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tv   Morning Joe  MSNBC  May 27, 2022 6:00am-7:00am PDT

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we say if the act of congress to pass new gun legislation, we're helpless. we can't do anything. but at the individual level, something as simple as safe storage of firearms in the home. if you've got a teenage, lock up the gun. at the institutional level, being attune to signs of violence. they are leaving a trail of bread crumbs. they're crying out for help before the shooting ever occurs. let's make sure we spot those warning signs. put those pieces together and make sure this doesn't happen. then there is that societal piece. we need legislation to improve our social safety net, but also ensure that firearms cannot fall into the hands of young people, dangerous people, that shouldn't have guns in the first place. >> criminal justice professor, the book is the violence project, how to stop a mass shooting epidemic. such an important conversation.
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i trust we'll have you back soon. thanks for being here. we are at the top of the hour now. it is 9:00 here on the east coast. 8:00 in uvalde, texas. let's get to several major discrepancies. let's go to morgan who is on the ground in uvalde. morgan? >> reporter: >> another tough morning here in uvalde as authorities are shifting what happened and when here inside robb elementary school. this is coming after we heard from parents who were just outside the school saying police were not acting fast enough when those gun shots rang out inside. now as authorities try to provide some clarity with answers, there are only new questions rising about why they didn't engage that gunman fast enough. this morning, growing confusion and outrage about why it took so long to take out that lone
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gunman. >> our job is to report the facts and have those answers. we're not there yet. >> reporter: police now say it took over an hour from the first 911 call to stop the massacre. in that time, 19 children and two teachers were killed in four classrooms. >> he said it's time to die. i was hiding hard and i was telling my friend to not talk. >> reporter: one fourth grader hid under a table. the 9-year-old speaking to a cbs affiliate. >> the cop said help if you need help then they got one of the persons and my class said help. the guy heard and he came in and shot her and then the cops barged into the that classroom. >> reporter: texas department of public safety officials now backtracking saying there was no school officer on campus. was there a school officer on campus and was that school officer armed because that's what we've been told? >> no.
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no. there was not an officer readily available armed. >> reporter: saying the 18-year-old seen here armed with an ar style rifle entered through what appeared to be an unlocked door. >> from the grandmother's house to the school, into the school, he was not confronted by anybody. >> reporter: authorities also clarifying their timeline. at 11:28, the suspect crashed a truck near the school, then fired at two people outside a funeral home across the street before climbing the fence to robb elementary. at 11:30, the first 911 call came in. ten minutes later, the suspect entered the school. by 11:44, the first officers arrived. the suspect locking himself inside a classroom, firing numerous rounds. officials say those first responding officers couldn't get inside and called for back up, but tactical teams didn't arrive until about an hour later. that's when officers were
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finally able to open the door using a key from the principal and took down the gunman. outside the school, videos showing frantic onlookers urging officers to go in. a parent telling "the wall street journal" saying he was handcuffed by u.s. marshals outside the school though they deny it. the agency saying in a statement, our deputy marshals maintained order and peace. as investigators continue to search for a motive and families grieve. >> no one should do anything like this. >> jayden perez was inside the school when he heard gun shots. the fourth grader taking time to honor his classmates. >> reporter: you wrote you deserve better on that cross. is there anything you'd like the world to hear? >> stick together and be strong. >> reporter: now we have reach out to authorities regarding that other young boy's account of police asking students to ask for help inside the school as those gun shots rang out,
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willie, but as of right now, we have not heard back from authorities. in the meantime, governor an abbott expected to be here before going to the nra conference. >> morgan chesky on the ground for us at uvalde. for more on the questions surrounding the law enforcement response, we bring back in nbc news national security and intelligence correspondent, ken delaney. as we wake up this morning to these conflicts reporting about what happened, contradicting the initial report from law enforcement now saying for example, there was not even a law enforcement, excuse me, a school resource officer at the school at all. that the doors were unlocked. that this gunman wandered the grounds of the school outdoors for 12 minutes before entering then was inside for more than an hour. what questions will you have today for law enforcement? >> willie, there's so much
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concern right now over how the texas department of public safety has failed to inform the public and what about and more importantly, about the police response. it's worth remembering that as far as we know, the texas dps did not respond to this incident. in fairness to that, they're having to interview many people from different police agencies part of a chaotic scene, but many are saying it's inexcusable that texas officials have gone before the public and given false information. i heard former nwpd tell you today this has been an embarrassment to local law enforcement and a lot of experts i'm seeing agreeing with them. by now, we know the diskrypsys. they say he was confronted by a school resource officer, then he was there, but didn't fire. a day later yesterday, a lower level official said there was no resource officer armed or otherwise and said, that
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official said the shooter arrived at the school and lingered outside for 12 minutes firing shots before he walked through an unlocked door. he said it was ten full minutes before any police arrived even though their station is a mile down the road. uvalde has a s.w.a.t. team trained on school shootings, but it's not clear if any of them responded. the official said some uvalde police officers immediately rushed in and engaged the shooter, that's important, but the shooter fired back with his assault rifle and some were hit and had to retreat. that's where we get to this confounding delay. the official said the police on the ground were asking for back up, heavy weapons, a negotiator. that's not what police doctrine has called for since columbine. current thinking is it's best to rush in with whatever force you have because most mass shooting victims die within the first minutes. instead as we know, it was more than an hour before a tactical team led by federal border patrol agents conducted a
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courageous assault and killed the shooter. police officials implied he killed most of his victims quickly, but this delay is raising questions about whether any of these children were wounded and treatable within what medical experts call the golden hour after a serious trauma. officials said the children died in one classroom, but pete williams is reporting that dead children for found in four different classrooms. these are among the questions we're trying to answer today and also, what was that shooter's background? did he have previous encounters with the police? we're digging on that today. >> law enforcement initially said there's no criminal history. there could be juvenile. those records are sealed. ken, you pointed to the heart of the matter. the question that really matters here. would any of those kids survived had there not been that hour lapse? that hour delay. again, we want to say that brave officers did confront him. they went in first and fired at
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him. they were outgunned, had to fall back. but my goodness. to wait an hour and seven minutes, any parent standing outside that school has to wonder if their child might be alive today had it not taken so long. >> of course they do. and this is compounded by the videos that we're seeing of parents begging police to go in. and the accounts we're hearing about that. you know, as i've been thinking about this and working through it, it strikes me that it is their job to rush in, but it's also a really unfair situation we put patrol officers in. that they are having to rush into, armed with handguns, they're having to confront a shooter with a high powered assault rifle. a weapon of war. where the rounds are designed to devastate the human body. that's the position we've put police in throughout the country. we expect them to be heroes. rush into the gunfire. systemically, it doesn't seem like it makes sense. this happened in the parkland
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shooting. i was reading over the investigative report for that just as we were coming on the air. multiple police officers were faulted for not acting fast enough in a situation where seconds not minutes, but seconds, can matter. and we have to ask ourselves is this the system went to live in where police armed with handguns are going up against shooters with assault rifles? >> ken delaney raising several questions that will be asked of law enforcement today and the governor. thanks so much. president biden is set to depart any moment now from the white house. he will be speaking at the naval academy graduation. the president and first lady will visit uvalde on sunday in an effort to console the families of the 19 children and two teachers killed in tuesday's massacre. that visit comes just 12 days after president and first lady traveled to buffalo to console the family of ten people killed while shopping inside a grocery store. white house reporter for politico and "morning joe" senior contributor, eugene
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daniels, joins us from the white house. a politico report quoting a top gun safety advocate telling the president, quote, he can't just been the eulogizer in chief. that's an important role. something this president is particularly good at, but advocates want more. >> absolutely. advocates and every american that's worried about this issue, which is to say basically everyone in the country. you know, at almost every chance since this shooting in uvalde, the white house has publicly tried to stay out of the fray politically and allow what they see as talks on capitol hill to play out. we have these bipartisan talks that are going on. one of the reasons we haven't seen any movement in the senate on this issue this week so they have said over and over and over, they don't want the president to be seen as the 105th first senator from the white house even though this is something one gun control and safety that he really cares about. more importantly, that he has
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the bully pulpit that is unmatched by anyone to have advocates and folks asking the white house what is he going to do and staying out of the fray is not what they want to see him do. they want to see him call out republicans who have, and democrats, who won't get rid of filibuster for this issue. call them out and take them to task as these things happen and they say that they have seen how him putting himself into these conversations has backfired in the past. excuse that language there, but has not worked for this white house in the past and we've seen it crumble. but with this issue willie, as you know, it is unlikely there are going to be ten republicans that are going to get on board. right now, there's about four republicans who said that they're open to some kind of piece of legislation for the senate to move on when it comes to either background checks or more importantly, red flag laws in this country. so it's unlikely we're going to
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see a bill. so folks want to see the president use his executive authority, which he's done in the past on this issue, and use it quickly. that's something this white house is reticent to do. we know the white house, what they can and can't do, but when voters look at the democratic party that has the white house, the senate, and the house, it's hard to explain to them how you know, you can't do anything. you're frustrated. it's just not fine right now. >> it's jonathan. i was on the trip to buffalo that willie mentioned. i assume we'll see a similar i ten rare on sunday. flowers on the site, grieving, a speech from the president with i'm sure some real anger. we've heard real passion from him this week. he's not the only one fired up about this issue. please tell us about the latest from democratic voters, civil rights groups, gun control activists who have been to this point, really frustrated that
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the white house has not been able to do more. yes, we know there are limits to their power, but that's not always a good enough answer. what's the pressure they're putting on them? what sort of solutions are they demanding? >> the pressure's coming from all sides of every democratic constituency. gun safety groups. civil rights groups. you saw the buffalo shooting with the issue of white supremacy. you have this shooting and all the questions about what police could or couldn't do and they were outgunned because of his ability to get his hands on that ar-15. so they aren't accepting the we're frustrated as easily because this seems to be getting worse and they want to see a white house that's out front on this issue. not to say the white house isn't talking about it and working on it. this president has expressed his
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frustration and anger. this isn't the first president under which no gun legislation a has been passed. that frustration is only going to grow as we're likely to see whatever bipartisan talks in the senate not come to fruition to 60 vote group to pass some piece of legislation. so then you come back to the president and there's going to be more frustration next week. this white house knows that and they're preparing for that. >> eugene daniels from the white house. thank you so much. coming up this hour on "morning joe," we will go live to houston where the nra convention is set to begin this afternoon. former president trump will be taking the stage but another key official has pulled out. also ahead, we will talk to an er doctor who says there is a third way to approach the gun crisis. we'll explain what that means when we come right back. we'll explain what that means
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when we come right back.
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in just a few hours, the national rifle association's convention will get underway in houston, texas, going on as planned despite pressure from critics. texas governor abbott no longer will attend. his office says the governor will be in uvalde instead, but will record video remarks that will be broadcast at the convention. protesting expected outside the event. shaquielle brewster is there and joins us from houston. >> reporter: good morning. those protests have not started yet. but you will have several thousands people going to the convention center behind me. you saw some vendors going in. some early attendees going in for this nra convention and you mentioned it will begin with a speaker series. we'll hear some of those politicians. senator ted cruz. christie norton.
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governor of south dakota. although you had some of the performers that were expected to perform this weekend pulling back from this show. the protesters that will come out here and meet them. i spoke to one of the organizers yesterday. they say they're expecting 500 to 1,000 people. their main call earlier in the week was to cancel the convention or postpone it. right now, they say their main goal is to have a rally for gun safety. they want common sense gun safety measures in place and they're trying to target. they're trying to direct their attention and energy at the politicians, the lawmakers who will be here. this brings out some awkward tension there. that's something you've been hearing from attendees and vendors going to this convention. listen to some of our conversations our team has been having with folks going to this convention here about how they square. the shooting that we saw, that devastating tragedy we saw just
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four and a half hours away from here. how they square that with the convention they're having this weekend. >> i think they're just using the shooting, the horrible tragedy that our whole country as mourning over, as a scapegoat to try to get a gun agenda going on. it's exactly what the nra wants to do. they have a protect schools program and if there were somebody in that school that was trained, that would not have gone on as long as it did. >> they blame the guys with guns. the gun itself. the fact they exist. that nobody needs an assault rifle. nobody needs 30 rounds. they blame all of those, but it's never the individual. never falls back on the individual. and being so naturally, the people that abide by all the laws, go through all the right processes to obtain these firearms. >> reporter: i want to read the statement we got from nra this
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week. this is a statement that's put right on the front of the convention website. while they say they honor and think about the memories of the families and they salute local law enforcement, they say although an investigation is underway and facts are still emerging, we recognize this was an act of a lone, deranged criminal. as we gather in houston, we will reflect on these events, pray for the victims, recognize our patriotic members and pledge to redouble our commitment to making our schools secure. it is that last point this when you talk to the people who will come out here, beto o'rourke, who will come out to demonstrate and protest the convention here, it's that last point that they're not satisfied with. they say that the nra and local leaders have focused on and said they will focus on school safety after these shootings. we've seen action in texas after these shootings, but the folks coming out here today want the focus to be on the weapon used. the weapon that continues to
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seemingly being used in many of these mass shootings. some variation of that ar-15 assault style weapon. that's where they want the focus to be on. not just the act of an individual or the act or the promises of more school safety reform. so that's what we'll see later today. we know that protests are expected to start about 12:00 p.m. organizers wanted to end at 3:00 p.m. with the convention being let out at 4:00 to avoid any official confrontation. >> the conference set to begin in a few hours and run all weekend. thanks so much. joining us now, retired seattle police chief carmen best. thank you so much for being with us. chief, we have to ask you based on what you've seen and heard over the last couple of days. we've talked to commissioner braaten in our last hour just about best practices on a school shooting and how they might
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apply here in uvalde. when you were chief in seattle, what was the policy for a school shooting or mass shooting of any kind for your teams. >> first of all, good morning, willie, and thank you for having me. i was reflecting, i've been talking to chiefs all over the country in the last couple of days and the typical protocol after columbine has been to enter a school, set up a contact team and go and try to stop the threat and go directly for the target. i know right now into day number three and surprisingly, we have very little information. more questions than answers, if you will, about what went on and who knew what when and what the timeline was. but normally, the practice has been, the protocol has been to enter the school and i remember myself right after columbine, myself being an officer at the time, we went through numerous rehearsals and practices and
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training. we went to abandoned schools and practiced going to the target, getting people out. that has been a routine practice for almost, over 20 years now and so that is a known protocol. so there are a lot of questions about you know, what happened there and why the communications information coming out has been somewhat of a debacle and we're looking for more information. >> we just heard chief best that the thrust of the argument at the nra convention is we need to harden schools further. we need more safety measures. perhaps more guns. stronger guns for school resource officers. as you look at potential solutions to prevent another shooting inside a school where a group of fourth graders are murdered, what do you see as still possible? what's out there? how do we do better? >> we keep talking about this and having the same conversations. we know that everyone is, most people i should say, are in
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favor of background checks that are more comprehensive. closing the gun show loophole. closing the boyfriend loophole. making sure we employ red flag laws. what we call in seattle, risk protection orders to make sure people in crisis don't have access to handguns for a limited period of time. making sure we have as officer, i would hate to see another officer you know try to go in without having the level of fire power to address that threat sufficiently. so we need to look at all of that. and again, who we are allowing to buy the assault weapons. i personally feel like we're not going to get another ban on assault weapons, but if we don't, we should at least make sure people have training and they understand how to operate these things and how to store them and how to, you know, how to make sure they're safe with them. then we need to not allow people under the age, in my view, under
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the age of 21 to be able to purchase these on a whim. >> chief best, mike barnacle's here with a question for you. mike? >> chief best, as you pointed out, it's been 20 years since columbine. it's been ten years since new town, connecticut. it's been a couple of weeks since buffalo. been about three days since uvalde, texas. and the clips that we show from tuesday on right through up until this morning is a familiarity on both sides with what they say and their reaction to what happened in uvalde, texas, and what's happening in america. the pro gun people have the similar response. they're very comfortable giving it. they're used to it. the people who are opposed to licensing and people who are opposed to sales to 18-year-olds of assault weapons, they say similar things. how depressing do you find it
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that years and years and years of assaults on civility and civilization and life itself in america, the assault on american children in schools is terrible when it happens. a week from now, it will be talking about hockey or basketball playoffs or whatever. how depressing is that to you as a law enforcement officer? >> well, i got to tell you, you're absolutely right. we've heard it all before, right, and we keep coming back to this. obviously anytime there's a lot of life, especially the live of children taken so tragically, we all feel the depression of that. in some ways as a nation, we're in post-traumatic stress because we don't have a chance to recover from one incident before another occurs. i'm still very hopeful though that there will be change. what's the alternative? just to give up and throw our hands in the air?
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so we really have to continue to focus on incrementally finding ways to make our children, our schools, our grocery stores safer for all of us to go to. >> carmen best, the former chief of police in the city of seattle. thank you so much for your expertise and insight this morning. really appreciate it. coming up next here, we will talk to an er doctor who says there is one solution to the nation's gun crisis no one is talking about. and we continue to remember those who were killed on tuesday. the family of 11-year-old layla salazar had to wait ten agonizing hours before learning their daughter in fact was one of the victims. >> we left chicago and moved here, you know, just to be in a safer place for her and then for this to happen, can't. >> it can't happen no more. there's been too many.
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too many. >> this has got to end. >> this has got to stop. there's no reason that congress can't pass a law. she's in prague between the ideal cup of coffee and a truly impressive synthesizer collection. and you can find her right now (lepsi?) on upwork.com (lepsi.) when the world is your workforce, finding the perfect project manager, designer, developer, or whomever you may need... tends to fall right into place. find top-rated talent who can start today on upwork.com bipolar depression. it made me feel trapped in a fog. this is art inspired by real stories of bipolar depression. i just couldn't find my way out of it. the lows of bipolar depression can take you to a dark place. latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. latuda was proven to significantly reduce bipolar depression symptoms and in clinical studies,
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that no child should die in the dawn of life. to work with many partners all over the world, nothing stops in the way of us achieving that mission, not even war. marta salek md: when there is a need, people stand up and do what is right and ensure that they restart medical therapy as quickly as possible. carlos rodriguez-galindo md: any child suffering today of cancer is our responsibility. fanduel and draftkings, two out of state corporations making big promises to californians. what's the real math behind their ballot measure for online sports betting? 90% of profits go to the out of state corporations permanently. only eight and a half cents is left for the homeless. and in virginia, arizona, and other states, fanduel and draftkings use loopholes to pay far less than was promised. sound familiar? it should. it's another bad scheme for california.
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rush to emergency rooms and doctors across the country because of this crisis of gun violence in our country have seen far too many gun shot wounds. joining us now, emergency physician and academic dean of public health at brown university, dr. rainey. she says firearm injuries are a public health crisis that demand solutions right now. thank you so much for being with us. i'll let you expand on that thought in a bit, but so much of the conversation of course is about guns, as it should be. mental health, as it should be, and all the other factors that go into these tragedies that we seem to see every week now. how do you look at it from a public health perspective? >> this is about the very real health impacts of the gun.
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the gun shot wounds, the lost lives and ripple effects on communities and society and when we talk about preventing something from a public health approach, it's about taking that larger picture approach to creating solutions. listen, we've done this for problem after problem through the history of our country. we have decreased car crashes by more than 70%. we have made huge strides in heart disease and cancer by getting data, getting solutions that go from the beginning of treatment. the tough thing here is that we have not done that for guns. we've been stuck in this debate for far too long and look where we have. more than a decade after sandy hook and all we're seeing are nor shooting, more homicides, more gun suicides. it's time for a different approach. an approach that's been shown to work for other injuries and
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illnesses. >> good morning. you're an emergency physician so you are sadly familiar with the impact of what a bullet does to a body. as much there is an effort to change the conversation by some around what's happened here in texas and buffalo, this is about guns. tell us about what you've seen, what the damage a weapon of war does like this to a person. >> it's almost unspeakable. what a firearm does to a human body. i've been an er doc for almost 20 years. taken care of car crashes to heart attacks to covid. a firearm causes both physical and mental damage, but it is nearly impossible to recover from. the point when the firearm gets discharged, when someone shoots themselves or someone else, that is a terminal event in a long series of events that led up to that moment.
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there are so many places along that pathway where we can and should intervene to reduce the chance that someone picks up that gun in a moment of hatred, impulsivity, racism or desire for self-harm. >> her point is underlined by this being a health crisis. we learned firearms killed more children than automobile crash, which forever was the leading cause of death. >> it is a crisis. a medical crisis. a mental health crisis. both of those, doctor, you're correct. but it's also a political crisis. so what alternative approach that you mentioned earlier, you have an alternative approach. what alternative approach is going to supersede the fact, the fact, that one political party, the republican party, and at
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least 48, 49 members of that party, perhaps 50 members of that party, the united states senate, refuse to pass or endorse legislation that would prevent an 18-year-old purchasing an assault weapon. >> what's the alternative? yes, there's a political impasse. we can bemoan that or move forward. we can put in place extremist orders and background checks like the retired police chief was talking about, but we have to change the community. we have to work with firearm owners and non firearm owners to increase safe storage. most kids who kill themselves or someone else do so with a family member's gun. you can pass laws about that, but you have to get owners to believe that's the right thing to do and working with each other to make it happen. you can also set up community programs that help reduce the
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risk of injury and death. one of my colleagues in philadelphia has shown if you green vacant lots, if you take those lots in the city of philadelphia and put community gardens in them, you decrease the number of gun shots, the number of violent incidents of other types and the amount of anxiety, depression, and stress sensitive decides around where you put a garden in. so there are a lot of solutions you can take today while also working toward policy change that makes a difference. saying that we're going to fix this through -- is a polly anna. >> one of your solutions sounds simple, but perhaps the most important is identifying people who are at risk. just communities looking out for each other. if you see a problem, say something. you may save a bunch of lies doing it. doctor, thanks so much for sharing this with us today. the sports world has been
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reacting to the shooting. last night, two baseball teams decided to do something different. instead of tweeting out game highlights, the yankees and raies dedicated their feeds to facts about the impact of gun violence. this is the yankees feed filled with statistics about the impact guns have on children, teenagers, veterans, minorities. not a word about runs, hits, rbis or even the final score of the game. we'll be right back. the game the game we'll be right back.r that was right under their nose. or... his nose. only two things are forever: love and liberty mutual customizing your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. if anyone objects to this marriage... (emu squawks) kevin, no! not today. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ (fisher investments) in this market, you'll find fisher investments only pay for what you need. is different than other money managers.
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it is 9:45 in the morning on this friday at the united states capitol. 6:45 out west. commentary now on this moment in america from the legendary former anchor of "nbc nightly news," tom brokaw. >> i can promise you that this tragedy in texas is going to touch off a wave of new gun
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buyers. people are going to be rushing to shops to get guns. the new ones and the old people who have been at this for a long, long time because they see some possibility of gun control in some form or another coming their way. i'm not sure that's going to happen because we witnessed this in the past and already republican especially are saying, we don't need more gun control. what we need is security at schools around the country. what are we going to do? turn these schools into some kind of jail where kids go to school and get locked in and don't have the possibility of getting out when they want to? i don't think that's a solution. you maybe wondering what's my expertise in this area. well, i grew up in south dakota. i grew up with guns. i got my first gun when i was 12 years old and with my friends, i would go out across the prairie and we would be shooting all kinds of small animals at that time. it was all legal. then i graduated to shotguns
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because in south dakota, after all, it's the capital of pheasant and bird hunting. that went on until i moved to california and had three daughters and i thought i just can't do this anymore. i can't have guns in the house anymore. when they grew up, they took some very good gun lessons at camp so i went back to my guns in the northeast and i went on some wonderfully fulfilling expeditions with my friends. all well controlled. and all absolutely measured in terms of how we handled ourselves. and then i remember that i decided that i had to try to expand the country's understanding of guns so i prepared a one-hour documentary on prime time. it opened with me and my gun talking about there is a reasonable way to deal with guns in this country. i introduced a man by the name of ruben. that's a familiar name because it's the best gun company in the
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country. he was an eloquent man and made the case very well that you can not only have gun owners in this country, but they can act responsibly and at the same time, i introduced joe foss, a world war ii hero who was, at that point, head of the national rifle association. he made the case that the nra has to be more reasonable. guess what. the nra went after us before we were on the air. wayne lapierre said boycott that program tonight. began to tell people that you don't want to listen to anything about gun control in this country. that was the beginning of the great power of the nra and now it's at the stage where it's made enormous amount of amount and wayne has gotten very wealthy as the head of the nra, but at the same time, the turn
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has now begun and people are beginning to think how do we get control of this? how are we going to emerge from this tragedy to all begin to talk in a common way about what we need to do in america. for most of my life, i lived without guns out of control. they're now wildly out of control and it's a great danger to this country. not just to school children in texas, but across the country. if you look at what's happened in the last year with mass shootings, it's a disgrace for a great democracy to allow that to go on without reasonable people speaking up and making a stand. so it's not just about going out and buying more guns because you think they're going to be shut down. it's about speaking up and taking a stand. i grew up with guns and i still have them, but i use them responsibly and all my friends do as well. it will go away if we don't do something very soon about getting this madness under
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control. it is a common theory on our time at our place at the most civilized country in the history of the world or are we? i'm tom brokaw. >> commentary from our friend tom brokaw who was on the ground in littleton, colorado, after the columbine shooting 23 years ago. coming up next, how one group is taking a unique approach to curb gun use among teenagers. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. less oral. not for sudden breathing problems. allergic reactions can occur. get help right away for swelling of face, mouth, tongue, or trouble breathing. infections that can cause shingles have occurred. don't stop steroids less told by your doctor. tell your doctor if you have a parasitic infection. may cause headache, injection site reactions, back pain, and fatigue.
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did you know you can get discounts on your meds even if you don't have a medicare prescription drug plan? it's true. all you have to do is go to singlecare.com type in your prescription, and then present the coupon to your pharmacist.
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it's that simple. not to mention, it's free. singlecare is accepted by major pharmacies across the country and it works for everyone, whether you have insurance or not. next time you need a prescription filled, go to singlecare to make sure you get the best price. visit singlecare.com and start saving today. >> since tuesday's shooting in texas, we have heard from prominent gun reform groups like every town,s the brady company and the gifford's law center. daniella pierre bravo has more. >> reporter: it's called project loaded and it's catering to teens and adults before they decide how they feel about gun ownership. the group also stands out for another reason. it isn't interesting in engaging in the political conversation
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around guns at all. the idea behind the latest initiative, snug, stands for safer not using guns, it's to educate them about the risks associated with guns. and according to a recent gallup poll, the reason americans are buying guns is for protection. project unloaded is trying to flip that script, challenging the narrative that more guns make people safer. and they are meeting teenagers and adults online and on social. i spoke to the founder and director about why they are taking a politics-free approach. >> we're really taking a nonpat san approach to the issue. in fact, i think the partisan polarization around the issue is
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really what has caused the issue to really stagnate for so long, and i think it's why we haven't made more progress in addressing gun violence in the country. so we're really putting partisan politics aside, and talking to young people before they're able to vote, before they're declaring a party affiliation, and talking about things that are positive and empowering and trying to keep a gun conversation outside of the very polarized debate that we're so all familiar with. in our research, we learned to the polarized nature of this debate, it's turning off a lot of young people. they don't want to be forced to pick a side. so we're not asking them to pick a side. we're asking them to get the facts and to make a decision
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that's in the best interests of their health and safety. >> project unloaded isn't against larger policy changes under gun safety. it's just not their main goal. they are approaching it from a different standpoint. much like the truth campaign tried to discredit cigarette use in the 2000s. and i spoke to a student survivor in the parkland, florida, shooting. she echoed what i heard from others her age. any conversation about gun safety has to be coupled with gun control legislation. >> it's an interesting approach, and i think most advocates would say we need a bunch of ones to get at this problem. morning joe reporter daniela pierre bravo, thanks so much.
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that's it for us in the end of a trying, devastating week. our coverage coverages with jose diaz-balart in two minutes. d d diaz-balart in two minutess a b. bipolar depression. it made me feel trapped in a fog. this is art inspired by real stories of bipolar depression. i just couldn't find my way out of it. the lows of bipolar sion can take you to a dark place. latuda could make a real difference in your symptoms. latuda was proven to significantly reduce bipolar depression symptoms and in clinical studies, had no substantial impact on weight. this is where i want to be. call your doctor about sudden behavior changes or suicidal thoughts. antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults. elderly dementia patients have increased risk of death or stroke. report fever, confusion, stiff or uncontrollable muscle movements, which may be life threatening or permanent.
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♪♪ >> good morning. it's 10:00 a.m. eastern. 7:00 a.m. pacific. 9:00 here in uvalde, texas. 96 hours after the shooting that claimed the lives of 21 people, including 19 children and two teachers, outrage about what exactly happened here at robb elementary school? we're starting to learn the horrifying detailed what happened inside the classroom. the classroom where the shooter holed up, killing the