let me ask you at columbine so much has changed since and because of columbine.law enforcement person you talk to will say that after it was studied what happened. police tactics changed. you don't just create a perimeter and wait for swat. you have to go in immediately. most deaths are in the first several minutes. it's not a hostage situation. which is what it traditionally had thought to be pre-columbine. do you see changes in how these are handled? >> most definitely. what you just touched upon is so true. there was a school resource officer that day exchanging gunfire. the protocol was secure the perimeter. and wait for swat to arrive. unfortunately i know i was there, i got out of the building within 30 minutes of gunshots being fired. and these police officers were ready to break protocol to go in. because they knew this was happening. they had to wait for swat to arrive. and i truly believe that if protocol that we have in place today what you're seeing happening up in boulder. they are engaging. single officers engage. the fatality rate would not have be

frank, at columbine, so much has changed since columbine and because of columbine.very law enforcement person you talk to will say police tactics changed. they now know you don't wait for a perimeter and wait for s.w.a.t. to show up. you have to go in immediately. most of the fatalities take place in the first several minutes. it's not a hostage situation, which is what it was thought of precolumbine. do you see changes in how these are handled? >> most definitely. what you just touched upon, anderson, is so true. there was a school resource officer that day exchanging gunfire, but the protocol at the time was to secure the perimeter and waiting for s.w.a.t. to arrive. and unfortunately i know i was there i got out of the building within 30 minute of gunshots being fired, and these police officers were ready to break protocol to go in because they had to wait for s.w.a.t. to arrive. i truly believe if the protocol we have today, single officers are engaging, the fatality rate at columbine would not have been what it was. there have been so many lessons learned from

and then, columbine changed because these two killers in columbine just wanted to kill everybody. that was the change. and so, we, when we responded the old way in law enforcement to wait outside for swat as you and frank discussed, which you are totally correct. we had to have a change and that was the response to active shooter. and the way that everyone was trained post columbine, a few patrol officers get there, you try to team up in a squad of three, you get your vest, your long guns and try to penetrate. we don't know in the boulder officer was killed in the parking lot, brian, he very well may have been killed just getting out of his vehicle or in his vehicle. we don't know how he was. we know the shooter was in the parking lot. he could have been killed early there had or he could have went in to the supermarket trying to save lives and indeed may have saved many lives going in just engaging the gunman and could have kept him occupied while citizens were able to run to safety out the back. i think we will hear the things in the days ahead, what a hero he was and also, swat

i grew up on south columbine way.ut my own high school had a shooting a few years ago. i used to work at king soopers as a teenager, not that one, but another one. i have so many connections to so many points in colorado where we have had mass shootings. i am not alone. i think so many americans can say i went to that school or i grew up down the street from that mall or office building. we have so many touch points across the country now for mass murders, it is resonating and hurtful. i used to work at kusatv, our affiliate in denver. yesterday i heard somebody say we have gotten used to this as a country. young people expect this. what a sad commentary as a country, and as a generation, that these are expected and routine. it's horrifying that this country has one of the highest murder rates in the world, one of the highest mass murder rates in the world. mental disease or illness is not unique to america. it happens in every country in the world. what is different is we have a proliferation of guns, more guns than

you mentioned columbine high school. i was 14 years old when that massacre at columbine high occurred. to think of the ensuing 21 years and the reality, the federal government has done virtually nothing to address the pervasive gun violence across our country that hit our home community just last night, it's difficult to fathom. and we can't at the end of the day accept failure and inaction as an option. i think we have to press forward and i'm certainly going to press forward with my colleagues to make sure we pass common sense gun violence reform. the time has come. i think we have to say as american people that enough is enough and we will not accept inaction. >> you by this tragedy, will now become one of the informal caucus in congress, and there are many members of that caucus where your district has been marred by an act of national significance, a mass murder, a mass -- act of mass gun violence in your district. when these things happen in the future, you will be called on to speak as the representative of a comm

columbine is still feeling the effects, and if you trace back the story of columbine survivors, the people who survived the attack, those are tragic stories, too. everyone who was in that parking lot, in that shopping center was traumatized, and the people who are traumatized at columbine and aurora are retraumatized based on what happened yesterday. that's how trauma works. it reverberates. we're hurting in colorado and part of what we need to do and are doing is being there for one another and then we dedicate ourselves how do we do our best to avoid the tragedies in the future? >> the rest of the country is hurting for colorado as well. it could have been any one of us just going to the grocery store to get milk or bread or whatever and then this happens. thanks for joining us. >>> next hour, we'll be joined by colorado governor jarred pulis. let's get more on this with former colorado police chief dan oates and former new jersey attorney general mel graham and cedric alexander, and thank you all for coming on. what do you make of what we just heard from the colorado attorney general on

how the father of one son killed in columbine is fighting for change. >> i would like to see assault weapons banned, put back in place. >>> plus celebrating joy with since 82 erivo. channeling the q oenue fifnding herself along the way. >> i love a lot of what it is to tell stories through songs, watching aretha, aretha. >> "nightline" will be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ so you're my fairy godmayo? yes, i wield the power of best foods to magically transform any food into creamy, dreamy works of art. boe?.op this is a mayo knife. ♪ ♪ >>> good evening. thank you for joining us. tonight, the horror unfolding a colorado. ma g ng auding one police offiemr.cei the victims and reflecting on its dark history with mass shootings. ilca.he w'sbc a's >> i just snedta between shots and listening to see what direction he was heading. >> reporter: for sarah a normal 21-y-ear-oldgrocery with her >> active shooter, get away! terrifying day that will haunt her forever. >> once we got outside, i m and ,there were peostthn ie. we can't do anything, they're . so we ran. >> someing just hap guys. >> reporter: the m

talked about columbine.ee years what happened in broward county, florida at marjory stoneman douglas high school. after that event a lot of people about why people who were involved in law enforcement and security did not move into the high school faster. 17 people dead in that event three years ago. i think the debate, jake, to cut to the chase, has to be not whether the law enforcement officer did the wrong thing by moving in so quickly but whether he sacrificed his life to save people. that is so american. i love it. >> definitely a hero. abby, president obama said a once in a century pandemic cannot be the only thing that slows mass shootings in the country. that's true. last year we haven't covered many of these because so many people were cooped inside. let me ask phil this question. what does law enforcement want to be able to help them to deal with this? i remember -- i'm old enough to remember in the '90s when biden was pushing all that legislation with bill clinton, president clinton, law enforceme

since the columbine shooting in 1999 you mentioned columbine, aurora, stem high school, there was the ned parenthood. there were others, too. why? why does this seem to happen in colorado? >> i don't have the answer to that. i don't think anybody does. my heart is broken. we have a lot of anguish in our community. i just don't know what's going on. you know, what i do know is there are things we can do. i do know that there is action that we can take to try to make our community safer, to make it better for our kids, to try to take some action to stop this, not just in colorado but nationally that would work. you know, listen, i'm somebody who grew up, a gun owner and a hunter. you know, i grew up started -- i was hunting since i was 12. i'm a gun owner now. i used to be an army ranger. i led 100 combat missions in iraq and afghanistan. but i learned when i was in the army and i learned when i was a hunter that, you know, your rights have responsibilities. that there are duties to citizenship. there are duties to being a neighbor and a productive member of society. and we're failing i

director mccabe, you were saying, you know, how this really did change after columbine with columbine they basically roped off and tried to secure the area, which was the protocol at the time waiting for the swat teams to assemble in -- and i guess that's based on the notion that things used to be hostage situations and that's less so now it's more of these active shooter situations. >> that's right, anderson. it's -- the thought is that people are likely to die as chief ramsey said very quickly while that shooter is still moving around. classic police training was you get to the scene of a crime and you see that there is something really out of the ordinary going on there are shots fired. you hold and take a position of cover and call for backup and these active shooter er situati have blown that up. now police officers are trained when they respond to a situation if it's a shooting no process. they have to get inside and save lives before and stop the carnage before death takes police. it's something police officers around the country train for every day. the fbi tries to provide th

he was born the same week at the columbine high school massacre in 1999. when columbine happened, it felt like the world stopped and it would never start up the same way again. 13 people killed there in 1999. again it felt like the biggest news we'd know for a decade, right. but the country would continue to have mass shootings at actually an accelerating pace. in 2012 just before the sandy hook massacre, it was aurora, colorado, a massacre in a movie theater that left people shot and killed. actually, the colorado experience shows that the joe manchin don't actually do anything plan is not the only option. and when we hear from senators like joe manchin that we can do nothing else, we have to put it in his hands, despite all the ways he's failed in the past, you can look at a state like colorado and say there are other options we could try. the governor of colorado was a moderate man, john hickenlooper. he came to believe that some common sense popular gun reforms were not only necessary, they were possible. he announced his support. he announced it in de

in 1999, there was a massacre at columbine high school. in 2012, a dozen people died in an attack on a movie theater in aurora. and in 2019, one student died in a shooting at a school in highlands ranch. it also comes a week after the attacks in atlanta that left 8 people dead. and it has prompted renewed calls for gun reform. in washington, the white house paid tribute by lowering flags to half staff. and president biden addressed the shooting. president biden: jill and i are devastated and feeling -- i just can't imagine how the families are feeling. the victims whose futures were stolen from them, from their families, from their loved ones. we can ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines in this country, once again. this is not and should not ba partisan issue. this is an american issue. it will save lives, american lives. and we have to act. >> thoughts and prayers are not enough. yamiche: on capitol hill, the gun control debate played out in a senate judiciary hearing on gun violence. >> there maybe some question about what the

madam speaker, there was a columbine task force and i was on it. we thought it was going to be the beginning and an end and never have an opportunity to see that again but it did occur over and over again. so i'm very grateful that h.r. 8 is four corners ready to go, and h.r. 1446 will say you can pray in your church and you should not have the violence of a killer like dylann roof come because the background check was not done. this is an important statement. let us celebrate a vote in the house today and, yes, a vote in the senate, and a signature by the president of the united states. mr. thompson: thank you all very much. are there any questions? reporter: [indiscernible] how are you planning, or i guess it's more for the senator, to overcome the filibuster? mr. thompson: you heard what senator schumer said. they'll take it up. it will have its day. if the republicans do -- can you imagine the republicans standing in opposition to 90% of the american people? but if they do, as senator schumer said, there's other options that they will -- that t

the journals of erik harris, the mass murderers who killed 13 people at columbine high school in 1999. he have ten diaries of joseph goebel's, that is available on e-bay. dr. seuss fans may be getting the last laugh. dr. seuss books are one of the top selling books. dr. seuss's company said it would stop the publication of these books. they picked them out after talking for months with academics and others. a lot of people are asking why, why, why? back to you. >> dana: thank you so much, gerri willis. >> bill: governor cuomo firing

first you had columbine. then aurora. now you have boulder. and a lot of questions about what happened, why did the shooter go into this grocery store and start shooting people, seemingly at random. at this point, police have not disclosed the name of the suspect. they have not provided any operating theories as to why he went into that grocery store and started shooting at people. we do know that, of course, you had all those folks inside the grocery store running for cover. some running towards the back of the store. some jumping off of loading docks to get to safety. others going to the second floor of the building trying to hide in a coat closet before they got the all clear. authorities have scheduled a news conference happening next hour where we hope to learn new information about the suspect and the victims. ten victims in all, poppy. >> dan simon, thank you for being there. let me bring in anna hanes. she was looking out of her window when she saw a man shoot someone on a ramp into the grocery store. she's also the editor in chief of

columbine and aurora. colorado springs. beyond what any state should endure. and yet no one should look at what happens here and say nothing is wrong and washington should not act. no one can say that. it is clear our nation has a serious problem, a gun violence problem. we cannot just retreat into corners. we have to put politics aside, figure out how to find common ground to keep dangerous weapons from falling into the wrong hands. i know colorado has tried and failed and failed and failed to act on gun violence legislation so many times. as the attorney general said, colorado did act before. we did have the courage. i think the senate is going to be able to do that, too. i have gratitude for the work that has happened already for people like michael bennet, senator bennett, universal background checks, i think we will get there. it is going to be a heavy lift. it should not be a heavy lift. i think we will eventually get back to an assault weapons ban, closing the charleston loophole, the red flag laws. common sense steps will change lives. they have broad

columbine, aurora and now boulder, colorado has seen at least six mass shootings in the past 25 yearscity of boulder tried to ban some forms of semi-automatic firearms such as the one used in the grocery market shooting but a judge blocked those efforts less than two weeks ago. so now with ten more lives taken cnn's tom foreman takes a look at colorado's dark past with guns and what happens next in a state all too familiar with tragedy. >> reporter: the columbine high school attack more than two decades ago was a shock to the entire country. the murders of 12 students and one teacher -- >> they just started coming in the library and opening fire and shooting off bombs, people were getting shot all around me. >> reporter: the desperate flight, the confusion even after the two teenage gunmen killed themselves. for hours after the shooting began police were picking their way through the building. >> reporter: it all seemed more than any one state could bear, then columbine echoed through the nation with mass shooters in some places calling it an inspiration, grieving families and others

columbine was really the first. and there were screams and cries of never again and that was how it was supposed to happen and that's how it was supposed to be. here we are 20 years later and this continues to happen. >> we are two years later and it's happened again. here's an astonishing statistic. since just the start of 2019, when we had that interview, according to the gun violence archive, there have been more than 1,100 mass shootings. meaning 4 or more people shot at once. something is horribly wrong. joining us again is zach cartaya and kaylen, a survivor from the aurora shooting. it's nice to see you, but i'm sorry we have to see you again. it's just this horrible death cycle that we seem to be in, and i know that folks like you spend so much time trying to figure out how we get out of this. so zach, let's start there. i mean, you know, you talked two years ago about what needed to happen and now when you heard about what happened again in boulder, what were your thoughts? >> yeah, good morning, alisyn. th

. >> in your statement you noted how you were a young student when columbine happened from your high school. your niece, a kindergartner, needed to lock down. what do we need to do as a country and especially our lawmakers need to do to get a handle on these situations? >> i don't think there's any question, don. there's a lot we don't know about the events of today. but one thing is very clear. these tragic incidents of gun violence have plagued our country for far too long. you mentioned the tragedies, the mass shootings in colorado, columbine and aurora, the shooting in highland ranch where i grew up. a lot of people believe enough is enough and it is time for the congress to do something with gun violence in our country. too many lives have been lost. there are a lot of americans that feel the same frustration i do tonight. that americans should be able to feel safe in their grocery stores, in their schools and movie theaters. what congress did with meaningful give up violence reform, americans are losing their lives. it is time to act. and i'm certainly going to continue to push

the story of the people who survived the columbine massacre is a painful one. the aftermath also of those who survived, because all of us are touched, affected, paint by gun violence. my daughter asked me, how many mass shootings have we had in the united states this year so far? she said 100, it is actually 107. we have a problem. no other nation faces the public health challenge on the scale we do and what congressman negus put as a federal agenda, i would add another point. research into the causes of gun violence and what best addresses mass shootings and the deaths we have seen again and again. in colorado we have been dedicated to doing this work together in a thoughtful, consistent way. if you go back to columbine, one of the lessons was people knew these killers were going to go in and do a mass shooting, but no one knew where to go. after the aurora shooting, we had leadership from then-governor hickenlooper and so many others to pass a background check law, pass a magazine capacity band. -- capacity ban. we defended those in court. most recently, red

and between columbine and aurora, really significant mass shootings. and officers will be prepared for this occurrence to happen. they are thinking about life safety, and stop the threat. there will be information as you know, quite confusing on these types of calls, where there is one shooter, and at least one person shooting, and victims that would be -- should have been just a routine day at a shopping center. but unfortunately, it was not. we know how tragically, it has ended with a number of people dead, including one of our officers. >> of course, you come from a city and department that was engulfed in a debate over civil liberties, the right to protest. how much is too police power push back. the next guest after you made this point in the next hour, if you're going to argue defund the police, which the political guests have called maybe the most toxic phrase ever announced. but if you're going to argue that, that means you can't have the robust response we saw today. we will never know if that response kept a death toll from going to 20 from 1

his district includes aurora and columbine.i'm sorry for everything that your community, everyone is dealing with. thank you so much for appearing, a? >> thanks, don. >> thank you. you serve in the iraq. you served in afghanistan. when you hear that the suspect was armed with an ar-15-style firearm, does anyone need a gun like that outside of a war zone? >> well, the answer is unequivocally no. i have had a long relationship with firearms throughout my wife. i grew up around guns. a hunting family. i actually started hunting when i was 12. i'm a gun owner today. i became an army ranger, served in iraq and afghanistan, over 100 combat missions, and i've used weapons of war at war, i have had them used against me. i've seen firearms in their various it ration. as a sportsman, an army ranger, as a soldier. these guns, these military-style assault rifles are designed to do one thing -- kill a lot of people quickly. i didn't use a vault rifle to deer hunt, and when i was in iraq and afghanistan i certainly didn't carry a deer huntin

since columbine the training for officers and what we call rapid response to get to an incident like this for an active shooter or shooters in a facility or building or as in this case even outside, there is the need for officers to act immediately to stop the threat. that said, there is training that goes with that and picking the lead officer, getting information and intel about a description. we don't just go in there without any information whatsoever. try to get high ground, try to determine where the shots are coming from, try to take tactical cover. all those things are occurring as well. there is training that goes along with this. but as you've noted, it is inherently inherently risky. >> on the worst days it's grisly business. on the best days it's rewarding for the officers. this was not a good day in boulder, colorado. our thanks to former chief carmen best of seattle pd. thank you very much for taking our questions tonight. more of our special broadcast of this tragedy in boulder, colorado right after this break. . see every delivery... every yikes... and even every awww

we had the aurora theatre shooting, then of course the columbine shooting maybe 20 years ago.other one to add to that tragic list of shootings here in colorado. just recently i think a ruling on the carrying of assault rifles in boulder itself. that is a ruling that i don't know too much about at this moment but that is a debate going on here in this country about assault weapons. we don't know the details of what led to the shooting here today, but that's certainly going to be a debate moving forward here in colorado and across the country. save the children says that children caught up in the yemen conflict are dying in their thousands because of food shortages. but efforts to end the world's largest humanitarian crisis may be one step closer as houthis there cautiously welcome a saudi—backed peace proposal aimed at ending nearly six years of war. the proposal includes reopening vital air and sea links, a comprehensive ceasefire under un supervision, and the start of political negotiations. mark lobel reports. the key port of houdada, under houthi control, but they complain

we had the aurora theatre shooting, then of course the columbine shooting maybe 20 years ago.dd to that tragic list of shootings here in colorado. just recently i think a ruling on the carrying of assault rifles in boulder itself. that is a ruling _ rifles in boulder itself. that is a ruling that _ rifles in boulder itself. that is a ruling that i _ rifles in boulder itself. that is a ruling that i don't - rifles in boulder itself. that is a ruling that i don't knowj is a ruling that i don't know too much about at this moment but that is a debate going on here in this country about assault weapons. we don't know the details of what led to the shooting here today, but that's certainly going to be a debate moving forward here in colorado and across the country. it is probably — and across the country. it is probably obvious _ and across the country. it is probably obvious but - and across the country. it is probably obvious but we should make it clear, we saw the video earlier of a middle—aged man being taken away in handcuffs, with no shirt, with shorts on, limping with a wound

you represent the district that includes columbine high school. you have been through all the mass murders in colorado in the last 20 years. >> so it's degette, lawrence, but good to be with you. and i'm particularly honored to be with my cherished friend tom sullivan, who i think is an american hero. every time something like this happens, you're right. columbine was my district, and i was in congress when it happened. and every time it happened -- and colorado has had a disproportionate amount of it. every time it happens, tom sullivan and hundred of others in colorado are retraumatized. it's just a tragedy that happens over and over. >> and representative sullivan, the killing of your son is what moved you in politics, isn't it? >> yeah, i had no aspirations to do this. but when that happened, and i went to washington, i testified, i tried to talk to people. they weren't taking my calls. they weren't doing things that i thought needed to happen. it became very apparent to me that i needed to get on the inside. i needed to be a part of that, tha

cheese which happened before aurora and after columbine. they have a slew of this disease happening in colorado, but as william hurd said earlier, we have mass shootings in slow motion every day in this country in other neighborhoods that never get the press, that never get the opportunity to speak out about what's happening in their communities. and we need to change that. this is not an issue of mental health. we have mental -- the same amount of mentally ill in every country. it doesn't vary much. and the difference in america is that we have the easy access to guns. and we have to stop that. we have to make it more difficult for people that are going to own guns to be responsible gun owners and define what responsible gun ownership is. >> yeah. and sandy, last month, before these two recent mass shootings, you tweeted a message to president biden, and i just want to read it because you were ahead of this. you saw something on the horizon because i guess it's always on the horizon. here's what you said to president biden. we know that yo

columbine, aurora in 2012. talk to us a little bit about the resilience of folks in the area and more about the community where you're standing. >> reporter: good morning to you, craig. that is something i can definitely speak to about how resilient this community is as well as the state of colorado. you talked about columbine. you talked about the aurora theater shooting. i've lived in colorado for about 4 1/2 years. as a journalist i've covered mass shootings myself. we had the walmart shooting that happened in 2017, the s.t.e.m. school shooting that happened within the last couple of years, and now this one that just happened on monday. and this is something that the community is going to be dealing with, that the state is going to be dealing with, and even though we just went through all of these shootings this state and community members have witnessed before, it doesn't make it any easier. it is all still a fresh wound every time something like this happens. but, like you said this is a community this is

what happened in columbine shocked america, maybe we don't remember, right before the turn of the century, 2000. in that case a friend of the boys that killed all of those students went to a gun show and bought a carbine and two shotguns. i'll never forget it. madam speaker, there was a task force and we thought this would be the beginning and end and never have the opportunity to see that again, but it did occur over and over again. so i'm very grateful that hr-8 is four corners ready to go and hr-1446 will say that you can pray in your church and you should not have the violence of a killer like dylann roof come because the background check was not done. this is an important statement. let us celebrate a vote in the house today and, yes, a vote in the senate and a signature by the president of the united states. >> thank you all very much. are there any questions? >> how are you planning on getting senators to overcome the filibuster, the vote you heard what senator schumer said. they're going to take it up and have it today. if the republicans do-- can you imagine the republicans stand

and i just started praying. >> reporter: unlike the columbine shooters, the killer is captured and sente shotgun, 40-caliber glock handgun. >> reporter: 2015, colorado springs. a man with an assault-style rifle starts shooting near a planned parenthood clinic. three people, including a police officer, are killed. nine more wounded. courts find the suspect mentally unfit for trial. he remains in custody. 2017, highlands ranch. another denver suburb. a gunman barricades himself in an apartment and fires more than 100 rifle rounds. one officer is killed responding, four more and two civilians are wounded before the gunman is shot dead. 2019, again, highlands ranch. authorities say a pair of armed students walk into school and one pulls his gun in class, killing kendrick castillo, who tried to stop him. others are injured. police capture the suspects. one confessed and is in prison, the other pled not guilty and awaits trial. boulder, where in the last few weeks a judge struck down a local ban on assault weapons. boulder joins that sad list of colorado towns asking, how could it happen here

and colorado alone, mass shootings so horrific they're known by one name, columbine,

. >> it is part of our legacy back to columbine. i was a pallbearer for one of the victims of columbine. this is a sad and dark reality of our state. >> reporter: as the memorial continues to grow we are learning more about the 10 people who were killed. 51 and had worked at the grocery store for decades. jody waters, a mother of two, a grandmother. danny, 20 years old, worked overnight but had to come back to do some shopping at the time of the shooting. eric talley, a police officer first on the scene who headed toward the danger only to be killed trying to help others. the chief of police in boulder having a hard time facing the reality that she lost one of her best. >> i live three blocks up the street from the store. you are worried about your neighbors, your partners, everything when you get that call. i feel numb. it is heartbreaking. >> reporter: the man accused of carrying out the deadly mass shooting, ahmad alyssa faces 10 counts of first-degree murder. a police affidavit says he bought a gun last week. according to the ne

colorado have had to come together to commemorate the lives that have been lost during the shooting columbine they were a cinema these are all familiar names and the big question is how many more times well the people of color have to do this we're just deeply saddened by gun violence and needs to stop and it needs to stop and. i can't take it anymore i'm tired of people dying for no reason it's just sad their lives cut short for for what. you're watching to be news here's a reminder of our top story this hour. operators have failed in their latest bid to refloat the massive cargo ship stuck in the suez canal experts say dislodging the ship could take weeks or blockages forcing many vessels to reroute across around africa. don't forget you can always get the news on the go just down the order app from google play or from the app store it'll give you access to all the latest news from around the world. you can also find us online at d w dot com you're watching it every news live from berlin i'm already said thanks for joining us. more than a 1000 years ago europe witnesses a huge construction

in columbine, aurora, you name it. after all of these horrific events, our legislatures get in the room and they say exactly what they just said. you could have taken tape, joe, from -- after columbine, after aurora, any of these events. just play it. put it on a loop. >> yeah. >> it's true. it's true. >> by the way, you bring up the columbine, aurora, boulder, colorado has been through so much through the years. >> yes. >> with these mass shootings. but we also showed a picture of senator blumenthal. he's the senator who represents newtown. we showed a picture of senator durbin. he's the senator who represents the city of chicago. there's so much, there's so much killing from guns. and there is, there is, if people of good faith on both sides decide they want to work together, and i've seen absolutely no evidence of that. especially from people on the far right. but, if people of good faith decide to work together, there's a way to get an expanded background check in place that makes sure that people who buy guns can

in the state of colorado, after columbine, we closed the gun show loophole. we have universal background checks, two pieces of legislation that is making its way through the chambers, which is gun safe storage. also how to report a stolen gun. we are still working on things, but i think at some point we need to ban assault weapons. >> that seems logical. rhonda fields, brandon wolfe, i wish we had more times. thank for you being here. >>> josh shapiro, you're trying -- the state of pennsylvania is trying to do something to get rid of these ghost guns, that you put together afterwards, so you can get around the loopholes. is this still going to come do you think to the state doing all the work here on gun reform? >> look, i'm hopeful that the biden administration will take action. they have said they want to. i take them at their word, but we're not waiting on washington. there are some common-sense things we can do now that will save lives in our states. you mentioned ghost gun. i brought one with me. this is a ghost gun. you can go and buy a ghost gun at a g

since the columbine massacre in 1999 there have been at least 114 mass shootings, 1,300 victims. former president obama wrote we should be able to live our lives without wondering if the next trip outside of our homes could be our last. we should but in america we can't. >> that reporting from earlier today. with that let's bring in the leadoff guest. senior washington correspondent for the "washington post." a white house correspondent for good evening to you all. chief, what do you make of what is known thus far about this gunman? >> it is not a surprising story here. what we are hearing as information comes forward about the mental health of the lone gunman, clearly there is a pattern here of people that have mental health issues who are able to obtain guns and use them in a vicious and horrible way and take the lives of people so sadly and unnecessarily. i think that at this time we will hear a lot of discussion as we have heard in previous incidents like this about gun control and about how we need to take action. and we do need to come together and take action. if law enfor

so columbine in 1999, there have been 113 mass shootings, 1300 victims. president obama wrote, we should be able to live our lives without wondering if the next trip outside our home could be our last, in america, we can't. >> tom costello with that earlier today. let's bring in our lead off guests, phil rucker, from the washington post. courtney from usa today, and carmen best, former police chief for seattle. she is among our law enforcement analysts. good evening to you all. and chief, i will begin with you. what do you make of what is known thus far about this gunman? >> well, it's not a surprising story here. what we're hearing about the information coming forward about the mental health of the lone gunman. clearly there is a pattern here of people who have issues, mental health issues, who are able to obtain guns and then use them in this vicious and horrible way and take the lives of people so sadly and unnecessarily. i think in this time, we will hear a lot of discussion as we have heard in previous incidents like this. about gun control, about ho

you know, after columbine back in 1999, police training changed dramatically. there was a time when you'd get to the scene of an active shooter, contain it, wait for the swat team to arrive. no longer. you have to go in and you have to stop the threat right away. so officers when they respond, even though they aren't swat off officers, they are first on the scene, they will go in. if he pulled up, he probably heard shots being fired and he did what he was trained to do, he went in. unfortunately, it cost him his life. but the courage, the bravery of him and others is something that there just are no real words to really describe it. but now his family is left with a hole that can never be filled. i mean, seven kids, that's a tragedy and it's a tragedy for each and every one of these victims. >> exactly. chief ramsey, laura coates, thank you both. >> thank you. >>> just ahead, is president biden confident that he can push congress to pass new gun control legislation? we'll tell you what he's saying tonight. and we'll talk to the senior advise or to the president

. >> columbine. >> columbine. that's correct. being a psychologist at that time in upstate new york, and the number of people i saw who were just frightened and traumatized who were 2,000 miles away. and then over the course of the last 20 years, we've seen too many of these events. we continue to see them. we continue to see inaction from our leaders in terms of trying to really trying to find some resolution around this whole gun issue in this country. and it is very complicated. it is very could not vol another. one thing is certain, nothing has changed even in this environment. we're still seeing these acts of this violence being carried out in the same way we have in months and years past. so the question becomes for the american people, when are we going to get serious enough to really take a real look at this and put politics aside, if possible, and put party affiliations aside if possible, because that is still very much a real threat in this country to our democracy, our republic, to our safety. just think about it. ever

. >> columbine school, parkland, the list goes on and on even before this most recent round of shootings. what can't federal government, i'm talking about congress which you're a part of, the white house or the courts do to prevent this from happening again. >> there are a number of bills that have already passed the house that start to deal with the loophole. the first is the hr8 which says we have a law on the books that says you can't buy a gun if you're a felon or domestic violence offense. that law was passed many years ago. since then more and more sales take place at gun shows, online, person to person. all that does is close that loophole. yet, we can't seem to get traction. the other is called the charleston loophole. that's where the young man was able to buy a gun even though he wouldn't be able to buy a gun. there was a law put in there by the nra that says you have to turn over the gun in three days if you can't determine that the person had the gun. this provides ten days to gift fbi the ability to determine whether or not the individual is a felon or mentally ill or has a

the nra organized a rally in 1999 in denver after the columbine shooting.012 sandy hook massacre in connecticut, the nra called for schools to arm themselves. this comes as the nra is now actually in a deeply weakened state. it filed for bankruptcy last year after new york state attorney general letitia james sued them for fraud, saying the nra's chief executive officer, wayne lapierre, and other top officials broke state and federal laws to enrich themselves and their families. laerre and the nra were major supporters of president trump. now president biden is calling on congress to pass new gun restrictions. in fact, calling on congress to pass an assault weapons ban. for more on the role of the nra and how we got here and what could happen next, we are joined by longtime investigative journalist frank smyth, author of the book "the nra: the unauthorized history." former arms-trafficking investigator for human rights watch and has reported on the group for decades. welcome back to democracy now! frank, it is great to have you with us again. give us a hist

when columbine occurred, that was not the kind of training officers were getting. we learned you can't afford to wait for special forces to arrive. they will make entry and try to locate the shooter and neutralize the threat. that's what they're trained to do. in the meantime, you have other units, surrounding jurisdictions, state, maybe federal coming in to provide support and assistance. those are the kinds of things that departments train for now. >> i want to read what we're getting in from an eyewitness who was there inside this grocery store today in boulder, colorado. the eyewitness told a reporter that they heard one loud bang, thought somebody just dropped something, an employee or something, and then another. then by the third one, everybody was running. this eyewitness also went onto say, and i'm quoting, we went out the cargo bay and jumped underneath the loading truck that was there and ran up the back like hell. and then he went onto say that the grocery store was decently crowded, thankfully not too crowded. you hear that, chief ramsey, that they hea

the list of places and names goes on and on since the columbine massacre in 1999 there have been at least 114 mass shootings, 1,300 victims. today former president obama wrote, we should be able to live our lives without wondering if the next trip outside our home could be our last. we should, but in america, we can't. while hate and mental problems occur in every country, america is unique with more guns than there are people >> the effort has always been through american history to protect everyone's rights under the constitution, but at the same time we all have the right to public safety. >> reporter: the country has suffered through so many mass murders, many americans now feel a personal connection to one or even more the same hometowns, the same school, the same grocery store, the same bar or concert. just as the country begins to emerge from the covid darkness, the question many are asking tonight, is america's new normal just the old normal once again tom costello, nbc news >>> just breaking tonight, north korea testing the biden administration by firing two short-range missiles