larry gersten. thank you for joining us on this holiday. president biden set a safety bill, is there anything that could stop the latest shootings? >> good evening, unfortunately, not much. this that with gun safety, not the guns necessarily. it dealt with mental health and money for schools. none of these things would have stopped the shooter from doing the damage he did. it is all too common every week and every month. there were 11 other mass shootings over this long fourth of july weekend. it is a tragedy. >> this law has something on universal background checks and those seeking universal background checks saying this is a step flagging dangerous users. is this what most of the public believes? >> universal background checks is something everybody believes except for congress. 88% taken six weeks ago belief we should have universal background checks. it is important because at least one out of four guns did not take place in a context of the universe, a gun show. 80% say there is a set up, but

larry gersten joins us this morning to unpack this seeminglductive investment. what is this all about? >> reporter: it is unusual if you think about it. why is one party helping another? at the fact is democrats have a plan. the plan is to try to put money behind far right wing republicans who may be running against moderate republicans in the primary. the thinking is if we can get the far right republicans to win when we put up our democratic candidates it will be easier for us to carry the district in the case. that is the plan at least in theory. >> and also one political party helping the candidates in the other party, is that odd, is that illegal or just on us or the third unorthodox? >> it is not illegal but then we get into this whole area of unethical and that is where you will see a division. democrats are going to say we are not being unethical, we are being strategic. we are figuring out a way we can win. republicans are saying democrats are trying to rig the election by stacking the deck in a way that republicans need to find out ourselves. so, it re

let's bring in nbc bay area analyst larry gersten. hi larry, good to see you.it just that we have more guns in the u.s., or is there more to it? >> that's a good place to start, because guns are very much a part of our culture, if you will. unlike japan, where they are hardly ever seen. we know this much -- that guns are first and foremost, when it comes to how this country relates to any other country in the world, the united states is number one when it comes to owning guns. take a look at that graphic right there. for every 100 people, we have 120 guns. about 400 million of them, actually in the united states. look where we are with relationships almost anyone else. you get all the way down to japan, and what you see? you see .3. .3 persons for every 100. that's hardly anything. they rank 165th out of 175 countries. the united states has a little bit more than a 4th% of the worlds population. we own 46% of the world's privately owned guns. >> wow. so we see the presence there. you just laid it out or us. you know? why do you think we have such a commitment t

good morning larry gersten. it is good to see you. is there a theme here you can point to?orning. it's very ironic that it is fourth of july weekend. were talking about the subject. the issue here of course is judicial philosophy. there so many ways to look at the constitution it's more than just paper. these new justices like barrett and cavanaugh are what we call originalists. and these are people that look at the document for exactly what the words are. no more and no less. that is it. if it's mentioned there that's fine. if not you can't talk about it or do it. and that's what they're looking at with laws or regulations. this is a great departure from what we call the policies and attitudes of the justices from the last seven or so years. these folks were known as interpretive vests. those look at the constitution not just for what the word says itself and how it fits with the world. we have no oil wells and none of these things back in 1787. we have all of them now and that's why they are so different than originalists. so we now have a five justice majority of origina