. >>> coming up, we'll talk to a father who wrote movingly about being diagnosed with asperger syndromend realizing he passed it to his son as well. they're both here to talk to us about it. sec ifor fast relief. cue up alka-seltzer. it stops heartburn fast. ♪ oh what a relief it is! ♪ if loving you is wrong ♪ i don't wanna be right [ record scratch ] what?! it's not bad for you. it just tastes that way. [ female announcer ] honey nut cheerios cereal -- heart-healthy, whole grain oats. you can't go wrong loving it. bee happy. bee healthy. with clusters of flakes and o's. oh, ho ho... it's the honey sweetness. i...i mean, you...love. >>> misfit, truant, delinquent. my next guest said he wasn't a model child and is not a model dad either but has plenty of parenting advice. he's a best selling author with a new book called "raising cubby" a father and son's adventure with asperger's trains, tractors and high explosives. thanks for joining us. john joins us with his son, cubby, from chicopee, massachusetts. >> thanks for having us on with you. >> let me talk about asberger's. all your life

when my son was born in 1990 i didn't know about asperger's or autism either, but i saw in him the sameavioral differences i remember from my childhood though i didn't know they were autism. i knew how ied had struggles. i tried to advise him as best i could based on my experience, being the same way. >> cub by, i want to talk to you in a second. john, if i could ask about that. what were the behavioral things you recognized. cubby, i'm fascinated. in part as a neuro scientist. what were you looking for? >> well, first of all, i'd say i wasn't looking for anything. like any parent, you always hope your kid's better than you, brighter, cuter, smarter. when i would go with his mom and we would put him down at day care there might be two, three other kids on the floor next to him. i thought maybe this would be like pouring goldfish into a tank and cubby would be swimming with them all mixed up. but he would stay by himself. that made me remember my own time as a little boy and how i wanted to engage the other kids and have friends and i didn't know how. i couldn't tell. was cubby wishing h

sometimes kids with aspergers can do things that are off putting. i sat with a kid in a class that put his leg over class during the -- over the head during class and 17 years old and it's off putting. we can own it and now what do we do about it? it's not distracting to everybody fine but how do we do it in a way we're honest with everyone in the room and reaching out to each other appropriately. >> you have a project and working on a thing, a whole school based project. >> yeah, well -- anyways thank you guys. this is really a great conversation. just a little bit about where we're going. "bully" the movie is backed by a team, the bully project, and we have been bringing the film and educating, training professional development largely thriewr our partnership with them and provides that to school districts and classrooms across the country for free, so educators can sign up, and if they agree to do the training and to take it seriously and embed it with the kids and the adults in the community we provide them with oftentimes busing, but often free

samurai swords, a spear, a certificate in his name from the national rifle association, a book on asperger's disease. and excerpts of fbi interviews with an associate of lanza, somebody who knew him, describing him as an avid gamer, somebody who lived inside his home, rarely left the house and viewed sandy hook elementary school as his life. for nbc news, michael isikoff, danbury, connecticut. >> gun control groups in more than two dozen states are holding events as part of a national day to demand action. in san francisco, one group is rallying outside the office of senator dianne feinstein. they support her push to pass

you know your kid has asperger's and you have an arsenal in your house.ntion this item, but rick mentioned earlier, a holiday card with a check from her to him, made out to adam lanza for the purchase of a c-183 with a firearm. she couldn't give him enough guns. notwithstanding she knew he had asperger's. >> this is absolutely right. you know the fact that in a house in newtown we had a massive arsenal of just every kind of weapon for the expression of violence in the hands of a young man who was mentally ill and a mother who herself was troubled, as we know from several reports from the telegraph, from many other reports, that she had a kind of doomsday paranoid prepper mentality, it seems. we couldn't have more powerf powerful-- stronger more powerful evidence that the solution to this problem is one that must have to do with mental illness and must have to do with universal background checks in order to catch these people. >> and but you have a background check would have caught this? >> a small, but potent group that commits this and-- >> let me jump

a lot of people are diagnosed with aspergers.don't want to scare families but could there be any connection in your mind? >> let's put it this way asperger's syndrome is not associated with a high degree of violence no more than any other mental illness. there is a slight increase over the population average in mentally ill people committing violent crimes but not very much. but the point is about his particular variety of asperger's, it was rather extreme in the sense that not only did they have the typical preoccupation with one interest and in his case, these dangerous games and guns. alisyn: violent videogames, yeah. >> the violent videogames but, which is characteristic of asperger's and their social awkwardness, inability to empathize and figure out what people are feeling and make small talk and like that but his was extreme. as he was in the barber chair and barber would ask him hey, how are you doing, he couldn't say anything, the mother would talk for him. alisyn: on that same note, it was reported by his brother at the

he may have been suffering from asperger's or autism. they're not mental illnesses by the raw definition of that phrase. they probably wouldn't have prohibited him from lawfully buying firearms. so you're left with somebody who is able to readily and legally go and purchase whatever he likes in america, and this comes back to my biggest concern about this. what is the problem, really, ideologically even for the nra who has lots of members obviously who like guns, what is the problem in just reducing the freedom of people like adam lanza to buy assault rifles like an ar-15? >> well, the problem is that we're using terminology very loosely and we have to be very careful when we use terminology that we're even talking about the same thing at the same time. these guns are not assault weapons. let me share with you something, piers. my definition of an assault weapon that doesn't parse the english language and works every time. any loaded firearm pointed at me is an assault weapon. it's really of little value to go what caliber it is, how man

saying, oh, they don't let their kids play with the kid in school that has asperger's syndrome.the rate of violence among those that have the disease is extremely low, lower than the general population. with the case of atalanta, it was his awkwardness in the fact that he didn't fit in. that was related to his pressburger syndrome. but it's the result of his social anxiety and loneliness and isolation. generally asperger's is very am not angry type of disease and murderous. >> as you pointed out earlier, the average has not changed much over the last two years, but do you believe it could because of the media hype, giving celebrity or fame to these shooters, sort of negating actions by the government or other agencies? almost like it hasn't changed because some are going up and some are going down at the same time? >> i'm not sure that i quite get that. >> do you believe that more shootings are instigated that people want the fame that is generated by the shooters and that increases being negated by any kind of action and the reason that the shootings every year are not going do

samurai swords, a spear, a certificate in his name from the national rifle association, a book on asperger's disease. and excerpts of fbi interviews with an associate of lanza, somebody who knew him, describing him as an avid gamer, somebody who lived inside his home, rarely left the house and viewed sandy hook elementary school as his life. for nbc news, michael isikoff, danbury, connecticut. >> gun control groups in more than two dozen states are holding events as part of a national day to demand action. in san francisco, one group is rallying outside the office of senator dianne feinstein. they support her push to pass laws against gun violence. nbc bay area's christie smith joins us live in san francisco with a look at the rally. good morning, christie. >> reporter: good morning. they were up bright and early this morning outside of senator dianne feinstein's office. about a dozen of them carrying signs. they say this is part of a national day of action. one of the things they're calling for is for universal background checks on guns. this group is calling themselves organizing for actio

a book on living with asperger syndrome. and we now know that that the family safe - which was stuffed with guns -- was in lanza's bedroom. police say he shot his mother nancy in the head with a rifle. her body was found in a bedroom of the home. officers also found a holiday card written to adam from his mother. inside -- a check for the purchase of a new gun. since the shootings.vague portraits of the gunman and his mother have emerged.showing a young loner who spent hours in a darkened basement room playing violent video games. and a woman who had collected lots of weapons - including powerful handguns and a semi-automatic rifle that she and her son enjoyed shooting. still- there are no clear answers as to what motivated the massacre. lots of journals kept by lanza were also found. if they offer any new insights -- investigators aren't saying. also today -- there's been a nationwide push for tighter gun control. coming up at five thirty -- the emotional plea from the president. the among he said it if you are not going to

does this have to do with his aspergers? there were books in the house at autism. was he on the spectrum of -- autism. does it have anything or nothing to do with it. all anybody wants is make sure it doesn't happen again. his mother, giving him a check to buy more weapons? why? why? why? they don't live in alaska. they don't live in this rural area where they have bears in the backyard. >> a lot of people collect guns and wouldn't hurt a flea, but this matter of 150 rounds being found inside that school. from the time he went in there until the time he was dead was five minutes. how can we slow that down and. >> that weapon is a devastating. we it's state-of-the-art weaponry. it's made to cause death and destruction, and it did. the weapon functioned properly. unfortunately the person operating the weapon had evil intentions and succeeded. >> shepard: all those weapons illegal in state. >> in this state, yes. when our combat guys need the weapon, i'm glad that weapons exist. it's just who is hip the weapon. got to be trained, sane people who are operating that wea

it was often said this was a kid with asperger, autism.and autism don't do this kind of a thing. i will bet you nine out of ten that this was a kid locked up in a room just like your analyst is saying playing video games all day. although there is no clear connection with video games and violent acting out, certainly there a desensitivization. and saw it with 9/11. the hijackers used video games to simulate a flight like this. so i think there was training going on through the video games. but again will this was a guy who is very, very disturbed and this was probably a mother who was in denial and let these video games baby-sit her child. >> david, mike, thanks to you both. >>> for the first time in her very long political career, hillary clinton has come out in support of same-sex marriage. the former u.s. secretary of state, u.s. senator, had previously backed civil unions and partner benefits for same sex cup t sex couples. she said it's about equality. >> like so many others, my personal views have been shaped over time by people i ha

look at me, my with aspergers.is a question in terms of his mental state going into the shooting. nra guide to the basics of pistol shooting. another book found in the lanza family home. where do we go from here? what should happen next? >> this is not by any means the complete story or the findings of the investigation. in fact, prosecutors make clear twice in his statement that this is an active and ongoing criminal investigation and some material needs to be confidential and not releasing everything. the final report on the police findings into this case is not going to -- we are not going to see that until summer. there is a lot more to be learned about adam lanza and what was going on and his motivations were for the shooting. >> we appreciate your time. we know you have a lot of scouring to do. coming up, president obama preparing for a second dinner date with republicans. what will get the invitation? the blue grass battle that will not include ashley judd. our gaggle joins us here. our white house soup of t

samurai swords, a big on aspergers and certificate from the national rifle association. >> thank you. james holmes, the accused shooter in the aurora theater massacre, is now offering to plead guilty next change for life behind bars. holmes' lawyers want to avoid the death penalty. and jared loughner is the shooter who killed six people and wounded gabby giffords. his parents took away the shotguns and dabisabled his cart night so he couldn't leave. david, the white house has tried to use political capital to pass gun legislation. what are we expecting to hear from the president in the next hour? >> i think he's going to make the same statements as before and tie what happened in newtown to what he's trying to do and hammer home some of the main points, whether he may or may not get some of the biggest issues he's going for, like a ban on high-capacity magazines, a ban on assault weapons. it's not going to happen probably but he's going to push hard on background checks and make this a personal case again. with the family members. that's been his most powerful, you know, sort of point

you know, mental health experts say you can't really connect the asperger's issues that we believe he had to this kind of violent attack. so, where it stands, that's something we're all searching for and all waiting for and whether we'll get that in the final report in june, we still don't know. >> nbc mike isikoff, thank you. >> thank you, chris. >>> every friday we take a quick look at those 2016 tea leaves. now, not that much on that front this week with the exceptions of senator rand paul and marco rubio both threatening to filibuster president obama's gun control legislation. paul said he takes issue with the way the president has handled it. >> i think it's a mistake for either side to polit size this. but my message to the president is call me if any of your reforms would have saved those kids at sandy hook. >> of more immediate concern for lawmakers are the races coming up in 2014 with south dakota democratic senator tim johnson's earlier this week. that's five senate democrats leading the chamber. two republicans are also leaving. so, which party stands to gain the most in 20

a -- books about asperger's and was there anything there to give a sense of any better idea of a motive on his part? >> i think that's what's really missing and we don't see that from these documents. they found numerous journals, i think seven journals as well as drawings and other things you mentioned, his school records. now without knowing what the contents of those journals were, it's hard to know exactly what his motives were. and we did see that they mentioned a newspaper clipping of school shooting from 2008 at northern illinois university which -- and we've seen some similar reports like that which raises a copy cat factor but, again, we don't really get a sense of what his motive was. that's been one of the big challenge -- big mysterys of this story so so few people seem to know adam lanza, including former classmates. he seemed to be so isolated that really much about him remains a mystery. >> woodruff: and video games? we saw there was some more information about that? anything else about his mother? >> i think what we see about his mother is really the extent to which she

one friend said he had aspergers.s what marvin, who was a long time friend of adam's mother, said about adam. >> adam aspires to be like his uncle. >> really? >> yeah. he was in the military. and he was proprietary proud of that. she allowed him to believe that, yeah, you're going to be like your uncle. depending on how he turned out, sometimes people can overcome that with medication, counseling, whatever. they can and do. and i think maybe she was hoping for that. >> liza, as a parent, how do you know if your child is just struggling with issues that can be helped and treated or capable of committing a horrific crime? >> how do you ever know? i mean, this is why it's so hard for me as a mother to judge nancy lanza. i know meant plenty of people h judged me and plenty of people judged nancy. it's a hard question, erin. how would you know? i think whenever you're dealing with a child like michael, you have to do everything you can in terms of intervention, in terms of therapy, treatments, but at the same time, you kno

as you know, one of my daughters has asperger's syndrome and she's doing so well now and growing up and becoming so mature. i'm afraid to let her walk across the street to school by herself. i'm afraid to let my kids walk places. they do. i swallow my fear because i don't want them to grow up being fear-based. but this gun stuff has got to stop. it makes me want to move home to canada, don. >> ben? >> yeah, i mean, it is personal for me too. because i've unfortunately seen one of these young adolescents who went through the juvenile system and was arrested four different times as a juvenile, was in a gang and then put a gun to my head and shot at me from five feet away. they both went to prison. but they're both out on the streets now. and they're going to commit these crimes again. my problem is, why aren't we catching these people who are committing these crimes, who are using guns on the black market and yet we're not prosecuting them for long enough period of time and i think the issue here is this, we have to have laws in this country that people genuinely fear. and doing -- commit

there were books about autism and asperger's syndrome. underworld, to the world of privilege. >> everyone in michael jackson's life was out to use him. (vo) no one brings you more documentaries that are real, gripping, current. [ male announcer ] it's red lobster's lobsterfest our largest selection of lobster entrees like lobster lover's dream or new grilled lobster and lobster tacos. come in now and sea food differently. now, buy one lobsterfest entree and get one 1/2 off with a coupon at redlobster.com. . >> announcer: it's the "stephanie miller show"! ♪ i'm walking on sunshine it's time to feel good ♪ >> stephanie: six minutes after the hour 1-800-steph-1-2 the phone number toll free from anywhere. stephaniemiller.com check it out. you can email us all there, executive producer chris lavoie, voice deity jim ward, or me stephanie miller. eric writes steph after several days i have noticed something about my himalayan long hair cat. she prefers jacki over steph. when jacki is on, moon will sit up in her bed and look at the screen, when s