kasim reed, it's great to have you with us today.he atlantic city council recently passed a resolution in support of marriage equality. did that come out and force your hand to support marriage equality? >> no, not at all, i've been a longstanding member of equality for lbgt. i voted against the ban on gay marriage. i was quite comfortable with civil unions and just went through my own process along with close friends of mine, one of whom has been in a 30-year relationship. is married. a friend of mine who has been a friend for more than 14 years. and the resolution really giev me the opportunity to focus on the issue and think about it. and there is a difference that is meaningful between civil unions and marriage. and that's why i made the decision that i did. but i'm not new to supporting lbgt rights and interest. >> city council alex vaughan sent me a personal statement. he is the city councilman who passed the resolution. he said, both the city council and mayor take a bold statement on this issue. as an african-american man and

that's still looming and as they call for armed guards in all of the nation's schools we'll talk to kasim reed, mayor of atlanta and one of the people around the country who say we need fewer gun, not more. >>> as millions travel home for the holidays, stay tuned for that. good day. i'm richard lui at the top of the hour and just two days to go before the fiscal deadline and congress has gone home for the holidays. >> in the next few days i've asked leaders of congress to work toward a package that prevents a tax hike on middle-class americans and that's an achievable goal that can get done in ten days. >> i don't want tax rates to go up and republicans don't want tax rates to go up. the best way to address our crippling debt is to make significant spending cuts and fix our tax code, to pave the way for long-term growth and opportunity. >>> nbc's kristin welker is traveling with the president in hawaii and kristin, the president you are just learning he thinks some time off could do everyone some good here. >> that's right. on friday when president obama spoke to the nation before he left to c

fellow mayors, mayors like mayor bloomberg and mayor emanuel in chicago or mayor blake in baltimore, kasim reed in atlanta. all of us deal with an daily onslaught of violence. this is what this is about. it's about violence. >> but, mayor, what can we -- what more can we do? specifically, what do we need to be doing that we are not doing right now? >> there are a number of things that we can do. there is no reason, none, zero, for any civilian to have an assault weapon or an assault rifle or an assault-type weapon with huge clips. news reports seem to indicate that at least one of the weapons may have been a handgun with 17-round clip capacity and maybe the other 10, 11, or 12. there's only one purpose for these weapons. apparently, again, news accounts indicate that the semi-automatic rifle may have been the most deadly weapon. many of the children, again, news indicates two shots to them. that is virtually an execution-style activity. for what reason do civilians need this high-powered weaponry, in addition to the fact that it's reported that the individual had body armor. but for the fact th