to differentiate somebody who is a potential serious threat as opposed to somebody who's had some problems over the years? >> sure. well, you know, we go back to

the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. we've seen this guy use guns at least two times in anger management issues. we're told he's paranoid. we're told that he hears voices, that his treating psychologist was aware of that. chris, this is the type of guy that commits what appears to be a violence in a workplace act. he's kind of an offense accumulator. in essence, he thinks people are against him. somebody wrongs him if he doesn't get paid. these things start to stack up, one upon another upon another and eventually he has a couple of pounds of offenses and this may be the way he acted out. >> clint van zandt, general barry mccaffrey, still many questions to be asked and we'll talk about it throughout the morning. thanks to both of you. >> thank you. the other big story we've been watching is the flooding in colorado that has taken at least eight lives and damaged 18,000 builds. today mother nature is cutting residents a break. clear weather allowing rescue teams to step up their search

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take a look at the cover of the "new york daily news." it says "same gun, different slay." aaron alexis was armed with the same type of gun used in the newtown tragedy. gun violence, the target of an emotional and thought-provoking statement from the chief medical officer at a hospital where three shooting victims were treated. what she had to say was this. there is something evil in our society that we as americans have to work to try and eradicate. there's something wrong here when we have these multiple shootings, these multiple

injuries. there's something wrong and the only thing i can say is we have to work together to get rid of it. i'd like you to put my trauma center out of business, she said. i really would. i would like to not be an expert on gunshots. will another senseless shooting tragedy reignite the fight for gun reform. i'm joined by joanne reed, msnbc contributor, and molly ball, the thanks national political reporter. good morning to both of you. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> dr. orlowski also went on to say this is not america but it seems to me there are two views of america in the gun debate. one is we're the land of the free and that includes the right to bear arms. the other is america like other developed nations where they have strict gun control laws and what it frees you from is the fear of this kind of gun violence. does this change anything in this struggle for those who advocate tougher gun laws? >> sadly, probably not. when you look at the statistics, since 2006 we've had a mass shooting, which the fbi dwoins as four people or more shot in

one go, once every two weeks. these mass shootings are becoming incredibly common place in this country. now, some of them make more news than others, when it's something truly horrific like what happened in newtown with children being shot. but even in that, increasingly children are the victims in these shootings and that isn't changing our gun laws. we're having some states that are acting, but for every colorado that enacts stricter gun laws, you have a virginia where aaron alexis bought his guns and where purchasing a firearm is incredibly easy and the ar-15 is one of the most popular weapons people are buying. >> unlike newtown, we haven't heard a lot relatively speaking, although president obama did react to the shooting. let me play that. >> obviously we're going to be investigating thoroughly what happened, as we do so many of these shootings, sadly, that have happened, and do everything that we can to try to prevent them. >> in a statement senator dianne

feinstein said congress must stop shirking its responsibility and resume a thoughtful debate on gun violence in this country. molly, i don't know, if newtown didn't push through gun reform, there is any indication that a mass shooting in their own backyard will move the needle? >> there's very little indication that it will move the needle farther than it already has moved. i think there's a feeling after the vote in the senate in april that failed that this issue has gone as far as it's going to go on the federal level. if there was a way for lawmakers to be moved on this issue, they would have been moved by the slaughter of more than two dozen children. they would have been moved by the shooting of one of their own, a member of congress. and so yet another of these sad events that are starting to seem so sad lly repetitive is not likely to push them any further. there's a sense, unfortunately, setting in for advocates of gun control that this is about a difference of opinion on policy, not about lawmakers just failing to wake up to something. >> i want to bring in congresswoman donna edwards,

democrat from maryland. she was a strong voice for gun control in the days after the newtown school shootings. congresswoman, good morning. >> good morning. >> we spoke to one congressional staffer who actually was in the area when all this happened and then went back to the hill and said that there was panic, both at the scene and on the hill. do you see anything about this shooting, so close to home for so many members of congress, that will change anything? >> well, i'm not really sure. my heart goes out to the families of the victims over at the washington navy yard. i used to work at the navy yard as a civilian contractor and, you know, there's a lot of good people getting up to go to work to take care of their families and this is what happens. >> so what went through your mind? i mean this is extremely personal for you then. >> well, i'm just -- i'm just not sure what's going to move congress. how many more thousands of people have to lose their lives to senseless gun violence. can't we just do background checks for pete sake? can't we just make sure that we have a system where people who

have severe mental health problems get into a database so that they are prohibited from purchasing a weapon? can't we standardize that across the country? this seems like low-hanging fruit. if you want to be a civil society that protects its citizens. and congress really has to act. this is unacceptable in a civilized society and i think the doctor in the trauma center said that to us. i mean she wants to be put out of business. i want to put her out of business. i hope that my colleagues want to join me. >> the problem is that we saw numbers like 90%, when they asked the american people what about background checks, 90% said yes and nothing happened. so is anything on the federal level dead? does this have to move to a state-by-state fight? >> well, i would hope not. i don't know the answer to that, chris. what i do know is that when 90% of the people say we want effective background checks and spineless members of congress can't do it because of they're under the throes of the gun

lobby, something really just stinks in america about that. >> you know, we talk about some of the changes that have indeed happened on the state level, but then a lot of analysts looked at colorado last week where two lawmakers who backed new gun restrictions were recalled. and the analysis was that this is going to send a chilling message to anybody who's not in a liberal state or a liberal district to take a risk and back gun control. why take the risk if they, first of all, think they're going to get kicked out of office and, second, the chances of victory often seem so slim? >> well, leadership is about taking risks. that's what i would say to my colleagues. i'd also say that it's not really clear to me that those two lawmakers, given the other issues that were going on in colorado, simply lost on the gun issue. we can do background checks. we should at least be able to expand background checks so they cover every single gun purchase and then make sure that we have a system where we know that

people who have mental health or other kinds of issues that should prohibit them from getting a gun are prohibited. and i think if we do that, we will do a huge amount to address this issue and then we open the door for the conversation about other things that we might need to do in the meantime, because otherwise good people, you know, in their 70s who are just going to work lose their lives because they show up on time at work one day. >> maryland congresswoman donna edwards, thank you so much for being with us. >> thank you. >> one of the things that does come to mind, because when we were talking to clint and he was talking about mental health issues, what happened to republicans, but also some others who said this is not about gun control, this is about mental health. we need to address mental health. well, that didn't happen either. >> no, that didn't happen either. in order for that to make a difference, there would have to be some connection between a mental health screen and a background check. in this case, this shooter didn't purchase the ar-15 that he used but he purchased the

shotgun that he used to shoot his way into the facility or shoot his way into where he could get the other guns. let's say his two previous police incidents or mental health background check had prevented him from buying the initial weapons that he bought in virginia. that's at least one chance that you might have had to stop an incident like that. because you have some states, several in the south, there are almost supermarkets for weapons, even if you fail a background check. we also don't have decent straw purchasing laws. someone else could purchase them and sell them out of the trunk of their car. there has been no political courage on the part of congress on this. it has been a complete failure on the part of washington to address something the states can't do alone because states with strong gun laws like new york and colorado get done in by states with weak gun laws that are nearby. >> molly, i was in newtown when the president spoke so movingly in that auditorium, in that school auditorium. and it seemed like this was the final straw. he put some political capital

behind it. we saw the vice president, joe biden, push very strongly. but is this something that the white house can even look to at this point, given what they have on their plate from syria, to the budget, to the debt ceiling? >> there doesn't seem to be any remaining bandwidth for this issue. it would take five more votes flipping in the senate. we don't see a sign that is happening, especially you mentioned the colorado recalls last week. i think what lawmakers took away from those recalls was that it was 90% of people who may favor background checks in sort of a soft way are not motivated by this issue. they're not motivated to go out and vote or to vote against lawmakers who oppose that policy. until politicians actually start losing elections because they're on the wrong side of this issue, i don't see the calculus changing in political terms. >> thanks to both of you today. just miles from the scene of the navy yard shooting in a city already incredibly tense, a man was arrested outside the white house yesterday for allegedly throwing a firecracker onto the

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but it doesn't usually work that way with health care. with unitedhealthcare, i get information on quality rated doctors, treatment options and cost estimates, so we can make better health decisions. that's health in numbers. unitedhealthcare. essential personnel are returning to work this morning at the washington navy yard where 12 people were killed in yesterday's shooting rampage. nbc's craig melvin is live outside the gates. craig, good morning. what have you been seeing so far

today? >> reporter: chris -- they told only essential personnel to report here to the navy yard and so far this morning it appears as if that's precisely what's happening. we have not seen a great deal of traffic. i'll step out of the way so you can see the gate here. periodically you'll see a car -- you'll see a vehicle come up to the gate and one of the six or so uniformed officers either waves that vehicle in or the vehicle will back out and then leave. but again, we haven't seen a lot of vehicles go through this morning. there's also some construction, you can see, going on here at the navy yard as well. all of the roads here in southeast d.c. are open again. we expect to see a great deal of traffic here in the next few hours. that's because the washington nationals are going to be playing a 1:00 baseball game, a makeup game from yesterday. a doubleheader in fact. if you look in the distance here, chris, that five-story building in the background here that has the two stacks that appear to be jutting up from it,

that is the building where all of this went down yesterday morning. again, we continue to hear stories from folks who survived that horrible, horrible shooting. >> there was three gunshots straight in a row, pop, pop, pop. three seconds later, it was pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. so it was like a total of seven gunshots. we just started running. >> i was running and i heard gunshots. holy cow, that's -- i don't know -- it could have been way above me but i wasn't stopping to think, you know, what was going on. >> we were told to go down towards the water on the side of the building that we were in. and when we got to the wall, it was a dead end, there was no way for us to get out so we scaled the wall. a lot of us scaled the wall and climbed over. >> just amazing stories of survival, chris jansing. we'll talk to more folks coming up in the 11:00 hour. our broadcast from here right in front of the navy yard. we'll also talk to d.c. mayor,

vince gray. also some folks who made a drive this morning from newtown, connecticut. people who have, unfortunately, become very familiar with scenes like this. >> craig melvin, we will look for you in the next hour. thanks, craig. when you look at the navy yard shooting as one of a growing list of mass shootings in america since the 1999 columbine massacre, it really is staggering. this is the seventh time in a decade that there's been a shooting with ten or more victims. two of them at military facilities. a study commissioned by mayors against illegal guns found that since 2009 mass shootings have occurred at an average rate of about one every month. i'm joined now by dan gross, president of the brady campaign to prevent gun violence. dan, we were saying it's good to see you, but every time i speak with you it's under circumstances like this. does this help to reignite the debate? does it change anything? we've been asking that question all morning. how do you feel from your perspective? >> these are important moments,

first of all. obviously the american public needs to support the community at the navy yard and washington, d.c., in terms of the tragedy they're going through. i'm a survivor of gun violence myself. my younger brother was shot. i know how important that support is. so that's an important part of the public discourse. so are the solutions that exist to this problem. it's important to discuss these solutions not just every time we meet in the context of one of these big tragedies, but in the context of tragedy of gun violence every day in our country. every day 90 people die from bullets in our country. >> and yet it does seem -- look, i don't want to make any big sweeping statements and we see the families from newtown going there. and it sort of does hit you in the gut a little bit because those of us who were there and spoke to them and the people who really desperately wanted something, some kind of change to come out of their personal tragedy, are going to another place and not seeing any movement, although you've made

the point, the brady bill didn't happen overnight. >> yeah, the brady bill didn't happen overnight. it's also important to acknowledge how far we've come since newtown. newtown was a catalyst for change that is actually already in the works. seven or eight states have passed really meaningful gun laws since the sandy hook tragedy, and that was a catalyst for that change. even the vote that took place in april, yes, it was a setback -- >> the senate vote. >> yeah, the senate vote. that 54 senators voted in favor of it. six of them a-rated. it was actually a majority of the senate. you look at the polling results for those who voted against it and how they have dropped precipitously and how they have improved for those that voted in favor of it. we really do have a sense of momentum on this issue. it's important to take a step back and look at it in the context of the original brady bill that we're looking to expand with this vote around expanded background checks. you can see that it doesn't happen overnight. what it takes is the sustained

voice of the american public. not just after these tragedies, but between them. >> how do you reconcile what you just said, which is that some of the senators who voted against this are seeing a hit in their polling with what happened in colorado? because we talked about it earlier in this hour and there's been a lot of conversation since that recall and a lot of activity, as you said, on the state level to strengthen gun laws. and yet you have some lawmakers who voted in favor of stricter gun control in colorado that has seen two mass tragedies and they get recalled. >> the first important thing to point out is that the law in colorado exists. colorado is a safer place as a result of it. this recall election doesn't change that. but colorado basically, what happens with the recall election, basically just underscores a basic truth. when the american public as a whole can make their voice heard on this issue, the right thing happens. when the gun lobby can create these really specific circumstances where a handful of extremists can carry the day, the wrong thing happens, which puts the onus on us, the american public, and vehicles

like the brady campaign and our voices against violence campaign, where people can go to voicesagainstviolence.com and make their voice heard on this issue, it puts the onus on us to make our voices heard not just immediately after these tragedies, but between them. this has to be a sustained outcry from the american public. that's what it took to pass the original brady bill and that's what it's going to take to expand the expanded background checks. >> dan, thanks for coming in. >> thanks, chris. more than 600 people still unaccounted for in colorado and whole towns surrounded by water after days on end of flooding. those floodwaters just now starting to recede and rescue crews can now intensify their search efforts and assess the damage. nbc's leanne gregg is live in boulder this morning. people are starting to get in to see the full scope of the damage. i can only imagine what they're finding. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, chris. some of it is really not too pleasant. property that's damaged. thick mud lining the streets. in some places, no streets at

all. across the 17 counties where there's flood damage, something like 19,000 homes have been either damaged or destroyed. more than 30 bridges destroyed. more than 100 miles of roads wiped out. those numbers are soft, they will change. in fact in a few hours there will be another briefing with updated numbers. that 600 some people unaccounted for, for example, is expected to be reduced drastically. people who haven't had power or cell phone service or laptops are trying to reconnect with others, so officials think that there will be fewer people unaccounted for. the death toll, however, has risen to eight people and there is fear that that will increase when the waters recede. crews are going to go inside the flooded areas. that's when they think that the death toll could rise. so the aerial assaults -- or rather the air rescue is under way today and they are hoping for a lot of success with that because the weather is great. chris, back to you. >> finally. nbc's leanne gregg, thank you.

the super rich are getting richer. cnbc's mandy drury joins us with what's moving your money. i guess maybe we should say what's moving their money. the new forbes 400 is out. the numbers are staggering. >> reporter: they really are. forbes has the 400 wealthiest americans are worth a combined $2 trillion. that's about the size of russia's economy. the average net worth is $5 billion and of course there are many familiar names on the top ten list including and starting with microsoft founder, bill gates. he's worth $72 billion, chris. that's a jump of $12.5 billion from last year and it's also the 20th year in a row that he has led the fortune 400. we then have as number two warren buffett. he is worth $58 million. larry ellison from oracle, net worth $41 million. charles and david koch of koch industries, both 36 bil and you have the four members of the walton family, that includes

kristi walton who i believe is the richest woman in america and they're a combined $136 billion. we all shop at walmart, right? rounding out the top ten, new york city mayor michael bloomberg, $31 billion. perhaps no surprise here, chris, in terms of the young ones, facebook ceo and founder mark zuckerberg, he's the richest american who is under 30 years old at $19 billion. >> wow, unbelievable. >> if he wanted to retire today, he'd never have to work ever, ever again. his children and grandchildren will never have to work again. >> great grandchildren and great great grandchildren can live off the money he makes. let's talk about the income gap, though. that has widened. the jobs gap, when you see these numbers are pretty startling too. >> reporter: absolutely. the gap between the rich and the poor is getting bigger. i believe it has stretched to the widest levels since officials began tracking this data a decade ago. rates of unemployment for the

lowest income families, those earning less than $20,000, that's topped 21%, nearly matching the rate for all workers during the 1930s, the great depression. u.s. households with income more than $150,000, they have an unemployment of thr3.2%. so a big, big gap. >> mandy drury, thank you so much. >> reporter: thank you. we've got some help for cash-strapped car buyers. edmunds is out with its best list of used cars. the best sedan, the hyundai elawn tray. the detroita a prius. the ford mustang is the best used performance car. a link to the full list is up at jansing.msn jansing.msnbc.com. ♪

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broccoli could help prevent the most common form of arthritis. in results from studies with mice, cows and humans, a compound in broccoli appears to slow the breakdown of cartilage in joints associated with osteoarthritis. researchers are planning clinical trials for patients awaiting knee replacement surgery. the white house says a new u.n. report bolsters president obama's argument that the syrian government was behind a deadly chemical weapons attack last month. the lock-awaited u.n. inspector's report confirms that rockets filled with sarin nerve gas were fired into the suburb of damascus four weeks ago kill more than 1400 civilians. u.n. secretary general moon calls it the worst use of wmds in the 21st century. the report comes as the united states and its allies step up pressure on syrian president, bashar al assad, to uphold his end of the deal on securing and destroying syria's chemical

weapons. >> we're not there yet, but if properly implemented, this agreement could end the threat these weapons pose to not only the syrian people but to the world. >> i'm joined now by peter yo, vice president for public policy at the united nations foundation and mark mazetti. gentlemen, good morning. >> good morning. >> this report does not assign blame. peter, how important do you think this is in terms of the overall u.s. case against syria? >> well, for the first time we have a politically objective and purely scientific analysis of what happened in syria in august, which is that chemical weapon, sarin gas, was used to kill more than 1400 syrian men, women and children. this will undoubtedly increase pressure on the russians and the syrians to fulfill the terms of the agreement that's been worked out between the u.s. and russia, because we now have it on record that chemical weapons were used. >> that agreement you talk about

between the u.s. and russia is a framework to destroy syria's chemical weapons stockpile. so, mark, what happens next? >> well, the syrian regime has to declare its entire arsenal of chemical weapons very soon. there's a very short deadline for them to do that and that is the first test of this pact to see whether they declare the full extent of the arsenal to the extent that anyone outside knows how much they have, and then we go from there. i agree with peter that the significance of this u.n. report is tremendous. for anyone who had doubts about the united states or the british or the french saying that it was a chemical attack, this seems to confirm that there was sarin gas used. even though it doesn't assign blame for the attack, all the evidence obviously does point to the syrian regime using -- having carried out the attack on august 21st. >> so it does silence that part of it but it does create, as you well know, peter, these other

issues. secretary of state john kerry yesterday called for enforceable benchmarks to eradicate chemical weapons from syria. how do you go about such an enormous task? >> we're fortunate that we have the united nations with years of expertise and working with other multi lateral partners to come up with a regime that will be transparent and enforceable to ensure that there will be benchmarks throughout the process of removing chemical weapons from syria and destroying those chemical weapons. >> you say benchmarks and the secretary of state said benchmarks but give us in very practical terms what that means for people who don't follow this general link. >> by november the syrians must allow u.n. inspectors to see all sites where they're currently storing chemical weapons in syria. by november, all of the equipment they use to mix the chemical weapons that were used to kill the civilians have to be destroyed. that's a concrete benchmark. that's november. next week we're going to see whether the world leaders gathered here are will to stand up and say we strongly support

those benchmarks and are willing to use our government's pressure to make that happen. >> in the meantime, mark, just yesterday the president authorized the u.s. government to provide new kinds of nonlethal assistance to syrian opposition forces. what are we talking about here? how significant is that? >> well, these are elements of the humanitarian aid and other things besides weapons that have been going to the rebels but in small numbers and have been long delayed. one of the issues, setting aside the chemical weapons issue, is just how much support should go to the rebels. as we know, the obama administration authorized lethal assistance in june that took a very long time to get there. it did sort of show the ambivalence inside the white house, inside the obama administration about just how much to support the rebels, and so as you said, president obama has authorized more assistance to the rebels, but obviously the

rebels wish there was far more assistance and far faster assistance than there has been so far. >> in the meantime, next week we'll see some of these critical deadlines coming, so perhaps we'll speak again. mark, peter, thank you for coming in. today's tweet of the day comes from politico which tweeted out this pew poll stat. just 26% of americans believe that the assad regime will relinquish its chemical weapons. . that's not much, you think. except it's 2% every year. go to e-trade and find out how much our advice and guidance costs. spoiler alert: it's low. it's guidance on your terms, not ours. e-trade. less for us. more for you.

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if you read only one thing this morning with obama care about to kick in on october 1st, the "washington post" has a fascinating firsthand account from a physician's assistant about what happened when he had appendicitis but no insurance. you've got to read this and let me know what you think. it's up on our facebook page. that's going to wrap up this hour of "jansing & co." i colleague, craig melvin, is up next live from the scene of the navy yard shooting in washington, d.c. hole world?

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we got a report on the fourth floor, a male with a shotgun. multiple shots fired. multiple people down. >> it's been just over 24 hours now since that call to 911 you just heard there. 24 hours since an attack on a military facility carried out by someone who was once among the military's own. hello, everyone, i'm craig melvin in for thomas roberts on this tuesday, coming to you live from the navy yard here in washington where grief and questions still hang heavy after the deadly rampage. today the navy yard is open, but only for essential personnel. workers started arriving earlier this morning to a scene that is still very much an active police investigation. federal agents are now turning their attention to piecing together the why. why 34-year-old aaron alexis, a former navy reservist and civil

contractor, went there with the intent to kill. here's what we do know right now. alexis, who had access to that secured facility, stood on a fourth floor balcony yesterday morning using a shotgun that you bought last week in virginia and other guns, believed to be taken at the scene. he opened fire onto the atrium below. >> i was running and i heard gunshots. holy cow, that's -- i don't know, it could have been way above me but i wasn't stopping to think what was going on. >> investigators revealing today that alexis was troubled, that he had run-ins with the law in the past, including run-ins over guns. some friends, though, say they never saw this coming. >> he is one of my family too. you know, he's -- he's a good guy, you know. from what i know, you know. i can't say that he didn't or not but when he was with me,