innovation and as chairwoman of the subcommittee on space and aeronautics, congresswoman giffords worked tirelessly to represent not only arizonans, military families and veterans but all americans. congresswoman giffords served her country with honor reaching across party lines to forge bipartisan solutions to our nation's problems. even after the tragic events of january 8, 2011, congresswoman giffords continues to inspire all americans with her incredible strength, courage and perseveran perseverance. congresswoman giffords is an example to us all and her former colleagues from both sides of the aisle salute her. washington, d.c., july 10, 2012. all of that is on this plaque, along with the portfolio of letters of congratulations. >> thank you very much. [ applause ] >> thank you so much. madam president, madam chair, wow, all on one plaque. that's impressive. i'm just going to set it down for a moment. i also, madam president, have additional letters that were sent to my office for the book. so i'm the repository going forward. so i'll make sure that we add to this for gabby. good morning. thank you, congre

another one at the school in west virginia a few years back in the one that that wounded representative giffords last year you hear a lot of talk but it is not going to lead to actual legislative offerings what's happened with the whole gun control issue in america since the mid ninety's that a nearly every state has severely least in its laws regarding the ability to legally carry weapons so you have many more americans carrying weapons four million a year in new american buying weapons and yet you're seeing that the gun violence rates plummet nearly by over the last twenty years so most americans have learned that there is that this correlation between access to guns and crime and such that more gun control is going to actually solve any social problem so i think you'll hear chatter but i don't think you'll see any actual musical action so you're saying that this and that it won't be enough to prompt to prompt changes in policy but brian i mean at what point that how many tragedies need to occur how many stories of mass gun violence do we need to see before we do reach that threshold and peopl

and so i think that this issue, we have seen aurora, the shooting of a member of congress, representative giffords, columbine, virginia tech, the list goes on and on and on. just over the last ten to 20 years, we go through these situations, and much is talked about. we need some action. we need reasonable, rational, gun safety regulations. procedures in place for violence prevention. you said earlier that you almost can't have a discussion, and it becomes political. no one thought that in the aftermath of 9/11. now, we did a lot of things after 9/11. 11 years ago. we created a whole new federal agency called the department of homeland security. as well as the tsa. billions of dollars have been spent to make sure that we're safe as we fly. no one has said that airplanes were not going to go up in the sky. no one said that people couldn't ride. we put in extraordinary measures to red flag and act as preventative measures to ensure airline safety and that everyone would be safe. well, we need the same thing, quite honestly, on the streets of america, in our cities and metro areas all across the coun

word of the shooting of the representative giffords and the killing of osama bin laden and the death of donna so maniers today spreads virally. that's significant. reporters now use social media to find people and sources in breaking news situations as well as complicated stories. and when using these platforms to create a conversation around a running story whether to hone their own stories or to engage their audience, or both, i think we have to say that something revolutionary is happening and that's what we'll be exploring today. so let's get to it. we're going to dispense with formal preptations in favor of q&a and discussions. the hash tag is hash tag you notice the cameras. c-span plans to broadcast this sometime over memorial day weekend also on stanford. so wheven we move to questions please use the mike in the aisle over here. so i'm going to ask each of our participants to roughly address the same question which is for purposes of this discussion what are social media, what are the most significant social media platforms and what are the impacts on your news operation? and

jane fonda, progressive representative gabrielle giffords was shot, sarah palin had targeted in a gunfightting the violence. they hold responsibility as does the violence rhetoric of the tea party. when the tragedy at ford hood happened when the shooter when he opened fire, the liberal mainstream media including barack obama kept urging the american public not to jump to conclusions. joungs me now is joe trippi, jennifer stefano. here it was, akbar during the fort hood massacre. president obama administration went throughout, this is a result of an overtaxed military. everybody understands how men in uniform are under the most severe stress. there are going to be instances with individual cracks. why in this case, there is absolutely no evidence. within hours, again and again and again the tea party is blamed in a case where you have a real suspicion you are told not to bring it up. >> the abc report was just horrible journalism. they have screifd. >> and hijack hussein. >> i think there are two different situations. in the fort hood situation, the shooter at the time is a u.s. service mem

shooters, whether it be like klebold and harris at columbine, cho at virginia tech, loughner at representative giffordsall acted along now voicing what they were going to do and the acts they were going to commit maybe not explicitly are out there and i suspect that's one of the reasons the mother was reasonably sure as brian has reported that her son, unfortunately, is the shooter. >> pierre, more information is coming in as we speak. >> reporter: again, additional information, looks like the woman who was in the apartment blow low the suspect did call police and was told that they were dealing with another emergency and if you look at the timing of this, this might have been some sort of preset recording that went off like an alarm that she was hearing and when she called the police they may have been actually responding to the scene of this particular crime. >> because the music abruptly stopped right around 1:00 a.m. okay, pierre, brian, brad, thanks very much. a&m? >> we're joined by julia wynn in theater number 9 when it erupted. yulia, you're just 16 years old there with your friend, tell us wha

simon was shot in the chest and hand during the tucson shooting that also wounded representative gabrielle giffordst in the head but helped restrain the tucson shooter, jared lautner. >> and he grabbed his second clip of bullets. lori haas' daughter was shot twice in the virginia tech massacre and michael poll i's son was killed during that same attack. we appreciate all of you joining us. welcome. >> thank youment. >> what went through your mind pat, when you saw the aurora news? pam? >> when i saw the aurora news my heartbreak. all of us involved in something like that know exactly the feeling that many of those victims are going through. >> for all of you, was it like reliving this thing all over again? was it like a nightmare? >> definitely. >> in an instant, you do a flashback to every detail of what we encountered, and then you think about how horrible it is for their families and what they're going to go through. >> pat, i'm wondering, do you think how can this be? haven't we been down this road before? here we go again, is it like that? >> it is. it's like another sound bite. we're hoping y

she was part of a group there that for representative gifford. the victims of these tragedies and their families deserve more than solidarity and mourning. they deserve our attention, our action. what do we do to prevent these tragedies in the future will be the real test of character of this body, the best way to prove we're really concerned is to take the action necessary to protect young lives, because on that score now we lose. i've been in the senate a long time, and i've seen too many americans murdered by guns, too many lives cut short because of the easy availability of guns. and too many times congress has sat back, cowered before the gun lobby and done nothing to prevent these things from happening in the future. we can't wait any longer, mr. president, without the public at large challenging our effectiveness, wanting to know what it is that we're doing to protect the next group of children, parents, loved ones. the murderers in colorado and arizona both had something that enabled them to rein in the mayhem that they did. they had mega

and innovation, and as chairwoman of the subcommittee of aeronautics, congresswoman giffords worked tirelessly to represent not only arizona and military families and veterans, but all americans. congresswoman giffords serve her country with honor, reaching across party lines to find solutions for our nation's problems. even after the tragic events of january 8, 2011, she continues to inspire all americans with her incredible strength, courage, and perseverance. she is an example to us all and her former colleagues from both sides of the aisle. washington, d.c., july 10, 2012. all of that is on this plaque, along with the portfolio of letters of congratulations. [applause] >> thank you so much. madam president, madam chair, wow. all on one black. that is impressive. i am going to set it down. i also have additional letters that were sent to my office. going forward, i will make sure we add to this. good morning. thank you, congressman, for that warm introduction and all of you being here. it is a privilege to address such a distinguished group. what i hope not to join for quite a while, but one that i'm gl

representative jackson. not us. host: so gabby giffords should not release all of the info on her recovery. all of you are weighing in on the issue. mary is on the line from oregon. caller: him a line needs to be struck here. these people are entrusted with making important decisions for the country. if a mental illness is involved, that is pretty significant. what i have observed is that most of your examples of congressmen and political figures who have given full disclosure are republican. maybe that is because if it is a republican, they are attacked like crazy. they are tiptoeing around jesse jackson because he is jesse jackson and he is a democrat. if this were a republican suffering from a mood disorder, colbert and letterman would be ripping on it every night. i agree with the lady from michigan who say his it is very bias. speaking of civility, it is the democrats who are uncivil. host: thank you for your call. here is a tweet. you can join our conversation on all of these issues. at the annual summer meeting of the national governor's association is taking place in williamsburg, v

representative, ronda fields. our hearts going out to you. a gunman opened fire on congresswoman gabby giffords in that crowded parking lot. now this. >>> top of the hour. the largest city in syria is hurdling toward chaos. i'm not talking about damascus. i'm talking about aleppo. if damascus is syria's washington then aleppo is new york city. today government fighters are streaming into aleppo to try to crush this armed revelt in the capitol city. look at this video. several hours ago we gathered around the news room and we watched this video feed in. this is aleppo. that's a government tank in flames. later, rebels were seen in other government tanks. more pictures. this is a burnt out police station seized and burned today by the rebels. take a look and listen. these are syrians. they had taken this photo from the captured police station. they ransacked and they burned. we have struggled to get our crews, get our journalists inside syria. it's been frustrating for us here at cnn and the assad government has put the country under lock and key. with all of that in mind, ivan watson has entered

giffords. this has to stop. >> it must stop. the american people, their voices need to be heard. many members of congress are not representing the interest of their constituents. they are representing the interest of special interests. until we can break that strangle hold that primarily the nra has on our elected officials. regardless of party and regardless of whether you're in the house or the senate, the people of america need to speak of. we took extraordinary measures to make ourselves safe as a result of 9/11. you almost have to take everything off to get on an airplane. we know what it takes to sacrifice in order to be safe. as a country seem not to be able to deal with the issue of guns and gun violence and whether it's who gets them, how they get them, are they legal, are they not legal? these are serious issues. the american people their voices must be heard. i don't know what it will take ultimately. we know that 12 people were killed and 59 were injured in a variety of levels by someone who maybe should not have had the weapons in the first place. maybe if we would strengthen the national background check system

giffords. obviously, this is a very particular tragedy that focuses our attention, but the vast majority of gun violence happens one victim at a time, often in our cities and often those that are represented by congressional black caucus members. i know you pretty regularly introduce bills to try end to gun violence. will you on the back of this tragedy say it's time to talk about assault weapons bans. >> congress definitely has a role and has to step up in that regards. and i think we need to make sure it's also the education of the american people. often times, we have these fights in congress. with individual with liberal gun rules. the assault bans weapon it seems that it makes common sense not to have assault weapons. we could not extend it after it expired, and the american people, people talk about the nra, but it's people who elect individuals based upon the position they take. i find members of congress, some of who, you know, would say that they are not for assault weapons, for example, but they represent their constituencies and, therefore, they are voting, dista distant. because if they didn't, they wouldn't get re-elected. we have to understand that what is good for the count