"andrea mitchell reports." the review of the law enforcement response to the deadly robb elementary school mass shooting is underway. they are expected to select a leader in the coming days. much of the scrutiny is on the uvalde police chief whose swearing in as a city council member has been postponed while the community holds funeral services for the victims. chris murphy has been in talks with texas republican senator john cornyn as their staffs trade legislative language today ahead of bipartisan zoom meetings starting tomorrow to see if they can break years of senate gridlock blocking gun safety proposals. moments ago at the white house, the president telling reporters he will be meeting with lawmakers about guns. >> there's an awful lot of suffering. i've been to more mass shooting aftermaths than i think any

president in american history, unfortunately. so much of it is -- much of it is preventable. and the devastation is amazing. >> that was in a meeting with the new zealand prime minister. the united states has its first confirmed ambassador to ukraine in kyiv in three years. she arrives at a critical moment with president zelenskyy saying that russia achieved, quote, maximum combat power in the eastern donbas region. president biden has reaffirmed his support for federal reserve independence in fighting inflation in advance of a meeting today with fed chairman powell as the national frustration with rising inflation becomes a midterm threat for democrats. we begin in uvalde, texas, with nbc's sam brock, and tom winter and former u.s. attorney

joyce vance. sam, while federal investigators are looking into the police response to this mass shooting, we are hearing stories about the day as the community attends services for loved ones. tell us what's going on down there. this is a community in grief. this will go on over week. in 30 minutes, it will be one week since the gunman came here and tore through the hallways. there are eight services today. everything from funerals to masses to visitations. as you move down the street, there's a funeral home. it was the site where the first few shots were fired according to authorities. later today, family members will be gathered at that funeral home to take in the visitations and try to pay their respects to the people who died in this massacre. we know there are at least two funerals today.

we are talking about fourth graders. the little girl was trying to call 911 as this was happening. this community has been impacting in every facet imaginable. there were officers a while ago standing over my shoulder saying prayers. we know many of their family members were impacted and were inside the school as this was going on. earlier today, an agent was off duty at the time last tuesday as this was unfolding, he spoke with savannah guthrie about what happened when his wife texted him. here is what he said. >> my wife texted me that she was okay at the funeral home. the kids were out of the building. i went to find my daughter in her wing. >> what was that moment like when you saw your daughter? >> a big relief. >> after she got to safety, you continued to help?

>> yeah. i cleared out the rooms there. saw her friends. i coach little league baseball as well. i'm not official but i'm there helping out. i could see their faces. half fine. the other panicking and crying, trying to make sure they weren't delaying the process. i was trying to keep them as calm as i could as they were evacuating. >> the last few days, i asked, had you gotten rest? >> no. not any at all. >> you are haunted by what you saw? >> not necessarily what i saw. my wife is extremely affected by it. >> reporter: it's really hard, andrea, to find anyone here who doesn't have tears in their eyes. as you drive down the street, there are multiple memorials of just 21 crosses there for the 19 students and two teachers who gave their lives, shielded them with their bodies as the gunfire was ongoing. you mentioned, the chief of the

school police district here, according to the mayor who spoke yesterday, he said he was elected and the mayor is not aware of any investigation specifically targeting him. the department of public safety in texas is conducting its own investigation of the incident. we know as you mentioned the department of justice has a critical incident review also being undertaken. there's only been a couple of times in recent years where that's happened. in orlando and in san bernardino. >> sam, thank you so much. it's so compelling, tom winter, his wife is a schoolteacher. that community is so tightly knit. as he grabbed a gun and he was in the barber shop. he and the barber grabbed guns to go in and see what they could do to help. he ran into his friend rubin, a classmate of his. it was one of rubin's wife, was one of the two teachers killed. it's endless.

the despair in this community and anger at the local officials for not running in. we should stress, tom, that this doj review, it's not a criminal review. it's an incident review. it could be long. >> that's correct. we will not get any answers today, tomorrow, next week. these typically take some time, several months at the earliest is what they will take here to investigate and look into this. i use the phrase investigate, because they will try to get the facts. they will talk to a lot of people involved. they will review the prior training of the police chief. over last three years, he has received active shooter training, according to texas public records, three times, 32 hours. he is a 28-year veteran of the law enforcement community. his most recent training in active shooter was on december 17th of last year. he is probably accredited. there's a guide in texas from the agency that oversees and

basically certifies police officers or peace officers, the technical legal term. what was the training? what occurred that day? what types of things can police departments across the country learn from incidents like this to better inform them going forward so there's a clearer understanding of the facts here? i think that's important for people to keep in mind. obviously, if they come across any sort of federal crime here, it's possible that they could refer that out to the rest of the justice department to take a peek into in the criminal division. people should look at this as an outside independent review, what led up to the day to focus on the police response, not the shooter. what occurred in the school building on that day and what types of lessons and inferences can we draw from it? >> joyce vance, it's really a lesson learned, what you would see after -- we saw the 9/11 commission report. how should we change our

response to these horrific incidents? this case, you know, a mass shooting. it involves children and local responders not following the textbook, the playbook. >> this is the value that the doj investigation brings to future first responders. it's important to say that this is not, as tom pointed out, a criminal investigation. it won't be there to look for criminal conduct. it's there to figure out, what can they do, what lessons can be learned that will prevent a recurrence in future incidents. this is conducted by community oriented policing. they interact with state, local, tribal law enforcement across the country. they also have the ability to bring technical resources and grant funding to make sure that other police agencies won't have

the apparent failures of what occurred in uvalde. something that's important to note is the facts are still confused. we have heard conflicting accounts. one of the focuses will be getting the time line right and figuring out whether there were failures of communication as well as competence involved. >> thanks to sam brock, of course, down in uvalde. and tom winter and joyce vance, thanks to both of you. relentless. russia continuing its assault on eastern ukraine. will nato send more help? this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. 65 yeard to qualify for medicare and medicaid? many people who are already on medicaid also qualify for a wellcare medicare advantage plan. which means you can start taking advantage of all these benefits right now. a $0 or low monthly plan premium. preventive and comprehensive dental coverage.

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through zero emissions fleets. best of all, prop a won't raise your taxes. vote yes on prop a for fast, safe, reliable transit. we have breaking news in washington. former hillary clinton campaign attorney michael sussmann has been acquitted. this comes out of the durham investigation. back with me now are tom winter and joyce vance. give us the background, tom winter. we know durham was appointed very controversially under the former attorney general in the trump administration. this was supposed to be a major breakthrough, this investigation, into how the initial investigation into the

russia connection evolved and whether or not it had -- the clinton campaign all over it, but now this lawyer has been acquitted of lying to the fbi. >> correct, andrea. two-week trial. the first trial in a case brought by special counsel john durham. the jury got the case around 12:50 friday. delivered a verdict around noon here today. approximately seven hours of deliberations, acquitting sus a sussmann of lying to the fbi. according to durham's team, he said he wasn't working on behalf of any entity or individual. at the time they allege he was working for the hillary clinton campaign. in fact, he should have disclosed thatasked. the information was a series of messages that went back and

forth between ip addresses associated with the trump tower and trump organization and a bank in russia, a bank that's been -- come up in news reports often. it's been discussed in the past that there was some sort of a communication between servers located at the trump tower and this bank in russia, which has strong ties to the russian government, as most do. the question is whether he disclosed who he was working for. the legal question was whether or not he lied based off of documents, in saying he was not working on behalf of a campaign, while durham's team alleged that he was billing the campaign for the work. that's kind of the heart and nutshell of this. the broader ramifications are, this multi-year probe, it's not clear where it goes from here. it had been looking into the investigation into the

investigation. so they are looking at the origins of the inquiry into the trump campaign. that predates special counsel robert mueller. were the cases properly predicated? the fbi has to meet certain bars. sometimes they are low. to determine whether to open certain investigations and why were those investigations opened and was there anything illegal that occurred or any criminal wrongdoing that occurred in opening those investigations, that's what he has been looking at. he was the former u.s. attorney in connecticut. towards the end of the trump administration, prior to the election, either just prior or just afterwards, i want to check that, but then attorney general william barr appointed him as special counsel, which meant he couldn't be removed when the new administration took over. i believe that would have been after the election. either way, he is a special counsel. cannot be removed technically.

although joyce maybe can argue this the other way. by the sitting attorney general. the bottom line is, where does this investigation go? we have not heard a lot of details about what else they are looking into. it's believed we will get a final report similar to what happened with special counsel mueller. we will have to keep an eye out. >> a lot to unpack there. joyce, wasn't there one other fbi official who was brought up on charges for the way -- the origins of the original parts of the investigation, at least, parts of the surveillance that was approved early on in this investigation? >> yes. there was an earlier case. again like this one, it was very finely tuned. it involved whether or not language was changed in an email. in that case, the young lawyer involved was convicted on those charges.

this also establishes some of the parameters that tom is talking about here. these are very narrow and very limited charges. the failure to convict today largely was a result, this my judgment, of the fact the fbi has to establish that not only was their general counsel lied to but it was material. the defendant maintained he never lied about who he represented or why he was there. also, the lie, even if there was one, wouldn't have been material, because the fbi would have still investigated this information. so this entire situation smacks of sour grapes, perhaps at best an effort by former attorney general bill barr to curry favor with the white house, at worst an effort to appease donald trump and investigate one of this pet theories, what trump called the russia hoax. >> thank you both for jumping in on that breaking news. john durham has issued a

statement saying, while we are disappointed in the outcome, we respect the jury's decision and thank them for their service. i want to thank the investigators for their efforts in seeking truth and justice in this case. turning overseas, european leaders voting to drastically reduce russian oil imports. cutting them off by nearly 90% by the end of the year. potentially, the biggest sanction against russia's economy so far. russian forces are making significant advanced in eastern ukraine. richard engel is on the front line. >> reporter: for the first time in the war, russia seems to be winning, at least out in the east. here, russia's slow, brutal artillery and rocket assaults are clawing away land from ukraine. russian troops now threaten to encircle ukraine's eastern agriculture and coal mining

region known as the donbas. this village is in the crosshairs. it is frequently hit by russian artillery. the fire is getting closer. the village has been without running water and power for weeks and half of its residents have left. the mayor does what he can to distribute food. they are trying to squeeze us out, but i'm confident our soldiers will keep us safe, he says. twice a week, there's enough fuel to run a generator for two hours, so people can charge phones. not that there's any cell service or wi-fi. volunteers hand out canvas to cover broken windows, fresh water is in short supply. across town, the village hospital is now a shelter. all 39 people living here had their homes destroyed. when i'm down here, i can't help but think, what did these people do? these are elderly people. weren't bothering anybody.

now they are under attack and they have to live like this in the darkness under the hospital. the hospital which can't provide them medical care. only provide a little bit of shelter. for what? for what? but help may be coming. ukrainian troops are rushing toward the village, reinforcing the entire region. more weapons supplied by the united states have already started to arrive on the front lines. >> our thanks to richard engel for his extraordinary reporting. joining us now, former deputy commander of u.s. european command, we heard richard engel reporting and we heard from president zelenskyy, russian forces are making significant advanced in eastern ukraine. is the tide turning? >> thanks for having me on your show. i will tell you, russia is making some advances. the tide is turning.

when you look at the donbas, many of the towns that you see there are being occupied by russia. particularly in the eastern part of the donbas, what they call luhansk. many of those towns have been captured by russia. the way russia is pulling this off out of the 190 battalion tactical groups, 110 are in the donbas. more importantly, they are using artillery and rockets just to pulverize and obliterate these cities. because they're doing that, the ukrainians, every time they try to move and counterattack, they get hit by massive amounts of artillery barrages, which prevents them from maneuvering on russian forces. >> is there anything nato can do to even the balance here with

better artillery? what if the ukrainians spend so much of their force trying to defend luhansk that they leave kyiv and other central areas unguarded? >> yeah. i do worry about ukrainian forces. they started this war about 200,000. we have no idea how many troops that they have lost at this point. as you know, they haven't been forthcoming with the number of troops that they have lost. i do worry about, do they have enough to sustain themselves throughout this war? but more importantly, you mentioned the south. you mentioned that kyiv has to be protected as well. so we will see that outcome. on the weapons front, i do believe we need to get them multiple long-range rocket systems in there. we do not have to give the ukrainians the long rockets. the rockets that we should not

give them are the rockets that will fire up to 300 miles into russia. we have the capability to provide them rockets that can fire up to 20 miles or 30 miles, and that is the route that i think we should go. give them the rockets and also give them the launch system. >> how quickly could that be done? >> just like you saw with the m777 we are sending in, there would have to be training. probably in germany that training could take place. i think with the proper amount of training and pushing these weapon systems into ukraine, you probably are talking about a month to six weeks giving training plus shipping them. >> is that too long a time frame for the ukrainians to last? will the territory be lost by then? >> perhaps.

who knows? given what we are experiencing today. i'm hoping that the ukrainians will be able to use what they have. they have the 777s. when you have the multiple range rocket systems and the reach that the russians have, it's just difficult to hold up under those type of fires and that type of environment. so hopefully, it's not too late to get these systems in there. but i think the ukrainians are doing the best they can with what they have, to hold what they can have. if we can get these weapon systems in here and turn the tide a little bit into the ukrainians' favor would be my hope. >> general, thank you very much. it's a grim outlook. >> it is. but hopefully, we can get them in there. i continue to talk about the courageous manner in which the ukrainians are fighting. good on them for doing so. >> indeed.

thank you, sir. pressing ahead, an emergency meeting in the house on thursday to move forward with a new package of gun legislation proposals. will it get anywhere in the senate? not likely. more on that coming. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. a healthy bod. what goes on it. usually. and in it. mostly. here to meet those high standards is the walgreens health and wellness brand. over 2000 high quality products. rigorously tested by us. real world tested by you. and delivered to your door in as little as one hour. age-related macular degeneration may lead to severe vision loss. and if you're taking a multivitamin alone, you may be missing a critical piece. preservision. preservision areds 2 contains the only clinically proven nutrient formula recommended by the national eye institute

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a bank of america company. the president said today he plans to meet with senators over gun safety over legislation following the mass shootings in uvalde and in buffalo. this adds to the urgency on capitol hill as a bipartisan group led by connecticut senator chris murphy is set to hold a virtual meeting on zoom tomorrow to see if they can get anything done, any compromises agreed on. on thursday, the house judiciary committee is marking up in an emergency session a package on gun violence prevention. they plan to send it to the chamber as soon as possible. house measures usually die in the senate. all this happening as the president faces a series of growing crises putting renewed pressure on the white house ahead of the midterms. joining us now david jolly, no longer affiliated with the gop. former obama white house chief

of staff jim messina andrea and yamiche. there's little the president can do. what's your hope for this bipartisan group? >> president biden said it clearly. america needs to turn pain into action. they are hoping it will bring lawmakers together and find a bipartisan plan. it's hopeful that chris murphy who has been pushing for this since sandy hook, that he says he feels like republicans are more interested than ever since the sandy hook massacre at that elementary school in entertaining conversations about

gun reform. what that means in action is something different. because we have democrats who are trying to be moderate this time. they're not going for an assault weapons ban, they are not going for wholesale changes. they are trying to be modest so republicans can say, here are the things we can meet you on. the president, his approval ratings are low. the political capital he has to push lawmakers is limited. you can feel that in talking to white house officials. he said himself clearly as you noted, he doesn't feel like he can do much more. he has done the executive orders. this is now in the hands of congress. we will see the president keep talking about this. we will see the president meeting with lawmakers. this is really feeling like something that senators will have to sit down eye to eye and say, what can we hammer out? i was in minnesota last week after uvalde, texas. people feel like congress and lawmakers are failing this country on life or death issues. >> indeed. david jolly, when you say republicans are going to have to make a decision here, this time

mitch mcconnell said to john cornyn, go ahead and talk to chris murphy. chris murphy told me friday, my friend john cornyn, this is sincere. it's john cornyn from texas. he did go to uvalde and gave blood. is he going to give votes? >> andrea, i think the seasoned cynic would suggest there's reason to be skeptical of republicans in the senate right now. the nation is hurting. the nation is looking for answers. ultimately, if that political pressure, that political calling is great enough, maybe a deal gets done. i think it also raises an important contrast. which is, we will see more bode action in the house this week. in some ways, that can set the democratic narrative going into november but also, frankly, from a leadership position to try to move the nation. the senate will be wrestling with more watered down solutions. i think if gun violence is actually what informs someone's

vote, it's not whether or not a deal can be struck in the senate. because that will be incremental. it's whether we now are a nation on the course to greater gun reforms. that's an open question. one a cynic would suggest probably gives reason to pause. >> jim, there could be pressure from the democratic side from that wing of the democratic party that says, let's just go for it and put the republicans on the spot. because we want to have the issue rather than get something modest done. >> look, a degree with yamiche. the country is overplaying politics. the country want congress to get something done. i think the democrats are being smart about this. they are talking about very common sense, moderate propoals that republicans should be for. 92% of americans support background checks. we are talking about mental health exceptions. people who have been reported to

authorities can't get guns. you don't see political issues like this polling like that. the fact that the moderate republican party can't be for that, i think it's a severely difficult political issue for them in the general election. right now, the country is crying out for both parties to get something done. >> jim, this is just gun -- it's one series of growing crises for the white house. it's really beyond the control of the president. he will be meeting with the fed chair later and reaffirming support for independent of the fed, in contrast to trump. gas prices as a result of that. there's covid and variants and more cases. our team worked with -- over the last weeks working with more than two dozen sources from inside and outside the white house about how adrift the president feels, they feel on how the president, quote, used to say about president obama,

that everything landed on his desk but locusts and now he understands how that feels. president obama said one of his biggest frustrations was not passing anything after sandy hook. but there are lessons learned from that. >> i think there are. what you realize in the white house is every day something is so broken that no one else in government can fix it. it comes to the white house. i was in the room when biden walked in and said, what's next? locusts? it is true that every day something difficult lands on their laps. i think they are being very smart. the president penned an op-ed talking about inflation, talking about his plan. the administration is fanning out across networks to talk about inflation. that's an issue paramount to voters. i think they are focused on that. the problem is, as you well note, you have to deal with everything else. they have the uvalde issue. they have all these other issues that are really difficult and no

other administration has been able to solve. such is life in the white house. >> yamiche, how do you turn around the wrong track number, that key thermometer that so many people in the country feel it's heading on the wrong track? how do you do it before the midterms? >> one, it's the economics of this. people need to be feeling like the economy is working for them. not just that unemployment is low but that people feel like they are living better in their lives and that inflation is lower. you see the white house now rolling out new economic messaging. you see president biden trying to turn a corner and recalibrate and talk about economics. the other thing is just how do people feel? i've been talking to a lot of voters out there, especially just did a story on black voters, where president biden is losing support among a key voting group. this is a group that supports the president and democrats more than any other racial group in the country. he is losing support among black voters. that tells you that president biden really needs to be out

there talking to people more, based on my reporting. people need to feel like he is delivering on promises, that's including student loans, policing reform, gun reform. people want to see more done. the problem, of course, is that congress has to do a lot of this. even though democrats have a lot of power, they really don't have the weight of what it means to really have a true majority. they are looking at -- voters are looking at president biden to try to move congress forward. that's a very, very tough challenge for him. there is, i think, ahead of the midterms, a sense, especially among democratic voters, they want to see president biden talking about what he is doing. >> it's always the messaging. sometimes there are things completely beyond their control. inflation could very well be one of them. david, jim, yamiche, thanks so much. breaking news here in washington. turkey launching objections to

sweden and finland's bids to join nato. sweden's ambassador to the united states joining me next. stay with us. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. mmend nature made vitamins because i trust their quality. they were the first to be verified by usp... ...an independent organization that sets strict quality and purity standards. nature made. the number one pharmacist recommended vitamin and supplement brand. imagine having to use the wrong tool at your job. the number one phar(upbeat music)nded - let's get into the numbers. - why would a company do that? especially with hr and payroll software. with paycom, employees enter and manage their own hr data in a single, easy-to-use software. visit paycom.com and schedule a demo today.

miss allen over there isn't checking lesson plans. she's getting graded

on her green investments with merrill. a-plus. still got it. (whistle blows) your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. sweden and finland have handed in their official letters of application to join nato. president biden signifying his strong u.s. support, hosting both leaders at the white house two weeks ago. nato's secretary-general welcoming their request saying the admission could come quickly. in time for the meetings in madrid. but turkey's president is raising objections. that could block nato from reaching its unanimous vote. joining me now is the swedish ambassador to the united states. it's great to see you in person. >> thank you for having me on. >> let's talk about turkey.

it's clear that sweden and finland qualify. you have done military exercises. you have met all of the other qualifications, economically, you are clearly democdemocracie none of the other challenges that others had. turkey, this is largely domestic. they have objections to some immigrants from the turkish kurds. >> of course, we take the issues being put forward by turkey very seriously. it is a unanimous decision by all the member states in nato to accept new applicants. we are in dialogue with them. trying to address the concerns they have. trying to show turkey, which i'm sure they know, that we are actually a great contribution to the alliance. we bring 2% of defense spending. one of the most capable military forces in northern europe. we are there to defend the whole

of the alliance. even though our location is up in the north. >> in fact, sweden and finland have contributed more and do more for their own defense than most nato members who are struggling to reach that 2% of gdp goal. after decades of neutrality -- >> centuries, actually. >> with such an exposed border, this would increase the border with russia 830 miles. >> yes. >> obviously, it's ukraine. but do you feel exposed? being so close to russia. >> i have always felt exposed. sweden, i'm not talking for finland, even though it was part of the empire up until 1809. we have always been at war with russia over the centuries. i remember my grandmother being very scared of the russians. it's always been present. of course, we have always had good relationship. we have over 400 companies that

have been present in russia over the years. i have been a student there. i loved it. of course, we have the location we have. we see what the military buildup in russia has done. we saw it early. we saw 2008 in georgia, 2014 with crimea. that's when we started spending more on our defense and building up our capabilities more. now with this unprovoked attack on the 24th of february, it really changed everything for us. we saw what russia could do to sovereign, democratic, independent states. really, a close friend of russia forever. that really changed everything for us. we have to look at our security totally different now. that's why we are applying to nato. >> do you worry about russia, in the interim period, putting nuclear forces, tactical nukes on -- >> we don't know where they will put them. there's been a suspicious or thinking they could have them in

the area. we are doing everything to ramp up our security. we have been in discussion with a lot of nato members, both our closest neighborhood friends but also the united states. what can we do together in the interim period? we are looking at, can we increase exercises together? naval presence, for instance. lots of things like that. it's, of course, upon us to really take care of our own security. but with a little bit of help from our friends. >> it was a controversial proposal at the world economic forum last week by former secretary of state and global leader really, henry kessinger, who said in a pragmatic context that ukraine will not be able to withstand the russian continuous assault and that it's time to negotiate, to save ukraine from being pulverized, as it is being

in donbas. that's obviously up to the ukrainians. they have been valiant. no one wants to tell them when to negotiate. could you ever trust russia to agree to any agreement? they violated every agreement. is there a feeling in europe that there is some negotiation that has to take place? >> that's very hard to say. from my government, we always stress, as you rightly pointed out, this has to be a decision by the ukrainians. it's for them to take. we will have national sovereignty over our territory. the ukrainian territory is violated. that's up to the ukrainians. we are doing everything we can to help them as much as we can and as you might have seen, the european union took i think the biggest decision on sanctions just yesterday on an oil embargo on russia. we hope that this will really contribute to russia having problems financing their military. that will maybe hopefully lead

to some lessen conflict. it's up to the ukrainians. that's just as with our own security, it's up to us to choose our own security. then, of course, we hope we will be welcomed in the alliance. >> if you miss this deadline, miss madrid, is that fatal to your application? >> no. it's a delay. we really hope that this will come about. >> it would be a bad signal tore vladimir putin. >> it would be, certainly. given we have taken -- we have had this 200 years of military and now we have taken the decision because we feel threatened and we feel we are in a region that's really insecure. we want to be part of this very strong alliance. that's why we hope that this can happen as soon as possible. >> thank you very much, ambassador. it's great to see you. i hope we can see each other soon. >> thank you so much for having me. >> thank you. they are called the lockdown generation.

millions of america's children being taught to he perfect pair for shootings in their schools. 95% of public schools conduct these drills. the first starting after columbine, after the shooting 23 years ago. two columbine survivors, in fact, in uvalde, texas, to comfort the victims there this weekend as morgan >> this will mark your life. >> we talked to a lot of parents who are upset. the anger is justified. we get that. but just be careful it doesn't take root and make you bitter. >> joining me now is dr. richard bester, former cdc director and now president of of the robert wood johnson foundation. i was struck by the statement you put out saying appropriately that this is a health issue for our country. these shootings are closerly deadly, more than 3rkz 500 children shot and killed yearly.

children have to be ready for a mass shooting wherever they go. >> it's not a good thing. the idea that children in our schools are being trained to respond to mass shooter events is not a good thing for their mental health. it's also, i think, giving the public a false sense that this will address the problem of guns and children in our society. my heart goes out to the families in uvalde, in buffalo, in all of the communities. it's important to recognize that mass shootings like we're talking about now represent less than 1% than gun deaths in our country. the killing of children by guns is now the leading cause of death for children. it surpassed motor vehicle accidents. as someone, i'm a pediatrician

so i come at it from a perspective. as a parent, the idea that children are that kind of risk rips my heart. but as a public health professional, i know that this sense of learned helplessness where we feel there's nothing we can do is absolutely wrong. this is a uniquely american if i normal non. if we address this like the public health crisis it is, like we have done with motor vehicle safety and we view this as a gun safety issue, we could whittle away at this and dramatically reduce so that law-abiding people can own guns and reduce the risk to others from guns being so ubiquitous in our nation. >> we focus appropriately on the victims, survivors of these hideous attacks, but the children who are doing these children drills as though this is a minor thing, let me share. i'm a baby boomer. post world war ii, i was aed to

letter. i lived in new york state. our governor told us to have shelters, bomb shrlts in our homes because of the korean war. and i remember as a child when we would hear a plane overhead at night asking my big sister, are we being bombed. that stuck with me. and that was not even an immediate experience with guns. but when children are told to shelter, duck and cover is with what we did at school, this is so far more invasive. >> it is. it is also a false sense of security. we can see from uvalde there is no security. if someone is determined and has a gun, schools cannot be fortresses. children need to go out and play. they don't need to be thinking about this. but we as adults need to look at those things where there's broad agreement across our nation,

across the political spectrum. things that can help. things like universal background checks and waiting periods. the ability for someone to raise up, identify someone who is in extreme risk, someone in a dmes cannic violence situation or who is having a mental health crisis, so that they don't have access to guns. these things work. we have seen that in states that have implemented them. if we come at it and say, okay, where is there common ground? what can we do so we're not just putting out our thoughts and prayers after the next mass shooting, but we're truly making progress. we can change the trajectory for children. so they are not facing these kind of drills going forward. >> also teachers being told that they are to arm themselves and that's going to help. i heard the head of the nea saying we're not trained to be police. that's not our jobs. we're supposed to educate.

>> for 25 years the cdc was basically forfwid bidden from doing research around gun violence prevention. now they are finally able to do some of that work, but very small amount of money. they need much more money to do research to identify what works and what doesn't. how do you move forward with implementing gun safety rules that create safety, but don't infringe on rights that many people hold dear. that can be done in a way that we have done with other public health problems and the benefits over the long haul will be north house. as a foundation, we're looking at what we can to. this is an area that for a long time we felt was too challenging toen gauge in. we don't feel that way. we believe that we have a role to play in this space. as do others. >> you're such an important voice, as is your foundation. thank you very much. that does it for this

edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow us online on facebook and on twitter. chris jansing starts right after this. g starts right after this um, she's eating the rocket. ♪♪ lunchables! built to be eaten.

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good to be with you. i'm chris jansing in new york. today two families in uvalde, texas, are holding visiting hours each preparing to bury their 10-year-old daughter with 19 more funerals to come over the next devastating weeks. as flowers pour in and the community's grief spills out, the pressure could not be anymore intense on congress and the president to get something done on guns. and let's remind you of the personal promise president biden made to folks chanting, "do something" while he was in uvalde. we will but the reality is we don't know whether that will happen. and in fact, aft