here to talk to us about possible solutions is john rosenthal, co-founder of stop handgun violence andooters association, an alternative to nra for moderate gun owners. thank you for joining us. >> thank you eliot. >> eliot: the frustration we've felt for years in response to gun violence. in the context of all that has happened, the lack of action, what is your agenda, and how do you plan to make it real. >> it's no different than it has been the better part of 20 years. i'm a gun owner. i'm a business person. i believe in the second amendment and the right to bear arms but the founders never extended that the second amendment extend to terrorists and criminals to buy guns without even a background check. toy guns and teddy bears have a multitude of regulations of how they're made and marketed. you need an i.d. to vote in many places. but in 33 states it's federal gun policy that you do not need an i.d. or background check to buy an unrestricted, unlimited number of guns. that is federal gun policy. it's left to the states and states do what they want. the only place where there is a

joining me, john rosenthal, chairman of stop handgun violence founded in 1995. the son of former attorney general robert f. kennedy with us and contributor michael smerkonish. talk about the silence of the nra here. you have a couple of article that is described this as the duck and cover noting that when we have seen past tragedies like this of mass killings that the nra will lay low and then fight legislation proposed. will that work this time around or will they be forced to come out and make a statement that goes beyond saying we are sorry for the loss of life in. >> you know, tamron, as i have expressed to you in the past i feel like i answer the telephone for a living. that's what i do 15 hours a week and i have therefore covered any number of these sort of instances in the last decade plus. this one is different than any i have talked to my audience about in the past. the depth of the feelings, the fact there were 20 first graders puts it on a new level. i might be proven incorrect but i think this time the memories longer than the nra hopes and coming fe

we also have on the phone john rosenthal. john has been with us all week. you and your organization have put up billboards urging action, urging people to call on their members of congress. john, what is your reaction to what we saw from nra today? >> this is consistent behavior and consistent response and absolute nonsense. it's also old news. there were two armed guards at columbine high school. the fbi was even out gunned at waco by david koresh with a tennessee made assault rifle that he blew up a tank with and killed police officers. all these weapons are readily available from private gun dealers without a background check in 33 states and thousands of gun shows. it's absolute insanity to arm and put in armed guards at every police station, at every school. then you have to do every mall. look law enforcement officers carry pistols with 13 rounds and congress has given criminals ability to buy assault weapons in 100 round clips without detection at gun shows and 33 states. the nra's response to make, you know, guns more accessible should make it very

let's bring in john rosenthal cofounder of stop handgun violence.e joined us last week in wake of the jayvon belcher tragedy. he's back to talk about what we can do to change the gun laws. thanks for joining us. >> my pleasure, eliot. >> eliot: when we talked last week, it was after the tragedy that we suffered through last week. we talked more theoretically about the need for gun laws, about how the second amendment really was not a bar and how you also are a gun owner but have smart, centrist, moderate ideas that could take us a along way toward getting guns off the streets. let's go sequentially through the ideas. where would you start? >> well, first of all we're a country of people and laws. we regulate wall street because people would go broke otherwise. we regulate healthcare because people would die otherwise. there is only one product in america not regulated not regulated on how it's made, marketed or sold and it's the real handgun. we regulate toy guns and teddy bears but there is no manufacturing and marketing standards for firearms beca

john rosenthal, thanks for coming on. i wish congress would listen to you. that's "viewpoint" for this week. have a grererererererererererererererererererererererererererererererererererererere [ ♪ theme ♪ ] >> bill: hey, hey, hello everybody. [ music ] o you all across this great land of ours from our radio studio and t.v. studio here on capitol here in washington, d.c. a new poll shows that the most unpopular senator in the entire country is republican leader mitch mcconnell. he's got only 37% favorable rating in his own home state of kentucky, but mcconnell says, that's not true. and he accuses, believe it or not. he accuses president obama of cooking the polls. what a lose her. he's in total denial. yeah. have you ever heard him speak? have you ever looked at him? no wonder he is so be popular. we will talk about that and mosh. first, standing by, lisa ferguson with today's news update. hi, lisa. >> hey, bill. good morning everyone. big news of the day, susan rice is choosing to withdraw her name for consideration of secretary of state. president obama w

rosenthal. joining us also, artist chuck close, jeff koons and john currin. >> i would think andy's cultural influences are also part of my cultural influences. think that i've always been in awe of his existentialism. of -- just this going from desharp of indifference to acceptance where it's so outward and at the same time we're dealing with the self. and the power of that existentialism. >> he kicked open the door-- along with alex katz and a couple of other people-- for an intelligent, forward-looking, modern portrait. most people who were working with imagery were trying to breathe new life into 19th century issues. and he came along and said "we're going to make this of an entirely different order." >> with someone of the statue of warhol, there's also a kind of oedipal path where even if you move away from him you will end up meeting him and sort of finding that you do live in his world. >> rose: also this evening, a rebroad cast of our conversation with damian hirst. >> i think without andy warhol i wouldn't have gone so gung-ho. but people say "oh, my god, you've got factory." and you think f

rosenthal and marla prather. also are three of the artists featured in the show: jeff koons john currin and my good friend chuck close. i'm pleased to have all of them here at this table. let me start with you, mark. somebody once said to me great books begin with a question. do great exhibitions begin with a question? >> well, that's what i hope. the question here is, is andy warhol the most impactful artist? >> rose: impactful rather than important? >> i prefer that. i prefer that because i think of his effect being like a meteor hitting the earth and changing climactic conditions, changing river beds, changing ways of working and so influential is to too hard away to put it. if the topography changed in the art world because of andy warhol and you as an artist came along five years later or 15 years later and started working in one of the multitude of ways an artist might work, you may not be thinking well, did this start with say cezanne or pollock or warhol? you're just working amongst the menus of ways that artist work. >> rose: how did you approach this? >> well, i think influences is a good word actually and