pandemic. gun murders in particular have climbed sharply during the pandemic, increasing 45% between 2019 and 2021. while the number of gun suicides rose -- during that span. we are becoming a more deadly country. we've seen this in texas last week with a neighborly dispute. something that happens millions of times, perhaps, on any given day in this country. turning to a mass shooting and a man hunt. >> we're solving problems with hates, for solving problems with guns, we are solving problems with mass shootings. that is not what it democracy should look like. . and that is not what america should be turning into. we have an obligation to stand

up and talk about these issues and push, and push, and push republicans to get it together and wake up to the deaths and the tragedies that are happening in communities across this country. >> congresswoman sydney kamlager-dove, thank you so much for joining us. i hate that was for this tragedy but i appreciate your insights and the work that you and your colleagues are trying to do in stopping this pandemic of gun violence that we have in our country. thank you, congresswoman. >> thank you. >> good evening to you, i am ayman mohyeldin, it is 9 pm here in new york, 8 pm in allen, texas. where we are following reports of a mass shooting at an outlet mall. if you're joining us right now, that incident reportedly took place just after 3:30 pm local time. according to the authorities, at least nine people have been hospitalized. the shooter is dead. we do know there were fatalities. local officials though do not

have an accurate count at the moment. police say there is no longer an active threat to the community. we are expecting to hear from officials within the next hour. we will bring that to you live when it gets underway. and just within the last few minutes, you have gotten word that the white house, from the white house, rather, that president biden has been briefed on the shooting. we understand that the white house in the administration is in touch with law enforcement officials. it's crossover now to nbc's morgan chesky who is on the scene for us in allen, texas. morgan, tell us what the latest is in terms of what you are able to observe in the scene, what you're hearing from law enforcement, when you've been able to gather from eyewitnesses and families that are looking for loved ones? >> it's been a very tough scene here, just across the street from the allen alamo's where the shooting took place early in the afternoon. there are hundreds of people behind me who slowly are dispersing either because

there's no chance they're gonna be able to go back onto the premises tonight and get back to their vehicles, or because they have received where that their loved ones who are shopping at the mall when the shots broke out are safe and sound. so it is slowly starting to become a little quieter here. but there is an incredibly large presence of law enforcement that has the entire perimeter of this area on lockdown right now. 120 stores make up the mall. so you can imagine on this saturday, how many hundreds if not thousands of people were shopping inside when they heard these gunshots and then ran for cover. after tell, you story after story, it's just beyond confirming the council that took place. our crew spoke to and gentleman, earlier, who was able to walk outside the store, liked a sure he saw, turn to ask about it, and that's when the gunshots started to rang out. and people to cover before the

police could come in half hour later. the police chief said that an officer who is here on an unrelated call heard the gunshots and immediately ran towards the gunman to shoot him and take him down. in which he did. i mentioned the story a few minutes ago of abby perez, a mother with her two young daughters here, shopping before summer vacation, whenever they heard the gunshots and ran to the back of the store, that mother putting her two daughters inside a bathroom. then staying on the outside, drawing her own hand gun, she had a concealed carry permit for. and waiting. she told me that she was not going to go down without a fight. they're about 20 other people inside the store. they're in the back where they could see one of the surveillance cameras that a load of view of the store, and people were just watching that camera for what felt like an eternity, looking for the

shooter or four police. fortunately, it was police officers that they saw about a half hour after they were hiding in the back. until it was safe for people to come out. i did mention there was a lot of fear that because this gunman had been described as having been wearing body armor that whenever they saw officers, that make doubly sure that this is actually the police, it's safe, we can leave right now. so this is what was going through the minds of some of the hundreds of people who were here who showed up here, 18, to just go shopping on the saturday. >> a sad reality of what america has become. that me ask you about those who are on the perimeter of the mall right now, we've seen images of easily hundreds of people who have been escorted out. are you -- are they being transported to another location, or is

everyone on their own basically told to move out of the perimeter and get picked up by loved one, find a way home? p by loved >> there are people on evy side of the property, ayman. it appears on the side people are going under. and we know there's a press conference that up here within an hour so where we anticipate hearing more from the police chief brian harvey who provided vital updates several hours after the shooting took place. but as of right, now this area is on lockdown. we know federal agents with the atf are on scene assisting in this ongoing investigation. the scope of which will likely be massive. ayman? >> we will let you go back to gather some news, we will get back to you once we get closer to the police briefing. if you do get new information, get back to us as soon as you can. nbc's morgan chesky out there in allen, texas. with me now is to trick -- back with us, carmen best,

msnbc law enforcement analyst, as well as retired seattle police chief. mr. alexander, let me get your thoughts on what has transpired there, and more importantly, just the information we were hearing from morgan about how dynamic of a situation this must have been for law enforcement as they are entering into the small, a massive mall, multiple entry points, perhaps multiple units converging on to the scene from different angles. being told that there is a shooting that is taking place inside and having to deal with the chaos of even individuals that have concealed carry permits, drawing weapons, and perhaps responding to the active shooter who, according to morgan, might have been wearing body armor and looked like a police officer. >> first of all, ayman, sad to say this is becoming routine in this country.

and i think this is the third mass shooting we've had this week in this country. and we had a call a is as big as a small, and i'm familiar with that mall in allen, texas. here we are again in the same place, having the same conversations about the same type of issues that have continued to plague us. and it's unfortunate for us we -- [silence] >> sorry, mr. alexander, i think that we lost your audio. i'm not sure if you're able to hear me or -- there we go, we've got you back. go ahead, sir. >> okay, can you hear me now? >> yes, sir, go ahead. >> it's unfortunate for us, of course, rebecca at this position again where we always did. and sad to say, this drill is becoming very routine.

in this nation. we've really got to address the issue. not just based on what state it happens in, but this is really a real issue for this country at large. >> chief best, let me get your thoughts on the operational side of this. you've served the law enforcement side of it, so i'm sure you in seattle had all kinds of rescue plans, operational plans. when you're dealing with a mall that spans many acres, how do you even begin to secure, how do you begin to identify the entry point where you might think the shooter's and try to secure it? >> yeah, yes ayman, you're exactly right. it's gonna be difficult to do so in seattle. we had a shooting of the jewish -- we had a shooting at the [inaudible] university, a large university pompous for a lot of responders -- when i was crew chief. i remember those as well. very difficult to lock down a facility like that.

our training across the country for police agency says been to go in, first and foremost, to find a threat, the shooter. isolate, contain, or eliminate the main threat. and then once that is done, obviously it's a matter of trying to figure out what happened, talk to witnesses, and be fairly certain when you have all the threat gone. and when you have something like that, the best you can do is herd people to an area, identify who might have information, wait for your partners to get there so that you can have a good idea on people, who fought wild, who knew what, when. but you're right, it's absolutely a huge undertaking to go through an entire mall to have to go to every store, every place where there's potentially someone harmed, to make sure that there's eight or

assistance needed. it's a time consuming process. >> let me ask you this quickly, how difficult is it? we -- frank was talking about this earlier, we are seeing an increase in the purchase of body armor. when you look to the police response in uvalde where they're able to identify or believe that the suspect had an assault weapon, and ar-15, it paralyze the police a little bit until more tactical units were able to arrive on the scene and entered the school. we don't know yet what happened here, we don't know yet whether in fact the suspected have body armor or was using an assault rifle. but how does that complicate the police response in the situation like this when they are going up against possibly someone who is outgunned and protected, then what they have on them? >> they're a number of things here. one, most agencies now have their own opportunities to -- every single day. unless you can verify, the

assumption is that if they have body armor on, i would assume that it's different unless it's some real viable reason to present differently. so with those things in mind when you respond, when you respond to a high probability to someone who is contracted a plan and decided to go in and commit mass murder or mass shooting. so -- in the case of uvalde and others, clearly, our training is that we go in, we -- in some cases, when you're gonna be the focus of the shooter or where they diverge their attention to, you can ignore, you can do many things to save the lives of others until we can get additional backup there. so that's the training, and that's how most of our officers across the country would operate. >> cedric alexander, your thoughts on what we've been hearing from republicans. you talked about how we have to address the guns, and i've read half a dozen statements that

have come so far from republican officials from members of congress, to the governor of texas, to the lieutenant governor, to the representative who represents that specific district of allen, texas. no mention of the word guns. we've heard drugs, we've heard mental health, we've heard rehab facilities. no guns. and the and our h, we did a short while ago said no other organization in the world or in this country does more for the safe use of firearms. safe use o>> let me say this, w- this gun issue has become so politicized between right and left. and quite frankly, the american people really don't care. with the american people want right now is for their congress, both sides of the aisle, to do something about this prolific problem that is plaguing this country every day. it is putting our citizens continually address regardless of what side of the aisle they are on. we do know this the democrats

have reasonable and logical and -- about protecting the rights of others and are attempting to do so so i think there is something here in which both sides of the aisle can sit down and come to the american people with something that is going to be different. but if they continue to polarize themselves over philosophy, ideology, or whatever they may side up, with americans are dying in our street every day, in our malls, in our schools. everywhere. so the political debate that the riot and the left is having is not satisfying the american people right now where they see this continued loss of life and it's touching us in this country. it is going to continue to be a problem. and until those we elect to go into office attempt to do something different. i'll be honest with, you actually believe the democrats

are working hard in this country to try to make sense of this and it's gonna take both sides of the aisle and we -- has shown because this issue is not going to stop, ayman. it's not gonna stop. the only way it's gonna stop, we have to have both sides of the aisle coming to the table with some very sense the -- sensible, i should, say resolve around this issue. american people regardless of their democrats or republicans, independents, they don't care. they just want something done. and the governments have the responsibility to do so, regardless of whether debate may happen between -- may happen to be between each other. rather they support the nra or not. >> chief best, there's no sieve bullets for solving the gun crisis in this country. but what if anything, if you

buy a act of god today had a wand to try to wave and immediately bring a halt to these types of mass shootings, but would it be? would it be national background checks? would it be a ban on assault rifles? would it be a ban on the high capacity magazines? what would it be? >> first, let me see, i concur with dr. alexander here, that politics needs to go away, people need to focus on common sense gun legislation. there's not gonna be one thing. i think at the minimum we have to have legislation that doesn't allow 18 year olds to have assault weapons. we need to make sure that we have protection orders in place and flak laws. we need to make sure there's background checks so that people who are in crisis or have a propensity for violence that are able to purchase weapons. we need to clear the gun show loophole and all those things,

i think, our combination. it would help mitigate the issues we're seeing around these mass shootings and mass gun violence across the country. >> cedric alexander, chief carmen best. thank you so much for joining us. i appreciate your insights on this tragic story as it continues to unfold. we're gonna squeeze in a quick break and come right back, stay with us. ta with us. the day you get your clearchoice dental implants makes every day... a "let's dig in" day... mm. ...a "chow down" day... a "take a big bite" day... a "perfectly delicious" day... - mm. [ chuckles ] - ...a "love my new teeth" day. because your clearchoice day is the day everything is back on the menu. a clearchoice day changes every day. schedule a free consultation. ♪ ♪

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the conversation julián castro from the united states secretary of urban house and also former democratic congressman from maryland and -- she's also a columnist for the washington post. congressman -- sorry, congresswoman edwards, let me get your thoughts on what we have been discussing. and it's something that both cedric alexander and carmen

best was talking about which is -- we alluded to it in our earlier conversation for the need to do something, and the inability of congress to do something. is there a way to protect the american people by bypassing congress and turn into something on the state level or a local level? because we also heard from the congresswoman in california, senator kamlager-dove, that california has some of the gun -- 's toughest gun laws in the country, but that doesn't prevent someone from buying a gun out of state and transporting it into california or buying a gun and having it shipped to california. >> the thing about this is that there isn't an a substitute for federal legislation that -- impacts all of the country. i mean they're just, there isn't another way. individual states can pass tough gun legislation. but if he can traffic guns

across state lines, if you can buy a gun in the parking lot without having a background check, then that doesn't do anything to really make sure we have a blanket set of laws across the country. and you know what? it's what the american people want, eamonn. so on the one hand, these are really simple and sensible gun laws that are under proposal. on the other hand, the fact that the national rifle association continues to have such a stranglehold, the gun lobby such a stranglehold on republicans and congress means that without that, you are not going to get federal legislation. the president has gone as far as he can go in terms of executive orders. one piece of legislation was passed it, it was the most significant in 30 years. but we need more, and it can only happen if you have people

who are in congress, who are willing to do what the american people want. >> secretary castro, why do you think republicans and the far extreme right republicans remain to be cowards on this issue? unable to stand up to the nra, unable to actually side with the american people? it's simply can't be that it's the power of the nra that has these republicans held hostage. am i oversimplifying it? is it really just that? >> it's political cowardice, and i'll just connect the dots really quickly. it's really about gerrymandering. the reason these folks were able to get away with ignoring the wishes of the vast majority of american people, even majorities of republicans on these common sense gun safety reform measures is because all they have to do is win the republican primary and then in the states, like texas, these legislative districts whether there is state legislative

districts where federal law just slate of districts, congressional legislative districts, have been gerrymandered so much that the base they're playing to is a few percentage points of people who vote in these primaries and who also don't want anything done about common sense gun safety reforms. so they're comfortable pitching only to that crowd and taking nra money and other gun money and winning elections in the fall. so to answer your question in a non obvious way on the first part, what else might we do? our commission style of redistricting, so it's out of the hands of politicians at the state level. and at the federal level we can so that eventually you have districts that are more competitive so they have to listen to the people, the majority of people, democrats and republicans, who want something done on an issue like this. >> i'm glad you connected the dots on that, i think a lot of people forget how important it is when you're running in these primaries and you're just

tailoring your positions to the far-right or to the extreme right just to get in and then went to rain, obviously as we see now, not getting anything done whatsoever. congresswoman edwards, you said that the white house has exhausted its limits on using executive order. is there anything the president can do as a moral cheerleader for the situation, in the sense of rallying the country to recognize the moment -- i think most americans recognize but we're living, in this hal we're living, this fear we're living in. but as a megaphone, the bully pulpit of the white house. can the president to use that into doing something? >> he has. we have a president -- president biden, who built an entire senate career on trying to change our gun laws. he was on the judiciary committee. i think it was a chairman at the time when the assault weapons ban passed and then of

course it expired. so we actually have a president in the white house who's really committed on these issues, who has gone the 11th mile when it comes to using executive action to take action on guns. and so, yes, he can use his bully pulpit. but i believe we have a president who continues to use the bully pulpit. the problem is that the national rifle association has a stronghold on the republican members of congress. >> why do you think that is, is it simply for money or political capital? >> i think it's something that secretary castro has said, we have these tailored district so that it makes it really difficult to run somebody who can win in a district where they're only speaking to the small minority. but it's also money. at the nra, we thought that they were almost bankrupt, but clearly they still have enough

money to spread around to republicans. and then it has become a theology in the congress. they don't even want is talking about common sense gun legislation in the face of these crises. they'd rather talk about thoughts and prayers. i refused to do that because this is a moment that we have to focus the nation and continue focusing the nation. and ayman, i'll just close by saying we are day 127 in the year. we've had over 190 mass shootings. we've had about a dozen of them just this week. according to the gun violence archive's. we are in a crisis. and a crisis requires the american people to step up in elections, but it also requires members of congress to get the stick and pass common sense gun legislation. >> we have on average, secretary castro, we have a

mass shooting almost every day. and as keith self, the representative from the district that incorporates allen, texas said earlier tonight, he did nothing today was the day to talk about it. and by that logic, that logic of not talking about it today because there is a mess shooting, there is another day we will talk about it, every day in this country there's a mass shooting. by that logic, we will never be talking about how to prevent these shootings from happening. out how to prevent these shootings from happening >> if we do, what he and others are suggesting really, that's normalizing it. we have normalized enough already. the fact, is we don't talk about it enough. and legislators like him don't legislate on it nearly enough. and the thing is, as others have pointed out, it's only going to get worse. it's not going to get better. we have unleashed something in this country bit, by bit, by bit. every time policy gets worse on guns instead of getting

stronger and the pace of these mass shootings has picked up so much as people have pointed out. when the 1966 you t tower shooting happened, that was a shock to the system. how could that happen? when the mcdonald's shooting in 1984 happened, james houthi went in and killed 19 or 20 people, that was a shock to the system. columbine, of course. i remember that, many people remember that. in 1999. how could that happen? in this school town. and then you start picking up the pace, that's gonna continue. so we're not talking about it enough. the problem is not, hey, let's just talk about it later, it's that it doesn't get talked about, it doesn't get acted upon enough. >> as others have pointed, out if you don't do anything after the slaughter of kindergartners and first graders like he did at sandy hook, when are you going to do anything about it? secretary castro, congresswoman edwards, thank you. we will be right back. be right back.

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state representative james talarico. thank you so much state representative for joining us. let me get your reactions to it. i'm sure your processing this like the rest of us. i just wanted to give you a chance to comment on what is happening today. >> thanks for having me. you know, it's been a years 19 babies and to public school teachers were massacred in a school in rob elementary in uvalde, texas. we have dead kids, again, at a shopping mall on the other side of texas. and in between those two tragedies, state lawmakers here in our state have done nothing to prevent these kinds of tragedies from happening in the future so i'm still processing this along with all your

viewers and folks around the state of texas that i think it should lead us to have some serious questions about policy makers about why we continue to let this happen in our state. >> why do you think it's happening in your state? we know the numbers, we're seeing the images. even if it's not statistically something that everyone is aware of, we are hearing about it almost every other day. it seems like there is a mass shooting in texas and we know the gun laws there are easy we know the officials in texas are -- don't seem to care, as shannon watts tweeted earlier. republicans like greg abbott don't seem to care if your kids die in texas. why do you think this is happening in your state? >> you know the vast majority of texans themselves believe we need common sense gun safety reforms. you know where the only country in the world that allows this to happen. and we know those solutions are there and there is broad

support among the public to get these things done and the problem is you've got politicians in states like texas that are bought and paid for by the nra and the gun lobby and until that changes, we're not gonna see this kind of common sense policy making that can save the lives of kids around our state and around our country. >> how do you mobilize and how do you -- in a state like texas, i'm not sure if you had a chance to hear secretary castro talk about the interconnection, if you will, between jerry madrid districts and how gerrymandering factors into the inaction of gun control but how do we mobilize the constituents of texas to bring an end to this in no way that republicans refuse to do? >> you know it's not going to be top-down, it's gonna be bottom-up. it's going to be organizations like moms demand action, and

every town that mobilized people in our communities who care about this issue and give them the tools and the resources to have those conversations with the neighbors. so those community dialogues are gonna be the only way we can build a coalition to finally a necked common sense gun safety reforms in texas and across the country. >> do you think it's an issue of money or organization? they're now national organizations that are having an impact, as you mentioned. some of these, but do you feel like in your state specifically it's able to fight the money of the nra? so to speak. and the nra has the politicians, the republican politicians in their pocket? >> you know, i'm always going to bet on people power over the power of big money. and i think you are seeing a change in our state. and you are seeing voters across the spectrum wake up on this issue. i flipped a trump district here, in texas, in 2018.

with the help of some volunteers in our community who are mobilized by this issue of gun violence and need for common sense gun safety reforms. so i'm an example of the kind of leaders that can get elected if we mobilize and our communities around this issue and bring people together to finally find solutions. >> is there a way to do this on the local level? or is this something that requires national attention? i think in our country at this moment we're finding ourselves when we are discussing so many issues for example abortion, and we realize congress is unable to get something done we are seeing states take the lead in trying to protect reproductive rights. when it comes to the issue of guns it seems it's almost difficult to try to do something on the local level because, as we were talking earlier with the congresswoman from florida -- from california, you can buy a gun in another state and have it shipped to your state. you can buy a gun and drove it across the state border and still committed mass murder in a state that has very strict gun laws.

. >> i don't think it's an either or choice. we have to have both and. we have to be active locally, we have to build power locally. and we've got to be connected to a national network and the work that i'm seeing here in texas being done by volunteers and communities all over the state is inspiring. they are making change. they are turning things around. it's not gonna happen overnight as we've learned throughout history. any social movement that is trying to tackle a systemic problem is going to take time but i'm optimistic from the people i talked, to the people i see in our community that change is going to come to places like texas. >> tell us a little bit about that. you said you use the word inspiration, or you're inspired by what you are seeing. on days like this, we need some hope. and we need some inspiration. so tell us what it is that you are seeing that we can share with folks that say, yeah, maybe it's not today but something is coming. a wave is coming, a change is going to come? >> i have met moms and dads.

in communities like mine who were never involved in politics. and maybe voted every two or four years. but because of this issue they've suddenly taken the time to get involved in an organization that is trying to do something about gun violence. they're taking the time to call their state wraps. the state senators. they're congresspeople. they're taking time to attend rallies and protests. they're taking time to recruit candidates and knock on doors for candidates, and phone bank for candidates that believe and gun sense. so that to me is incredibly inspiring. there is like this are dark and they're gonna be many more dark days to come. but if folks like that are stepping up on this issue to make change in our state, and our country, i think our future is bright. >> let's hope it is sooner rather than later, as you said. i fear there might still be some dark days ahead. state representative james tell

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and 100% us based customer support. starting at $20. consumer cellular. >> joining me now again, julián castro, donna edwards, and texas state representative james talarico. congresswoman edwards. there's an interesting phenomena that happens among republicans which is, you have

40,000 deaths by guns in this country per year. they do nothing about it. you have an incident or to a voter fraud and they want to pass hundreds of voter suppression laws. i was just listening to ted cruz talking about how body bags are piling up in the southern border because of illegal immigration -- illegal immigrants crossing our border, as he described it, not my words, his. they want to describe that as an invasion and that it requires federal action. and the death as a result of gun violence, they offer thoughts and prayers. >> i think it's very frustrating, it's very selective in terms of who is important and not when it comes to the political conversation. i think what's really disturbing to me though is when you say those numbers, this is what actually sets us apart

from all of our pure nations across the world. it is this prevalence of gun violence. in the number of children and teenagers who are killed every year. people killed in domestic violence, by suicide, and of course mass shootings. and yet there is nothing done on the political and. and so it's a very selective memory of people like ted cruz and others who, when it comes to these mass shootings and gun violence, really just turn a blind eye to what is happening in our communities all across the country. >> secretary castro, i feel like we're being gaslit by republicans here. >> yeah, they want to do everything except talk about it and actually address the problem that it is the guns. and not only that, eamonn. i don't have to remind anyone watching, how many times have we seen these holiday cards, these calendars paraphernalia

where these folks are being -- actually celebrating, even having their kids on the christmas card holding an ar-15. it seems like a thumbing their nose at all the reasonable people in this country who want common sense gun safety reform by doing that. so they revel in it. and again, they can do that because they are set up in these districts where a tiny fraction of people, many of them who happen to agree with them, are voting in these primaries. and as polarized as we are in the country today, because the index is more democratic than the democrats, they win the general election as well and they don't have to worry about political consequences for doing the wrong thing. >> and you are talking about -- who posed during the holidays with a picture of a gun and his family. representative talarico, the issue i think i struggle with

as somebody who covers this time and time again, the senseless tragedies time and time again, it is the ability to make sense, if you will of the gun culture in this country and i understand it's one of these issues that politicians sometimes don't like to address and the interpretation of the second amendment. and i want to get your thoughts broadly on it how do you, in a state like texas, how do you thread the needle? you talked about how you flipped her district and how you brought it from a red district to other district. but how do you flip the needle in a country that has this prevalent gun culture, this misinterpretation of the second amendment and what a well regulated militia is and the desire to try and regulate guns and put an end to the presence of assault rifles. these weapons of war falling in the hands of an 18 and 19 year

olds. >> and that's what republican politicians are trying to do, they're trying to make this a culture issue. what we need to do is ensure that people know this is a public safety issue. i shotguns with my granddad in texas growing up. i have fun memories of that. i'm a supporter of the second amendment. but nowhere in the second amendment doesn't give a 19 year old -- and i threaten our light to life and liberty. republican politicians are banning books in the name of protecting children. republican politicians are banning drag queens in the name of protecting children. but they won't lift a finger when it comes to addressing the leading cause of death for children in the united states which is gun violence. if you're not doing something about guns, you don't really care about our kids. >> i'm so glad you brought up that point we're gonna talk about it a little bit more

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conference from texas officials at the top of the hour. we will bring that to you live as soon as we get it. we were briefed about a half an hour and a half ago on the latest developments out of allen, texas from both the police chief as well as the fire chief, following a mass shooting that took place in a premium outlet mall at about 3:30 pm local time. stay with me, william castro, texas state representative james talarico, and congresswoman edwards. congresswoman, representative talarico brought up an important point. drag queens are not telling kids. books are not killing kids.

and yet this is what republicans are waking up to every day to try to legislate. they do it under the guise of protecting kids. they are throwing these words around of rumors and the threat to kids and the indoctrination. and yet when kids are being gunned down in shopping malls, or schools, or in their beds, they do nothing. they run away from mitch. >> yes, it is really -- you know, it's almost an intractable problem when it comes to particularly republicans in congress. and i was thinking about this. there are a lot of public policy issues that are complicated and we don't have solutions for them, and we try to find it. this is actually a problem that is solvable. it really is. with really common sense

legislation that people can agree on. they just need to come to the table. so if they really are interested in protecting kids, then do something about the number one thing that is killing our children and our teenagers. solve the gun problem. >> secretary castro, your thoughts on the hypocrisy of republicans too basically exaggerate the threat of books under the guise of protecting children, and totally being negligent and defending their and protecting their lives. this is a party that has built itself on the so-called proud -- pro life movement, and their kids being killed and they turned their backs and walk away. >> it's an empty commitments for children. it's total hypocrisy, and it's political theater. of the republican party today, his specially in states like

texas, has become all about holding -- what can you do to own the libs and also they have this blueprint of getting their jolly's by going after some of the most vulnerable populations out there. in each election cycle, they pick a different group. maybe it's immigrants in one cycle. maybe it's people of color in another cycle. it's lgbtq americans, especially transgender children in this political cycle, and they do this over, and over, and over again. and it's what they're doing now. it has nothing to do -- the science isn't behind them. unlike in this issue where the sign shows, and we have the experience of the brady bill that shows we can reduce gun deaths like this if we implement the right policy because we did it before. they don't care about that. all they care about is power

and staying in office. being -- millions and millions of dollars. and the tiny base that keeps them in office. >> state bred presented a talarico, i know -- craig me if you're i'm wrong, your district neighbors, the district that has island texas, is that wrong, or did i get that right? >> the district that -- what exactly? >> allen, texas. where the shooting took place? >> no, i'm in central texas. allen, texas is north. >> my apologies, i was wondering if the resources that are being offered up to help in this situation because as we know, we are hearing from the fire chief earlier in the evening talking about how nine victims had been transported to hospital. i did know if anything was affecting your particular district. but what you make so far from the response from the state,

how concerned are you about the response for the resources that are offered to the families going forward, what would you like to see be made available to the victims, their families? given effect to what we saw a year ago involved in how absolutely tragic that whole entire nightmare was for those families in the community there. >> those families from uvalde traveled all the way from their homes in uvalde to the state capitol in austin to testify, a few weeks ago, on a bill that would raise the age to buy an ar-15 from 18 to 21. it's a law that would have prevented the -- that killed their children in the elementary school, in their community. and they waited 13 hours to be able to testify on that bill. it is still languishing in committee. my colleagues and the texas legislature can bring up the bill tomorrow. they can pass it, and they can prevent