well i'm going to washington d.c. and here's what's coming up tonight on the big picture last night president obama urged congress to pass gun control legislation or in an appearance in hartford connecticut fourteen republicans however have said they're ready to filibuster any gun control bill that appears before the senate to the families of gun violence victims think about republican obstructionism find out in just a moment also speaking of filibusters republicans have used their minority powers to block numerous obama administration judicial appointees is it time for the senate to use its nuclear option last card yes and it's big picture politics panel and president obama if you're watching this program please don't shoot santa clause . explain why in today's daily take.

last you need to know the last night president obama gave a rousing speech in hartford connecticut urging congress to pass senator harry reid's gun control bill. connecticut's shown the white. and now is the time for congress to do the same. time for congress to do the same this week this is not about politics this is about doing the right thing through the families who are here that if they want to provide. if you. don't have the families move over so we can prevent this from happening i do. however before the said after noon it looks like the senate may not even get a chance to vote on reid's bill fourteen republican senators including senate

minority leader mitch mcconnell bowed to filibuster any gun control bill brought before them since the december fourteenth massacre at sandy hook elementary school in newtown connecticut there have been over three thousand three hundred gun related deaths across the united states many of them the result of order now legally purchase weapons despite our country's obvious problem with gun violence possibility of congress passing comprehensive firearms legislation like that promised by president obama in december is unlikely here and republican opposition senate democrats scrapped an assault weapons ban and a limit on high capacity magazines from their gun bill last month and with mitch mcconnell and company ready to try to block reid's bill initially appear that the senate might just have to scrap gun control altogether now however a number of republican senators including major power brokers like john mccain and lindsey graham have come out against their colleagues obstructionist strategy their

support should give reid and his allies the sixty votes necessary to override any republican filibuster everything goes as planned the senate will vote on reid's bill thursday however even if pro-gun control senators do manage to overcome a republican filibuster they may not be able to gather up enough votes from conservative democrats to ensure that reid's bill which includes. nationally popular measures like universal background checks on gun purchases it's through the senate so what happened how did the fate of gun control become to tied to legislative procedure in the days and weeks after the newtown killings popular opinion overwhelmingly in favor drastic new limits on firearms purchases and even a national ban on assault weapons the nation seemed poised to make a fundamental change to its firearm laws since then the n.r.a. has ramped up its usual scare tactics warning that more background checks could lead to a universal gun registry and intimidate state and national gun makers at lawmakers

excuse me sympathetic to gun control gun control supporters one victories in connecticut and colorado the n.r.a. has used its lobbying weight to ensure that republican lawmakers in congress toed that party line and has been the case throughout the obama administration republicans have used their block anything the president supports strategy to kill ideas like the new assault weapons ban that most of the country supports but out of the families of gun violence victims feel about the senate's going to control initiative what the law enforcement officials think needs to be done to stop america's plague of gun crime i'm now joined by emily not him whose son gave an aide to congresswoman gabby giffords was killed in tucson arizona when the congresswoman was shot in two thousand and eleven in art pace of itoh chief of police for austin texas welcome to both of you thank you joining us tonight family first of all as the mother of a victim of gun violence what's your sense of what's going on here what but

i don't want to get into the kind of maudlin. t.v. cliche of how do you feel but i know that this is very real for you in a way that most americans don't understand can you give us some insight it is very real and i think it's important. our legislators know that it's very real to many many people not just me there are thirty more than thirty people who die from gun violence every day and to them it's very very real and all of their relatives and all of their friends whose lives are changed forever i'm really heartened by the active activity in the senate. and hope that it comes to a vote it's important it's a it's an important national discussion that needs to happen to what extent do you think that this shift in the senate just in the last few hours might be the consequence of these newtown families brought on air force one to washington d.c.

i don't know the extent to that it shifted but i hope that they've listened to those families it's to me it's not an issue that's about conservative versus progressive or about some sort of culture war or sort of the typical slippery slopes type of argument to me it's about the safety of our children and our grandchildren and it's something that's worthy of serious discussion about sensible solutions chief. justice and thank you for joining us as a law enforcement officer i'm curious your take on this i have friends who are law enforcement officers who generally are rather concerned. that there are weapons of war on our streets or. the biggest concern isn't the weapon itself as much as having the wrong person in possession of firearms and for us it's not about gun

control it is about crime control it's about reducing crime to reducing violence on our streets and the argument before this congress right now in the senate will close loopholes that are resulting in the list death of americans it has nothing to do with limiting the rights. law abiding americans of sound mind it's all about keeping guns out of the hands of criminals ninety percent of americans support universal background checks seventy four percent of n.r.a. members and former in our members supported it is something that there is no excuse to passion and thank thank thank you john mccain and the others that are coming out saying we need to vote on it the american people have spoken and it's time for the senate to act on behalf of the will of the people of this nation but it is almost a certain level of the absurdity here in this very modern around this i can sell you a list of american gun owners for about twenty five dollars

a thousand but the n.r.a. will sell me i mean it's like you know vary from from day to day but they sell these mailing lists you know for people to send catalogs to sell like it's some kind of horrible secret or something is we're just talking about a gun registry here are we not i mean we have at least register cars well you know nobody's home a registry one think that's part of it but actually we're not so we're not somebody we're just sort of backing away frankly as a person that was raised by my parents to obey the law was raised by a parent to be a responsible member of society i've got four firearms at home the government you need to know that i don't mind you know one because i don't plan on going out and committing a homicide tomorrow and i think for us to use the fear of the slippery slope which is what some members of congress are doing. is irresponsible let's focus on what we can do prick magically it is supported by the american people in law enforcement stands behind those in congress that wants to see a reduction in violence a reduction in crime not controlling guns and you know it's not like it's

a radical new idea we passed twenty years ago a law saying that we should have criminal background checks and that people who are felons encourage them to be danger to themselves and others should not own guns and all we're asking to be done is that the the problems with the law that was passed twenty years ago be adjusted so. it becomes more effective to me that seems like almost a no brainer and president reagan supported maggie thatcher and for the support of this got us i mean it seems to me that these are almost law and order barry goldwater conservative issues you know as as the chief was just saying if you're if you're a lot of law abiding citizens it's like let's. think about that the only people that will be impacted by what we're talking about in terms of the background checks in terms of a true gun trafficking law are criminals which means felons

and men and one of the abused their spouses or partners people that have been adjudicated to be not all they are mentally and lastly it's the gun profiteers the people who are going out now buying guns through the loop poet gun shows and from private sellers i mean straw purchasers and then go out and sell it at a profit to organized crime syndicates to drug cartels to street gangs you know these folks always say as politicians if gun laws are so good why is it that chicago has always gun violence i'll tell you why because we have these loopholes that to me be closed so we can't have people buy guns somewhere else bring them to the cities and exacerbate their problems it's ridiculous it's time it's time for the senate to act and i think that based on the data i've seen the american people are behind this and we can't either you're serving the fringe or you're serving the masses and i think it's time for them that you know one of the arguments that you often hear against background checks is that criminals will still get the guns

anyway and i think that's such a sad argument i mean should we not have stoplights because people might still say you know somebody's going to rob a bank so let's just stop in the back let's do away with laws let's give us and it seems to me that if we can reduce the amount of gun deaths and we know that they're not going to go away totally but if we can reduce the. boy should we do that isn't that our moral obligation to try to do either of you feel that this step that we have we just have a minute here that the stuff that's before us right now is too short is the appropriate step is too far we're where are we i think it's an important first step i don't think it's the only thing that we need to do to deal with gun violence and there's a whole list of things that i would like to see happen but it is a critical first step she is from my perspective you know for the folks who are worried about the types of firearms and and gun bans if this is my warning to them

the american people are their wits and they've had enough unless you want greco new laws stop blocking pragmatic commonsense fixes solutions even with the current system we have now that doesn't handle private sellers a gun shows two million people since one thousand nine hundred two million criminals two million of vigils from purchasing farms that's huge that is just a fraction of what we can do if it was nationwide and we have a national gun policy police chief acevedo very good emily not a thank you very much thank you thank you. after the break will the senate pass meaningful gun control legislation or will the small penis and gun club get its way once again. big picture politics panel what they think about harry reid's pending gun bill in just a moment. it's

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welcome back it's time to turn things over to our politics panel on our panel tonight neil mccabe conservative columnist editor of the guns and patriots column stewart veteran union organizer and author of the book plain bigger than you are a life in organizing and chris allman conservative commentator and activist thank you all for joining us to do with going to have you with us harry reid announced today that he's going to force a vote on this gun control i'm reluctant even call this gun control you know it's more like background check stuff on thursday fourteen republicans including mitch mcconnell came out and said no we're going to filibuster this thing now john mccain lindsey graham are coming out gone. we know over ninety percent of americans in general like this over eighty percent of republicans like this over eighty percent of n.r.a. members like this. what republican would. any seriousness stuart why would any republican be opposed you know be willing to go out on

a limb and say i'm going to filibuster something everybody likes except the guys who write the checks for my sixty five thousand dollar donation from the n.r.a. support from. yes support from winchester arms rimington. go on down the list of gun manufacturers. and because. they're mistaken about some of their constituents who have been gun supporters in the past because their owners and their sportsman and they'd like to be go out in the woods and and. you know hunting deer is a big two week deal and which i totally support and i grew up around in that culture and i support gun rights i just don't support military weapons being used in civil society and. so i it's illogical that republicans would filibuster this and not allow a vote and not allow

a debate so that they could make what they think are the good arguments i don't get this i mean stewart is talking about hunting i've never gone hunting i don't i've been a vegetarian since i was a teenager but but i am a sports shooter and have been for years and years my brother's very very good at it owns a number of weapons and has taught me a lot i've been through n.r.a. training i went through the georgia police academy training not just in guns but the whole private detective lessons. i don't get why anybody would want to walk into the woods hunting with an a r fifteen and frankly i don't see where you know a thirty thirty round clip is going to help anybody think that they're going to deter you know a robber or a rapist or a car thief oh well i think a thirty round clip is absolutely going to deter that but i mean come on the millionaire out mill. carrying weapons are already banned think goodness and you know i just want to know what's in this bill has anyone seen the text of this bill

that the president likes to say it's common sense gun reform but i don't even know what's in it and you guys are so eager well we're going to have a debate on it before we have a cloture vote on it of course we're going to have a debate on it and really get to see what's in there but once again the democrats the liberals they want to push something through before the american people sure you ask the american people do you support keeping hands out of the guns out of the hands of crazy people one hundred percent are going to say absolutely i support that i support that but i don't support a bill that i don't know what's in it and you are wrong to support a bill that you don't know what is it i think everybody would agree with their point but that's not going to happen yet if they do that we're going to have a debate absolutely that's what the most your vote is all about there's having a debate there's going to be several days of the bill in all its detail is a feel good to me this isn't just the senate means an extended time of talking about it instead of a more limited in of time in a limited amount of time which is the normal thing where it will lead to one under

a limited amount of time we want we want to have all the time that is necessary for this so let's talk about it let's go line by line and find out what's in it and you know what what would cause you to say no well i'm concerned about expanded background checks. what do you want them to know. about me personally. and general what what could it be in a background check that would cause you to say wait a minute that's a question that's gone too far but i just don't like them and it's you know and i'm uncomfortable with the idea that the records for a background check could be used to to build a gun registry among compter with the idea already has ago just three sell it to the i'm concerned that if all gun transfers go through a background check this creates a central hub where you literally have a government agency or bureaucrat who's controlling all transfers you can really get ours what's wrong with that and i don't remember cars in the constitution

actually article one section eight. says roads roads aren't cars well they don't have cars and they have their own zone but they are going to use a dart my dear they are interesting and yeah yeah they also didn't have bullets. literally they did not have bullets they had to moscow ball let's make another point to when we talk about a r fifteen the fact of the matter is you know in the past ten years we've had over a million soldiers that have passed through combat zones or have been involved in military training itself included it would but it just so happens that military style weapons are very popular and it's the pistol grip on a rifle sort of like a neat looking scope to track systems so you have to like this if you know anybody any are fifteen's are not grade weapons i really i really don't think i really think people who fetishizing guns at that level genuinely are members of the small penis going club. which is out there it's dot com you can find it you know it's

well since this is a family show i think you should be a little careful to stop it right there right but you know we could i mean but think about this point there are actually muzzle loaded. muzzle loaded muskets that are done up to look like you know in the a r fifteen style their shotguns done up to look in the air fifteen style seems like an odd thing to. well listen not all dads are going to be cool to you but there are people who are into it and that's their right but it would sigmund freud's sometimes a cigar is just that it's more of a he started on his pipe and i think you would think something like what you think . of there would call him out on that let me move this whole let's move this away well actually adler and actually one would really know are really good that you are you would probably get it. really thorson is an old fashion. and an old fashioned filibuster be a good thing for the country i mean to have a christian right on my resume why should so so and in fact email filibuster or

phone call filibuster the way reid used to run when he was in the minority ok so speaking of filibuster republicans have used their filibuster powers in the senate to block numerous obama judicial appointments seventy five percent of judicial vacancies have been unfilled frankly i think that the most egregious of all these is the first circuit which is here in washington d.c. there's a there's a levin seats i believe supposed to be on that circuit there are seven judges sitting on that four republican appointees three democratic ones this is the circuit this is the court because d.c. where e.p.a. rules are judy kid we're where labor relations are adjudicate basically where the republicans can screw up anything democrats want to do and ever since obama came into office he has had for the last two years he had a very qualified nominee in there who just last month pulled the plug and said that's it i can you know the republicans are refusing to let obama appoint anybody the first circuit for two reasons number one this is the launching pad of the supreme court and he will probably have an opening but more importantly number two

they want to keep their republican majority so they can screw things up all the administrative stuff i'm a fine somebody that the senate will approve because you start all because i do because all i care by york is debt. listen plenty of people the senate would but who won't get through a filibuster well i know you think the republicans are going to have anybody to the left of border and i really is anybody. that is not even true that you could find twenty judges tomorrow that you're going to question sure about why won't he would appoint somebody that the senate will approve it's not a question of the senate approving them it's a question of this ridiculous filibuster why he should kill his advise and consent yet there's nothing wrong with that buys ok well that's what that's this is how we got laid out great and here's the deal like he said that this is a he nominated someone who can get sixty votes there still he can lose because the constitution doesn't require that they requires fifty votes and there's a you know why instead of saying democrats and republicans when it's

a majority and minority and remember both sides do this when the democrats were in the minority and bush and reagan and other people weren't president they filibuster judges you know what not consistently not for four years and not on the fellows. come to why that was that was about one position that was on the supreme court would you feel any do i think they've been vindicated with the why did lindsey graham pull the plug on climate change legislation because of immigration. i don't i don't know anybody who still believes in climate change we can. really write really. really really i mean yeah i believe in climate change the climate changes all the time i mean you know we i'm so i just nothing in the last four decades that anyway back to this filibuster point ok when it comes to filibuster i may not agree on the substance of everything that rand paul said a couple weeks ago but he proved to harry reid and to every republican and democrat that he is willing to do it he brought back the old fashioned filibuster and it's

a wonderful thing for our country and we should do it filibuster or rand paul did was a stunt that was the filibuster and it went basically a villainess years did the same thing a year ago it's. it's you know god bless them both you know i thought it was great theater at their it but you know it's a stunt is the way the guys do filibusters now as they have their aide send an e-mail to the aid of mitch mcconnell and it changes the senate calendar no noise that's the hold line all that i always say what are they looking at right well what you what i'm over the way you do it with a whole letter you could do it once in a procedure look at the way read fills the tree which basically blocks all amendments from republicans being able to file depending on the piece of legislation to play unseemly depending on and there's no history to this that the leaders and what is the biggest right look add to this that is like committee process yes that is right and we should be but look at this chart i hope we have a chart i think we have a chart of you know here we go this is filibusters under presidents and where is

the biggest you know one for me to read ok the first one is a county the oh it's in the queue the small red one kennedy l.b.j. the nixon ford gets higher than car and you know a lot of filibusters a bill why does everything if that carter was reagan bush clinton bush obama you know and others in notional speaking filibusters are these the sort of the whole letter or the left child. sure votes and one o'clock erick you know what they are but there's nothing wrong with cloture vote them to the senate procedure look when republicans wanted to change the filibuster rule the democrats called it what the nuclear option now reid is talking about it as if look i can change the rules anytime i want by fifty votes and you deal with it that's the nuclear option you know what war is hell and politics is war they don't like it when they're in the majority but when they were in the white don't know a lot of it john roberts has come out against this john roberts pointed out that

the first circuit court has only seven judges on it and has since obama came into office in the senate obama nation it go a little think. obama needs to find some right toady he can put in there so i don't know at all. but there is something about protecting the rights of the minority from being overwhelmed and like it would be enough so this pure democracy and a filibuster is a tool used with the rights of the minority the bill by the rights of the minority or not are not musters used by a minority the rights of the minority are fighting back by the constitution when it comes to things like human rights but if you're talking about the senate the legislation there's nothing in the constitution that says that the minority has that right in fact the constitution explicitly says a law shall be made and a person shall be shall be appointed to a judicial nomination with a majority of votes a similar majority fifty one a separate also and the senate controls its own rules. yes allocate more of tonight's politics pales up to the bridge.

the worst cure for those things the. white house of the day the radio guy and pull out of a zero minestrone click off of a watch the watch quote for about fifteen hundred you've never seen anything like this on top of. a potentially deadly blizzard taking aim for the northeast it's expected to hit stunning in a few hours from new york to maine we have team coverage of the storm. but we're watching is the very heavy snow moving into boston proper earlier today it was very sticky you can see it start to become much more powdery down say the bottom line there's still a lot of snow out here

a good place for snowball fight. d.c. it is going to be pretty incredible day there and even record snowfall throughout what's been like bilbies largely driving lessons from emergency vehicles are exceptions. to. the international airport in the very heart of moscow.