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>> fire. >> pulling the trigger. a new way to bring voters to a candidate fund-raiser. is the chance to win a semiautomatic really bringing in campaign supporters? that candidate joins us live this hour on msnbc. good monday, everyone, i'm contessa brewer. let's get to the big story we're foll following. u.s. response to iran's war games and nuclear ambition. robert gibbs says iran must agree to immediate unfettered access to its nuclear plant when it joins the meeting in geneva this thursday. >> they have one of two paths they can take. they can continue the path that they've been on, even while the world has shown conclusive intelligence about a facility in qom, or it can make a decision

to step away from its nuclear weapons program. >> savannah guthrie has more from the white house. is the united states going into these talks really optimistic gig can be accomplished? >> reporter: i don't know if i'd say the u.s. is optimistic about it. they've certainly been down this path before and doesn't have high expectations of what iran will come to the table with. i think they feel good about their ability to build an international consensus against iran. they think that by going public with this binding they have, frankly knowing about it for years that iran has this secret plant, they think they've really put the pressure on iran. they like the statements they're hearing particularly out of russia. china's a little more of a mixed bag, unclear. they feel they are going to be able to have a good, strong consensus to get to sanctions if they need to and because that exists they hope that puts the pressure on iran. gibbs said in his briefing a new minutes ago they want full unfettered access from the

iranians to international inspectors. anything short of that and they will walk away displeased. i think they feel good in a sechbs they have partners and allies on board and hopes that puts pressure on iran. >> all right. savannah, thank you so much for bringing us up to date. here's the question. what's the relationship among iran and other countries? the big question. has iran's actions casting the short and long-range missiles over the weekend lowered the hope and expectations for the talks on thursday? can sanctions be crippling if you don't have china behind them? unemployment stands at 40%. let me pose the questions to camilla, an iranian journalist and once in prison in iran. the author of "camellia, save yourself by telling the truth." a memoir of iran. there already are sanctions against iran. let's be clear here. this would be a new round of sanctions. who does it cripple? does is really cripple those in

power? >> i'm not sure because they don't -- so much focusing on that is to develop those nuclear programs. testing those long-range missiles this morning and yesterday it showed are not going to have any conclusion at the ygeneva meeting 5 plus 1 on thursday. they tied hands to the countries. >> what does ahmadinejad get out of this show of power with his own people? does it make his own people think, oh, yes, this is our leader strong and brave? >> no. this is like a, as people -- and everything is on the hand of the military. the military is so capable. i remember in north korea, the facility outside the hand of militia is at the hand of the revolutionary guard. sanctions in order to halt

nuclear program, it's out of the hand of the government. people above the government should decide about nuclear program. >> and when you hear israel saying we should have crippling sanctions, are you concerned about the people of iran? because obviously a lot of people in iran felt like their voices weren't heard when they went to the ballot box. why would they be heard now about the weapons iran engages in? >> they would get very frustrated and those around the sanctions as we're hearing, would target iranian banking system and also energy. 40% of the fuel in iran is imported from india and other nations. they signed their contract to iran and some parts of the fuel in the future from venezuela. sounds like preparing themselves for the forthcoming energy sanctions, but back to your question. certainly the iranians, make them very angry, very

frustrated. >> angry enough to do something about it? we saw a massive protest again after the election and yet it didn't seem to accomplish very much. really, what could the iranian people do if they don't like the actions ahmadinejad and other iranian leaders are taking? >> remember that they -- it doesn't mean they give up. they think that they need to get a game together. i heard this morning at iran universities that minister of education, he showed to welcome the students for the new semester 2,000 student chanting against the regime. everything we put pressure on the people would let them exercise their frustration. as you know, no protesters at any event get together. >> and, in fact, camellia, the students have to decide if they're going to protest they know that they're putting, perhaps, their very lives on the line. thank you so much for your time.

i appreciate you sharing your perspective. floodwaters rising in the philippines and the death toll. 140 people have died in hit toric flooding in manila. worst in half a century. the government is asking for help. 27 provinces outside the capital have been declared disaster areas. minutes ago, three teens charged in the beating death of a 16-year-old chicago boy caught on camera. the beating and ensues brawl took place outside a high school last thursday. captured on a cell phone. police say 16-year-old darrion albert was beaten to death as he walked hem to chicago. let's go to chicago now. a staff reporter from the "chicago sun-times." we're hearing about the students who have been detained about this point. do police think they have the people who killed derrion albert in custody? >> reporter: they do. all three of them have been charged with first-degree murder for this. i guess we'll see if they're

more -- >> go ahead. >> there might be more arrests that come. there were a lot of witnesses that got the whole thing on tape. >> okay. when we're talking about how this all came about, here's derrion albert, 16 years old, honor student, college bound. his family maintains he was targeted because he had refused to join a gang. are you learning anything about that? >> you know, i spoke to his grandfather. that wasn't his grandfather's impression of what had happened. he thought he was simply a kid that was in the wrong place at the wrong time. derrion, from everyone i talked to, i spoke to a number of family members and friends, he was a pretty quiet kid. i think he, i guess, wasn't really -- he just was -- kept a low profile. >> what's really shocking, and i watched this video from start to finish, is that you see several people with these long, i don't know, 2 x 8s. it looks like big, long boards

that they've grabbed off buildings, just swinging them wildly. this is a brawl that involved not just derrion albert but other people as well. has this particular neighborhood been experiencing gang problems? >> they have been, but it's been -- the violence has been more associated with guns. i was there -- this fight happened at 3:00 on thursday and i was there friday morning pretty early and the police were still picking up some of these 2 x 4s that people have thrown in the streets as part of the ruckus. >> the cell phone video, again, astonishing. it is violent and vivid and it's got to be incredibly difficult for derrion albert's family to watch that. kara, thank you. a developing stoir we're watching right now. police in north carolina searching for two missing girls and their adoptive father. one of the girls, a 12-year-old, a 12-year-old girl, is 9 months

pregnant. 12-year-old kyra and her 11-year-old sister sierra have not been seen this early thursday morning in morrisville, north carolina. when they left their home with their 40-year-old adoptive father, matthew hess. he left a note he was taking them out of school for a surprise and never came back. he's believed to be driving a brown 19 3 ford explorer with north carolina license plates. police are concerned about kyra because she's due to give birth at any time and needs medical care. she's 12 years old. they have no concrete information about where the children may be. another developing story. a fire in chicago, broke out in a paint business before noon today. along with firefighters, hazardous material teams on the scene. no word whether anyone was inside the building at the time p . we're keeping our eye on it. president obama will travel to koeppcopenhagen today to pus chicago's olympic bid for the

2016 games. he'll meet with the first lady. she's leaving tomorrow to rally through the week to get the games in the obama's hometown. chicago is up against rio de janeiro, madrid and tokyo. a lot ahead on this monday afternoon. a south carolina politician taking a shot at winning an elected seat, and you can guess how he's targeting voters. he'll explain why this particular move, ahead. plus the white house calls the iran missile test provocative. how tough is the u.s. and allies? how far are they willing to go to keep iran from building a nuclear bomb? along came a spider and sat down beside her and gave her boyfriend a boost. a new twist on an old nursery rhyme here. why a spider could become man's

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the iranians keep insisting no, no, this is just for peaceful purposes. well, i think as the russians said in their statement arizona we believe and what this meeting on october 1st is to test, prove it. >> that was secretary of state hillary clinton talking about iran. ever since friday when president obama announced iran has been building secretly this nuclear facility, world leaders have been joining the cause for iran to be honest about its plans. just today, tehran announced it has successfully tested its longest range missiles capable of carrying a nuclear warhead up to 1,200 miles away. that would put israel and u.s.

military bases in the middle east in iran's reach. a short time ago the white house press secretary says iran needs to open up. >> they can, as i just said, agree to immediate unfettered access. i think that would be the least that they can do. >> how tough is the u.s. willing to get on iran? with me now, republican strategist, leonardo, and democratic strategist, keith boykin. let me begin with you, are you satisfied with the american leaders' response to iran so far? >> i am, contessa. i give the president high marks so far. i give the secretary of state clinton and defense secretary gates high marks for their understanding and their tough rhetoric. i think what we're looking for, not just as a party, as a nation, but we're looking for all of the world to unite together and put iran in the spotlight. it's up to them to show that they will provide unfettered access. that's the key point moving into

this thursday's g-5 plus 1 meeting in geneva. >> my understanding is iran has promised it would allow iaea inspectors to the nuclear plant. keith f we're looking at their actions, it wasn't just the nuclear plant. it was also the fact here they were talking about test firing successfully the short-range missiles and now the long-range missiles as well. keith boykin, let me go to you. is the united states' stance on this at this point rise and circumspect? >> i think it's wise. i'm glad there's borp agreement here that the administration is pursuing. the administration has to be careful about how it pursues iran. you want to make sure you get china and russia and other allies along to put sanctions on iran. on the other hand you want to make sure iran comes to the table and comes clean. they provide access and blueprints to the nuclear facilities being developed right now. they only came to light because

the united states of america at the u.n. last week. we have a lot more work to do. >> lenny, do you think this is an issue that will get bipartisan action, bipartisan support for the secretary of state for president obama? is this something democrats and republicans will be on the same page about? >> i think, contessa, it can be. republicans are going to be looking for two things. one, continued tough stance against iran, with regard to protecting our interests and our allies, particularly israel. the missiles test firing today were outrageous demonstrations on the part of iran. we have to be tough. two, i think keith's point on russia and china is right. we're looking for other nations, particularly those two, with strong ties, economic ties to that country, to step up and ensure that the united states is not acting alone when it comes to speaking for the world. it's a perilous time in iran. you mentioned 40% of the youth

in iran are unemployed. we need tough, immediate sanctions if iran decides not to play by the rules like everybody else does. >> bill clinton signed an executive order banning trade with iran back in 1995. here we are almost 15 years later and iran is building a secret nuclear plant and firing off long-range missiles. at this point, keith, do you think even if they're not saying so publicly that there are a lot of leaders right now looking at military options as, perhaps, the better stick when it comes to sticks and carrots? >> i'm not sure if it's a better option or not. secretary gates, the defense secretary in the bush administration, held over by the obama administration, does not believe military action is appropriate right now. we want to exhaust diplomatic avenues before we go down that route. the reality, again, contessa, iran has been under some forms of sanctions since 1979. going back to the islamic revolution there.

it hasn't really made a huge difference, but to make those sanctions effective you have to have participation by the parties. get russia and china on board. the obama administration is closer than ever to getting that to happen. >> russia has a lot of money riding on this. money tends to be a big motivator when it comes to international relations. keith, nice to see you. lenny, thank you for your time. i appreciate it, guys. defense secretary robert gates is responding to calls for a timeline to end the war in afghanistan. he says creating a timeline would be a mistake and the defeat in afghanistan would be disastrous for the united states. gates says the taliban and al qaeda would see an early pullout as a victory, similar to the soviet union's victory in 1999 after a ten-year war. here's a spider story we were telling you. a xxx spin on peter parker's sense. a bite from the brazilian wander

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damaging new evidence that was set to be revealed today in actor john travolta's extortion trial taking place in the bahamas. apparently may no longer exist. according to "people" magazine that evidence could have been

destroyed by one of the two people on trial. people.com reports the refusal of treatment document which travolta was told he hat to sign when he didn't want his dying son taken to the hospital, the actually document was burned by president bridgewater. they are accused of demanding $25 billion from travolta after the death of his son. who says you can't fall in love in a math? khloe kardashian and l.a. lakers' star sure did. they tied the knot at the home of a family friend. khloe's stepfather walked her down the aisle as her sisters aired as bridesmaids. "the e!" channel will air the wedding. the magazine bought the wedding photos for $300,000. a michigan woman was trying

to follow one of the ten commandments, love thy neighbor as thy self. state authorities stepped in to tell her to knock it off. lisa schneider would watch her children before the bus arrives. the michigan department of human services sent her a letter saying she was breaking a state law because she doesn't have a daycare license. she faces fines or prison if he continues to baby sit. >> i didn't think i was doing anything wrong. i'm helping out my best friend. i'm helping out a neighbor. i'm helping out a mom who's trying to provide for her family. >> worse, lisa told the local paper she called the department to try to clear it up and they asked, are the kids coming into your house? she said, if it rains i'm not going to let kids stand outside and get wet. they responded, tell their parents to buy an umbrella. how kind. a state lawmaker is trying to change the laws to make it legal for parents to find childcare arrangements without the

nonsensical rigmarole. all right. now, what's up with sky diving seniors these days? here's a 92-year-old new hampshire woman celebrating another year of life by jumping out after a plane at 13,000 feet. jane, the oldest woman she's taken. a woman who has been married seven times traveled the world and sewed costumes for the john wayne film. she's not alone. you'd think being president of the united states, leader of the free world would be accomplishment enough. no, george h.w. bush keeps proving his daring with his birthday sky dives. this year celebrating his 85th. my own grandma who's still a spring chicken by comparison, celebrated her 75th birthday by dawning a blue jumpsuit, trapping on goggles and jumping out f a plane. why? tempting fate? the former president says, no, you get charged up and excited which he says is hard to do at

85. you know, whatever happened to grandmas who knit? much safer. when we return, hospital emergency rooms taking drastic steps to deal with the influx of possible swine flu patients. you've heard of guns for food. how about semiautomatics for votes? we'll talk to the politician who's holding machine gun socials. famed director roman polanski behind bars after 30 years on the run. will he return now to the united states? stay with us right here on msnbc. n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%n%

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it's time for clean american energy. good monday, everyone, welcome back to msnbc. i'm contessa brewer. after months of warnings and frantic preparations, a frantic swine flu outbreak beginning in the united states. texas one of the hot spots. so many parents are rushing kids to the emergency room hospitals set up tents in the parking lot to cope with the onslaught. a hospital in memphis doing the same thing. doctors are seeing twice as many potential flu patients as normal. more than 300 a day in some cases. according to the latest cdc figures 26 states are reporting wide-spread flu cases. number is expected to rise. the vaccine is still months away. rob stein, a reporter for "washington post." when did they start anticipating seeing signs that, perhaps, there's a second onslaught? >> hi, contessa.

you know, ever since the swine flu virus emerged last spring, officials have been bracing for a second wave of infections they would assume would happen this fall when students started going back to school. it never went away. throughout the summer there were outbreaks in camps. now that kids are back in school, they're seeing a lot of cases show up. a lot of hospitals across the country reporting they're seeing a lot more cases. lot of individual doctor's offices, pediatricians, family practicers are seeing more cases come in. most of them seem to be fairly mild. >> when we're looking at who's getting hit here, we're showing students on college campuses. is that really one of the areas of most concern or is it students of all ages? >> it's really students of all ages, although a lot of outbreaks have been occurring on college campuses. the american college health association has been surveying college campuses for the last few weeks. 91% of the campuses they're surveying are reporting cases of h1n1 swine flu.

really it's the unusual thing about the h1n1 swine flu, it seems to hit younger people more often than the regular seasonal flu does. >> and the tents, are they in such a bad situation, really, are emergency rooms overloaded the tents are a precaution? >> a few hospitals across the country have had to resort to those things. most hospitals have those contingency plans in place if they need to. if the cases begin to increase, you'll see more of this thing happening. the health department has been handling. several months to handle it and the plans have been working. >> rob, thanks so much for your time. i appreciate it. >> thank you, contessa. lawyers for acclaimed movie director roman polanski will fight any attempt to bring him back to the united states to face his 1977 conviction for having sex with a dangerer. polanski was arrested in switzerland over the weekend on

his way to a film festival to pick up a lifetime achievement award. are the swiss says, i mean, polanski had been in and out of switzerland for years. why did they choose this time to arrest him? >> simply because they were given a warrant from the l.a. district attorney. they were warned in advance he was coming. they say in the past, contessa, he had been in and out of switzerland but because of border controls in the e.u., they didn't check everybody's passport so they hadn't been aware of his presence officially until then. at the moment france and poland are urging switzerland to grant bail to roman polanski. they say the u.s. may try to extradite him and lawyers promising a complicated battle. >> i understand that the united states has 60 days to submit the former extradition request to switzerland and in the meantime this is developing into somewhat of an international tug-of-war with france and polanski's home

birthplace of poland, asking secretary of state to get involved on polanski's behalf. in word on how that's developing? >> that's right. under swiss law the u.s. has 60 days to file its application for extradition. under swiss law polanski has the right to contest his detention as well as any extradition decision in several swiss courts, in fact. he's already appointed a swiss lawyer to represent him and as you point out, the french and polish governments have written to u.s. secretary of state hillary clinton urging her to weigh in on his half. he holds dual french/poland leadership. he's able to see visitors for one hour each week and may be allowed bail under strict decisions. >> what's the response from the woman who was the teenager a the time, the teenager in question? >> i think she said that she's long since forgiven polanski for

this and they did settle for a sum of money in a civil suit she bought against polanski many years ago. she identified herself, incidentally, as the victim back in 1977 in california. she came out and admitted it was her. so i think she's long ago resigned to the fact that she's forgiven him for that crime. so it really remains to be seen how the swiss are going to be looking at his application for bail. i think that will be the next development in the case. >> all right, tom, thank you. a disturbing story in southern california. a 24-year-old woman is missing after being released from a los angeles county sheriff's station. she vanished two weeks ago. her mom blames the disappearance, well, she puts it really at the sheriff's office where she was last seen. >> there was nothing protecting her when they allowed her to walk out that door. based on policy and procedure. >> it is hard to put into words

what i feel as a mother. i can tell you with absolute certainty it feels like i have stepped in a nightmare. >> nbc's miguel amagare's been tracking this story. joins me live. go back to beginning here. why was she detained in the first place and taken to this particular jail for the sheriff's department? >> contessa, 12 days ago mitrice richardson went to an exclusive malibu restaurant in los angeles county, ordered an $89 -- her bill came out to $89. ordered a steak and a drink. she wasn't able to pay her tab. folks at the restaurant say she was acting rather unusual, though she did seem sober. police were called. they came up to the restaurant, took her into custody. they went into her car, found a very small amount of marijuana. she was booked at the los angeles county sheriff's substation in a rather remote industrial area. she was taken into custody. she was charged, she was released around 1:3 in the

morning. she was let go. she made a ku l of phone calls inside the sheriff's substation to an unknown phone number, and police say she was free to go, that she signed the consent form saying she was okay, she was mentally stable and mentally fit, though she left the sheriff's substation without i.d., without money, without cell phone. she walked into the night and that was the last time she was seen. >> the sheriff's substation is in a rather industrial area, correct? >> it is. it's in a really remote area. there's not a lot of stuff near. in fact, the night she disappeared and the following days after it was hot out there in the triple digits. police say there was no real place for her to walk. the one train of thought is she was picked up by somebody who we don't know. we don't know if she made a phone call for someone to get picked up or she walked outside was picked up by somebody she didn't know. >> mitrice was 24 years old. the sheriff's department said it

had no legal right to keep her at that station. came on with alex witt on saturday to talk about it. let me play the sheriff's response. >> we obviously did everything we believed not only procedurally correct but what we believed to be right. our civilian jay lor, custody assistan assistance, said to ms. richardson, if you want to stay the night, you can stay the night. i encourage you to do so. she didn't want to do that. we have no legal right to keep somebody past their time. >> here's the thing. if they have the right to detain her in the first place, to take her to this jail at the sheriff's department, they reportedly found a small amount of marijuana in her car. i've heard of people being thrown in the drunk tank at jail until they get sobered up and go home in the morning. i don't know why the reason they detained her wasn't enough to keep her overnight.

any plaex nation from the sheriff's department? >> the sheriff's department said she had a small amount of marijua marijuana. they weren't able to keep her on heavy drug charges. the jailer there at the los angeles county sheriff's office said she spoke to matrice for several hours. she appeared to be sober and they had normal conversations, that she checked in on her several times over the night and when she was able to be released because they couldn't hold her for charges she had to sign several forms and boxes saying she was okay to stay. they asked, do you want to stay? we can keep you in a cell. there's a bed in the back. you can wait many the lobby for your family. she chose to leave. >> i feel there's more to this story we haven't gotten to the bottom to. where is mitrice richardson? >> certainly unanswered questions. breaking news coming in from the carribean island of cur sow.

five fbi agents have arrived on the island to search for the u.s. vice counsel, james hogan. hogan appeared thursday night. the 39-year-old diplomat was telling his wife he was going for a walk. never returned. on friday his jeans found on the remote spot of the island. police say they're investigating all possible scenario iviolence. the coast guard, u.s. marines and the u.s. navy helicopter crew are all searching for hogan as we speak. talk about a wake up call. i had a heart attack at 57. my doctor told me i should've been... doing more for my high cholesterol. what was i thinking? but now i trust my heart to lipitor. when diet and exercise are not enough, adding lipitor may help. unlike some other cholesterol lowering medications, lipitor is fda approved to reduce the risk... of heart attack, stroke, and certain kinds of heart surgeries...

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how you could start saving. the senate is gearing up for a showdown over the health care reform this week. tomorrow the senate finance committee is expected to take up the public option. it's not included in the bill proposed by committee chairman max baucus, but two key democrats will push for it anyway. with me now, nbc's kelly o'donnell. kelly, you have a lot of moderate democrats and a lot of

republicans against this public option. so why the push for it now? >> well, as you said, the numbers seem to stack against the public option. to appeal to moderate democrats and, perhaps, some even moderate republican, the one name, of course, being olympia snowe who might vote for a democrat plan, she and others are saying if there is a public option they could not support it. so if you look at the numbers it is quite possible that a public option will not be in a final measure that all senators would vote on. before we get to that, trying to speak to the more liberal side of the democratic party, jay rockefeller of west virginia and chuck schumer of new york, both strongly believe a public option should be in the bill and should be talked about some more. so they intend to bring an amendment tomorrow. they each have their own, that will try to insert that into the finance committee. it's going to be a tough sell in that setting, but it's a chance for them to keep it in the debate, keep that issue alive, because it has lost a bit of steam in the last couple of

weeks. >> okay. so will you give us -- this is a process that has more twists and turns than a mountain road. can you give us a sense of where we have come to get to this point. >> it is hard to get a snapshot. if we say look at the numbers, if we had a baseball card on what's happened thus far. the finance committee began with 564 amendments to the original baucus blueprint if you want to call it that. 122 those were incorporated into a modified version of that blueprint, and in the last week they went through 59. so of that group, 18 of them failed. 24 of them passed. some were considered nongermane which means they're not relevant to the specific jurisdiction of this committee and some were withdrawn. their members saying, well, perhaps this isn't the right time or place or their minds were changed through debate. we have a long time to go. the goal is to try to finish up this week which tells us a lot

of those amendments would be withdrawn. if you look at the numbers and how many hours they could talk through this. >> kelly, thank you. some of the criticism here is about the republicans. they're saying if max baucus created this bill hoping to get republicans on board and they're not getting on board, why bother? let's go back to what the more progress i lawmakers want to do with the public option. let's get real on the public option. linda lives in indiana, watching her family fighting for health care. turning now to glenda. glenda, tell me your story. >> i am greatly preturbed because i have a sister who is totally disabled. always worked a job providing daycare in a small rural community for working mothers. she was never able to afford insurance, therefore, they did not do any kind of testing to determine that she had central sleep apnea until her health was so damaged that at 52 she was

declared totally disabled with a three to five year life span. fortunately we've been able to get her six years, but in the last six months she's been in the hospital twice. more than $40,000 -- >> i think we just had a cell phone issue there. i mean, look, glenda reached out to me on facebook to share this story. she says it's ridiculous for people to argue that -- you can hear it. we did lose her. it's ridiculous to argue a public option would end in health rationing. she says health care is rationed now by insurance companies in to make money opposed to the government. she had a 26-year-old nephew who had a form of parkinson's. he's on disability. he can't be on his parent's insurance because of his age. they can't get an mri for him because of the upfront costs. i want to hear your perspective

on what we're going through in this health care reform debate. get in touch with me on facebook, twitter, or e-mail, contessa@msnbc.com. here's a great story to follow that one. a new poll thinks twitter is just a fad. "60 minutes"/"vanity fair" poll says a third of people, just a fad. they think the excitement over twitter going to fade. according to reuters, twitter's newest round of funding, that the website is worth a billion bucks. how can a passing fad be worth $1 billion? maybe we should ask the makers of the pet rock. coming up, taking a shot at politics. voters here being asked to try something a little different.

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all right. most candidates looking to fund raise throw parties for loaded campaign donors. in south carolina, dean allen wants his donors armed and lo loaded. for campaign rally allen gave donors a barbecue and a chance at winning an ak-47. he calls it a machine gun invitational. here's the invitation. >> fire. yeah. you don't want to shoot right

wing radicals by mistake. joining us from greenville, south carolina, dean allen, running for general of the south carolina national guard. dean, good to see you today. 3. >> good afternoon, ma'am. >> okay. explain to me this very unusual idea for a fund-raiser. >> well, the idea may seem very unusual but the thought behind it is very usual and important. we want to show solidarity with the second amendment to the constitution. the most important right people have is the right to keep and bear arms. one of my concerns is our state guard is not properly trained and equipped and i intend to see that they are and i was told, well, there's a possible of liability if you arm the state guard. we're out here running civilians through a fund-raiser having fun on a saturday afternoon. we give them a ten-minute safety briefing, put live ammo in their hands. nobody gets hurt. people were coming up with

pretty good targets and having me autograph their targets for them. it's not a safety issue, and all of our rights including the first amendment to be here and talk to are predicated on supporting the second amendment. that's what makes america a free country. >> i want to explain that south carolina is the only state in the nation that holds an election for theage tant general, the person who heads up the national guard in the state. you would be replacing, if you were to win this election, you'd be replacing a guy who has overseen the national guard in your state since 1995. do you feel like he doesn't adequately support second-amendment rights? >> i think he's dedicated his life to serving the state and he's a fine officer, but he's at the end of his career. i don't believe he's running again, and we do have some things that we can improve and make better in the emergency management and the military department in south carolina. i have the business and military

background to handle the job. if the people of south carolina entrust me with it. >> the grand prize, the big raffle here, was for an ak-47. it said on the invitation, sorry, semiautomatic only. i assume that's been awarded to the winner? >> yes, ma'am. we gave one away saturday at our first machine gun social. everybody had such a good time, we're going to do it again october 24th in charleston. >> wow. all right. it certainly got a lot of attention for you, dean allen. i guess with 500 attendees, 25 bucks a pop, looking at more than $12,000. hope it goes good for you. >> thank you very much, ma'am. that wraps up this hour for me. i'm contessa brewer. tamron hall, norah o'donnell picks things up next. is the vast right wing conspiracy alive and well? hear what former president clinton had to say about conservatives and president obama. didn't always behave. whatever i did my digestive upsets came back.

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