and that's because the legislature lowered the age in the state of texas. and so if we don't stand up for our kids, it happened in uvalde, but these are our children. if we don't protect them, who will? and the legislature passed house bill 1927, talking about the texas legislature, that now permits permitless carry. no training. no license. no permit required. lowered the age by which people can purchase assault weapons to 18, and now 19 of our babies are gone. and families will be hurting for the rest of their lives. i applaud what beto o'rourke did. the time to be nuanced is over, okay? and you can't not allow policymakers, legislatures, governors to pass bills that promote the use of guns and then when people are killed say we are praying and we are offer our condolences as if they are not responsible. so, no, the time is now for people, for voters, for people like beto o'rourke, myself and others, republicans alike, to stand up and say this is crazy. enough is enough. i applaud him. others ought to do the same. >> mayor sylvester turner, the city of hou

we saw this just a few months ago, the anti-choice pro pro vigilante law that the texas legislature passed which threatens providers with the jail time and fines for administering what is still federally constitutional protected medical care for women. we cannot wait any longer. we must do everything in our power to ensure access to reproductive services now. therefore, i urge my colleagues to pass the women's health protection act, and will have a chance to do that starting tomorrow. throughout my time in congress i've been a steadfast supporter of reproductive rights, and this will not change. regardless of the outcome of tomorrow's vote, or the supreme court's final decision, i will continue to do everything within my power to ensure that women can have access to the care that they need. madam president, i would yield the floor. >> madam president? >> the senator from michigan. >> madam president, i also rise to speak about the need to pass the women's health protection act. certainly the senator from maryland outlined a very strong argument as to why this fundamental protection come th

. >> what if anything should the texas legislature do in response to what happened in uvalde yesterday? >> hey, thank you so much for that question, and on behalf of the citizens in east texas that i represent, our condolences and compassion goes out to fellow texans in uvalde, and what i think we should do is we should allow the law enforcement and the investigators to do their work. as they're doing their work, we should look at the work product and what we can do going forward. victor, this is what we have discovered so far. this horrific incident at this uvalde school, when he purchased the first weapon, he passed the background check. when he purchased a second weapon, he not only passed the background check but because he did two background checks or excuse me, two purchases within 30 days, the atf did another background check. okay. and he cleared all three of those hurdles. he shot his grandmother. she is, you know, fighting for her life, trying to recover in the hospital. he took out texas law enforcement. and the citizens of texas on a high speed chase that ended at a school,

we even failed them in the texas legislature. >> do you know when they finally decided to go in, was what a decision made by the school police force chief? >> what's been made clear to me is that at that point, the cbt team that went in in frustration said, we're going in. >> so that's a no? >> that's a no. >> you confronted governor abbott when he had a press conference on friday. you begged him to call a special session of the texas legislature in order to deal with this, to find some solutions. you're saying that you're hearing from republican colleagues that they would be okay with legislation to raise the age from 18 to 21 to buy the kind of firearm this shooter bought. do you really think will are enough republicans to pass that here in texas? >> this is the first time ever i've seen republicans calling for a special session. first time. jeff leech in the house, high-ranking member in the house. i've had other republican colleagues who at this point don't want to be identified but have said, we need to raise it to 21. those are the kind of things that make sense. red flag laws,

understanding is correct -- and i follow this relatively closely -- but you have served in this texas state legislature. so, i want to get your clarity on this. in the wake of that mass shooting in el paso, the texas state legislature has made a gun carrying easier. it has loosened gun regulations and made guns easier, both to obtain and to carry. >> absolutely. house bill 1927, it was a bill that republicans pushed in this most frequent recent session session. that was in the wake of el paso. in this particular bill they said it was too cumbersome for people to have to actually obtain a license or try to get any training. instead, they said that every one can carry a gun so long as they were at least 21 years of age. they did not have to have anything special to walk around with a gun, whatsoever. as many of you know, as far as long guns are concerned, that was never an issue in the state faces anyway. everyone could walk around with their long guns, no matter what. >> so, per that legislation which republicans moved and pushed and was a key priority for them, any texan over a certain age, over 21, i

texas. that's what we need to focus on. >> that's exactly what the florida legislature and the republican florida governor did in the weeks after parkland. do you have any optimism or any evidence that the texas state legislature is going to move with that same determination and speed. >> i think we need to keep the pressure on. you know, i'm running for attorney general against ken paxton who wants to arm our teachers and fight for silencers in the state of texas. we need to change our leaders right now, and we need to hold our leadership accountable for their inaction. so the more pressure that people are putting on our legislatures to have a special session, to address these issues now and not wait, the better off we are. and we have an election coming up in november, and we're going to vote these folks out because enough is enough. texas is tired. the entire country is tired of seeing things like this occur, and we need to stop it now. >> by the way, texas is the state, according to the latest numbers with the highest number of gun deaths every year. here it is, texas is number one. this is a

for example, at the same time the texas legislature passed the law that was last year, 2021 to completely protect unborn babies in from abortion in the event that. ready return the legislature also appropriated 100000000 dollars over 2 years to provide all the services that women need to successfully carry their babies to term give birth to the babies or place those babies for adoption. and those services continue for 3 years after the birth of the child. i got thank you for your time, jo appointment, executive director at texas alliance for life. thank you. the uncertainty general has cold for the safe return of people displaced by conflict. in northeastern nigeria, antonio terrace visited a camp and borne estate. his last stop on the 5 day regional tool of west africa. a decade of war between the government and the armed group, oak, a rom, has killed more than 40000 people. nicholas hackable in nigeria is born oh state. the un secretary general receives the a rockstars welcome from hundreds of displaced people. they fled attacks from the arm group book of her on off camera. he spoke wit

we even failed them in the texas legislature. >> in texa

>> we need to do now in texas is this. the legislature is controlled by republicans.ct between now in august when the kids come back. we need to do what we agree on, which is very powerful and important, which is a background check system that works. right flag loss, 48-hour waiting period, raise the age to 21. you can't get tangled up in partisan gridlock. which i am certain is coming because we must do all that we can now. that is when i'm working on. >> if i hear what you're, saying you're saying, this is texas. i get it. >> that is right. >> but do you want to see an assault weapons ban? if you could have one, and when i'm hearing you say is that we are not going to guess one, we would see a change in age requirement. if you get one, when you want one? >> i want to provide the leadership in the states to do that all this we can, when we can. which is now. that is what has to happen. we can have a broader conversation. we need to find places where we agree. and that is important that we have that conversation. but in our democracy we must agree. we will have a conv

because they are perceived to have an anti-conservative bias, and the conservative majority in the texas legislatureas passed this law, and the conservative texas governor has signed it. but the fact is, it simply cannot work, and it is being done for pure political partisanship. and without enough thought. taylor: david, it is interesting, you mentioned meta, formerly we knew that is facebook, you mentioned youtube, we are talking a lot about twitter right now in the zeitgeist with elon musk of course stepping in and giving a price potentially to take private. of all the companies you have been studying for decades over the years, who would be most impacted, and who is most susceptible to getting it hit from this? david: the law is meant to apply to any company that has 50 million or more users, but it really is aimed at facebook and twitter, primarily, and youtube, because those are the sites where speech, so to speak, is most frequently taken place, and they do frequently make judgments when hate speech or political incitement or violence is endorsed, or whatever, to remove posts. but it could af

as an activist who goes to the texas legislature and works with elected officials to actually authorls and get them passed. from my experience what we need is background checks, yes. we need a ban on automatic weapons, yes. we need all of the above. and we need it all to happen right away. we can't just put one little piece in here, one little piece in there because while we can't stop all bad things from happening we need to make sure we take a holistic approach and go with an all of the above strategy. >> you know this is true, that now that law enforcement response unfortunately was detailed, right, in the last 24 hours, it was painfully inadequate, so painful for those families to hear it. and now you must worry, though, that that will again allow the gun lobby to deflect. you know, the bottom line is an 18-year-old was allowed to buy battlefield weapons to slaughter children and yet we heard it again from the nra, right? they're saying -- they're deflecting saying it was a law enforcement response. how do you counter that? because i can tell you, it does not look like this will

and in the state of texas the legislature has made it very, literally the state of texas has preemptedctions where guns can be allowed. if we say no, then we are violating state law. but the president, the former president of the united states, can come to the nra and in that particular venue no guns are allowed in order to protect the president and the other people who will be there to listen and hear. now, if that doesn't speak volumes, i don't know what does. >> listen, i have got to ask you this because i know there is -- your city has been no stranger to shootings. there have been several in the past few weeks. what are you doing in houston to deal with the rise in gun violence, mayor? >> well, we put forth what we call a -- in january and basically what it is, we are tackling it on all fronts. we are not just adding more police. we are through the yuuse of overtime. utilizing more technology. we are putting a great deof resources in fighting domestic abuse, which is up about 40% over year ago. we are addressing what we call crisis. people who are in crisis, people with behavioral

programs saying, quote, throughout his time in office the governor has worked closely with the texas legislatured behavioral health issues and creating a match grant program to assist local communities to address any unmet local mental health needs, adding, there is always more we can do to help address the mental health needs of texans and we look forward to continuing to work with the legislature to do so. but according to mental health america, texas ranks last when it comes to access to mental health care. the ranking looks at things like access to treatment, quality, cost, and access to insurance. in the past eight years texas has had hundreds of mass shootings. we've covered a lot of them here on cnn. >> multiple people have been shot at a church in sutherland springs, texas, east of san antonio. >> this just coming into cnn. a spokesperson for the el paso mayor's office telling us that multiple people have been killed and at least one suspect in custody. >> but what is texas doing to stop these shootings? loosening gun laws. if you look at the record in the last ten years, state laws ther

did evil sweep across the texas legislature when they passed those laws? and made sure that an 18 -year-old could do all of that yesterday? did evil sweep across greg abbott hand as he was signing the law that allowed that 18 year old to do what he did in that school yesterday? the official republican party position tonight is, as it has been for many years, that america's mass murderers must be the best equipped mass murderers in the world and that the rest of us must live with or die with that unchangeable fact. the republican party position is that those kids in texas had to die because the constitution says that they have to die. the republican party is wrong. >> do you want to solution? >> stop selling ar-15s in the state of texas! you want to solution? pass universal background checks or extreme risk protection. stop shooting before it happens. you want a safe solution? safe storage laws. those are for solutions that have been brought up. each one has broad bipartisan support right now. we could get that done -- if we had a governor cared more about

but, you know, he should do what he said he was going to do after el paso and go into the texas legislaturend push for real change. that includes also red flag laws and universal background checks. the state of texas could do that right now without having to worry about the federal government. you ask the larger question, what about the rest of the country? we're dealing with a small town in texas now. but you don't want this to happen in it louisiana or maryland or somewhere else. so where do we go from here? democrats proposed universal background checks. when we get back, we're voting on a few bills having to do with red flag laws. they signed off to ban assault weapons. the american people know where they are on these issues. 90% of the american people support universal background checks and a large majority support the red flag laws. 60% of americans support ban on assault rifles. so right now you have a big chunk of politicians in the republican party, extreme republicans, who are slave to the nra. they're not responding to what the american people want. yes, democrats in congress wil

but let's not forget that the failure is the texas legislature led by greg abbott. he must get us into a special session. we must get back in that building immediately to have -- to address this. every law enforcement that i've spoken to yesterday has agreed with me, that no 18-year-old should have this. every law enforcement agency in texas begged the republicans do not pass open carry last session. they lobbied us to not pass open carry. every democrat voted against it. and every republican voted for it. nine months ago i was on the floor of the texas senate, and i said, because of this bill, i said because of this bill, kids are going to die. and i never thought it was going to be in my community. and i just saw that video yesterday. i never thought it was going to be in one of my hometowns. in one county in my district. this is horrible. and these people don't do anything about it. and this governor doesn't do anything about it. not a damn thing. i'm sorry. >> senator, do you

the texas legislature, when i was elected we funded a program that allowed local school districts toher they wanted the teachers and other people in the school how to defend themselves and how to defend people in the school. i think that program is essential because law enforcement cannot react quick enough to stop these things every time. so we're going to need people on the ground whether they are, you know, trained police officers or whether they're people that are trained in the school so that the reaction time can be much more quickly and if not, we're going to continue see people shot like this and killed. >> todd: along these lines broadening this out to the entire nation. why isn't there is a school resource officer or a police officer or somebody quite frankly, a.g. paxton with a gun protecting every single school in america right now? >> look, we just spent 40 billion on ukraine to help protect another nation it seems like the least we could do is fund a police officer or at least a program there are thousands and thousands of schools in this country. a program that trains

the texas legislature passed a bill that had been long fought for from conservatives and had failed whicheady in texas people could -- could carry a rifle or long gun without having a permit. this also allowed anyone to be able to carry a handgun without a permit. and that was shortly after in 2020 we had these two back to back mass shootings. one in el paso which killed 23 people, and then a few weeks later in odesa, like a shooting spree throughout town that killed seven people. and there was calls, and even the governor and lieutenant governor who are very conservative said this is -- this is too much. we have to do something. and they expressed willingness to look into some gun laws, and then when lawmakers came around, you know, they went quiet on those issues. including, like, tougher background checks and instead, they as you said, they loosened gun laws. >> grateful for your perspective. thank you. >>> up next for us, the former president donald trump, his son don junior and ivanka trump must cooperate for depositions. more after the break. we could bring it right to your door. wi

, in that school, all of them, would be alive today if greg abbott and, senator cruz, in the texas legislature, did not make sure that 18-year-olds can, legally, by assault weapons in texas. greg abbott, and the texas republicans, made sure that when a mass murder returns 18, it is time to die. leading our discussion tonight, nbc news national correspondent, and retired atf special agent in charge of msnbc terrorism. can, let me begin with you, because i know that you are watching this news conference today. i saw your tweeted comments about it, immediately after which, which felt understated to me. but, for you, it was a strong statement. i am not sure you have ever seen anything like what we saw today. >> i was flabbergasted. i am trying to give these police officers the benefit of the doubt, there is certainly a fog of war that is developing our own these mass shooting incidents. but, here we are off the incident. there is the community, and all of the key participants, and they don't know key facts. so, i was really just dumbfounded, because on the issue of school resource officer, that wa

and, i have been advocating for gun comment sense gun laws for years in the texas legislature. in 2019, i like the bill that did not even get up to the committee. at the end of the day, the people elect us to bring solutions to problems. this is a significant problem. there's the evidence of the problem, right behind us. these are the things that we are dealing with here. and, these people are hurting. and, for anybody that's against this, they need to put themselves in the place of these people. they need to understand that these folks took the kids to school and they are never, ever going to see them again. >> what is your reaction on how officials are handling the investigation, the timeline? it seems confusing to people sitting in my seat. but, you are right there. >> i've talked to dps officials, i have asked them for speed, about them for a little bit more transparency, a little bit of faster reporting on this. it's my hope that we'll have something more tomorrow and not saturday. at the end of the day, i get, it i get that this is an ongoing investigation. a lot of great

do you have any sense of hope that this, now, another tragic day, might move the texas legislature inhe direction you would like them to move? nicole: i spent many years advocating in the legislature, and last session was brutal. as i said, it feels like screaming into the void. they have had their opportunities and not only have they failed, they have loosened the already lacks gun laws. i want them to hear me, but i also want to address the people and voters of texas and say, even if our lawmakers don't support their thoughts and prayers with action, you can care. you can demand action. i know you all are hurting and you all worry about your own families and children and loved ones today. you can do something. please join with us. we have to be one loud voice, as a community, to let our lawmakers know that they can't just offer their thoughts and prayers and then move on to something else. william: you've touched several times on the since of futility, that you are screaming into the void. do you have any sense of hope that this will change, that we will be able to get our arms arou

we even failed them in the texas legislature. >> in texan 18-year-old can't buy beer and cigarettes, but they can walk into a gun store and buy an ar-15. >> announcer: live from london, this is "cnn newsroom" with isa soares. >>> welcome to the show, everyone. it is monday, may 30th. memorial day in the u.s., when americans remember and honor the men as well as women who died serving the nation. but today in the city of uvalde in texas, families will be gagagaerg toemem lives lost in last week's mass shooting at robb elementary school. some services are set to begin in the coming hours with funeral homes committed to cover the costs of the families of the 21 victims, 19 students and two teachers. ♪ a choir paying their respects through song as the community of uvalde reels from the tragic shooting. u.s. president joe biden and the first lady traveled to texas to meet with grieving families, and also attended a mass as well met with first responders. there has also been an outpouring of support from the community as crowds brought flowers to a growing memorial for the victims. our luc

this texas legislature doesn't meet meet again until next year.w, the question is, are they gonna have a special session? and i've called for a special session, just this morning, to deal with this, or they're gonna ignore, as they have so many times in the past. but they must come together now. they didn't then. there were several special sessions after santa fe, but they weren't related to this crisis. they were related to suppressing the vote. they were related to attacking trans kids. nothing was done, chris. now, i've called on a special session, and we need to reform our gun laws in the state. and everybody knows it. we're waiting to see if they did it. >> just finally and quickly, you say everybody knows that you are in a texas. from my understanding, it used to be a republican, your democrat now. it's a state with high levels of gun ownership, and politically, a high level of support for guns, at least four politicians who are maximalist about it. do you think any of that has changed? the basic political gravity in your state, is it runnin

you should know that in 2019, the texas state legislature actually passed a bill to amend the education code there that mandated active shooter training for school resource or police officers. they were all supposed to have been trained by now. and then, that guide is crystal- clear. when you're on law enforcement, you have to put the victims lives above yours. that is why you accepted the job. these young children sat in that classroom waiting to be rescued for far too long. >> this is a painful question. have the officers gone in immediately, could we have a different outcome? we heard that girl say there were seven or eight classmates who are still alive when she called. >> absolutely. i can't imagine what those children saw, i can't imagine how they felt. they had to have been terrified. they watched their classmates struggling to stay alive. and they were counting on adult . they were counting on police officers to come in and rescue them. the time that expired from the initial 911 call to the time they actually entered, it is inexcusable. >> yesterday, we marked one year here sinc

governor avid, interrupting his news conference on friday, calling for a special session of the texas legislaturelk about what you overall think needs to happen. clearly, these men in the hallway were afraid because there is, and there wh a semi automatic rifle. 18 years old. but he is getting people down. what needs to happen? how did the laws need to change? >>>> let's be clear where the failure begins. the failure begins -- i've been accused of politicizing this issue. at the in of the day -- i am in building where people elected me to fix problems. the failure begins with governor abbott, seven or eight mass shootings and his tenure but has done nothing but give greater access to militarized weaponry. his seminal attempt to fix things in 2019 was more school hardening. a lot of good that did these kids. we have to take militarized weapons off the street. if we are not going to do that -- perhaps that is a federal issue. if we're not what to do that in the state of texas -- i am in a business that i have a compromise with people on the others i've. under no circumstances, it is the law in texa

i worked with him when i was in the texas legislature.publicans are sitting down with some democrats does provide a glimmer of hope, but at the end of the day it's whether or not results can take place. i would like to believe that senator cornyn as well as others recognize that you just can't sit idly by and see families literally destroyed. 19 children are dead. 2 adults dead. that there's a massacre occurring in this country almost every single day and it is an american problem. it's not a global problem. it's an american problem and guns are at the root of it so i'm going to remain optimistic but it will be the people in this country that force a resolution, not necessarily the elected officials, but the people and these are -- what i might add, these are not democratic children and these are not republican children, these are our children and in uvalde's case, our babies, so it's not a democratic child or republican child and if we don't do something soon like yesterday, then we will be losing more of our children. >> well, that's th

thaws that's only the electric providers because the gas providers are the bills that pass the texas legislatureeir excess costs as well. the idea that it's cheaper, it's cheaper where it ain't. and it and the because the utility have to be made hole and trying to avoid for their debt that you pay 20, 30 years. >> exactly. it's going to be in the billions. it's going to be billions of costs to consumers in oklahoma that they haven't seen yet. sometime in 2022, their bill is going up $5 for the next 20 years. what happens if that happens again, if another came through and a baseline for a combined plant, mas part of your system. it is an insurance -- it's an insurance cost either two billion now or we can have higher rates long-term that spt free from women ap solars, again, we're not calculating that in the rate for consumers. the consumers are going to pay and that's the problem, but we have to put a factor on reliability and that's got to be a pretty high factor. >> the press probably left the impression what mapped in texas was a-- what happened in texas was a unique ly texas problem. the sto

because that is a legally electric providers because they are also from the bills that passed the texas legislaturellow the gas providers to securitize thehe exces' cost so this idea it's cheaper and what we are seeingg now is because these utilities have to be made whole to try to avoid shock so they are securitizing and paying out over 20 or 30 years. >> we see the same thing in oklahoma and it is going to be in the billions it's going to be billions to consumers in oklahoma that they haven't seen yet and they are going through a process, so sometime in 2022 the bill is going to go up five dollars and what happens when that happens again? what happens of another storm comes through and we haven't made a baseline cost, the baseline of production of a combined plant that's part of the system is an insurance cost either to billion hour a little bit higher rate long-term they own wind and solar grant of subsidized again we are paying those but we are not calculating them at the rate so the consumer is going to pay and that iss the problem but they have to put a factor on the reliability and that's go

at least they are accountable to the senators in the texas legislature. you know, these folks are going to have to go and talk to their mayor and council person. i have real concerns about the failure at every level. >> yeah. >> what i asked the governor today was a special session, a special session because we have to hold him accountable. we have asked for common sense gun laws for a very long time. we need a special session. we need a full investigation that gives us clear transparency as to what went on here and where the failures were so this never happens again >> you asked him about this idea the idea that an 18-year-old can so easily buy a assault rifle and that made it easier. there was no weight to buy a lot of ammunition and if you're a spree killer who wants to spontaneously do something like this. it's really easy in the state of tensias. here's what governor abbott had to say about school shootings. he had a counternarrative. take a look. >> it's my understanding that ever since texas has been a state an 18-year-old has had the ability to bu

james: it was a proposition for legislation in the texas state legislature.t never got off the ground. mark: this is true? someone did this? james: the thing is, because of the current focus on abortion legislation in the context of roe v. wade, the 1973 supreme court ruling that guaranteed a fundamental right for women. people are associating the current context with that headline. the timing is all wrong. this is getting out of control, roe v. wade hasn't even been repealed yet. sadly, that headline is true back to march of 2021. but there is a tweet misleading social media users and the timing of that. mark: i can't believe that has been in someone's head. that is remarkable. james, thank you for bringing the light on to truth. kate no longer with an ipod. still more to come, live from paris. >> with one of the world's highest population densities, rwanda is experiencing a demographic explosion. >> [speaking foreign language] >> overpopulated and poorly built cities, excessive farming and erosion. saturated john markets -- job markets part of rwanda's futu

we have also created a guardian program that was created, i believe in 2009 by the texas legislature ich would allow teachers and other people that work at the school to train so that they would be armed. the rule, the general rule in texas is you can't carry a firearm into a school unless you satisfy the requirements of this guardian program. and that's voted on by individual school districts. it's not forced on them by the legislature at this point. so i think those questions have to be continued to be asked. why doesn't every school district have that and i don't know the -- i don't know the answer as to why any school district would not find a way to defend their children. >> jesse: if it's up to each individual school, i mean, that's on the school. not that they tore blame, but it's -- that's their decision. and maybe it shouldn't be their decision. maybe it should be mandatory across the board. have you been updated with any new information that you can share with us tonight? >> yeah, mostly what is happening right now is i think they are trying to inform the families and they a

. >> just as the texas legislature has passed a very restrictive voting bill, they have also passed aaw that restricts abortions. roe v. wade has been upheld in the supreme court despite its constitutional ambiguity. what is the future of roe v. wade and what is more restrictive abortion into the future of our country? speaker pelosi: let me just say we passed in the house the codification of roe v. wade. we have not vested in the senate -- past it -- passed it in the senate. it will be an important protection against the court. the court did not even make sense. in any event, the -- public sentiment, how many times have i said that? i am a devout catholic, mother of five children. i would like to think when we have unified children at six years and one week, but in the meantime, that was right for me. it is not fair for me to say what is right for anybody else, nor is it right for you, nor is it right to the supreme court. this has been a precedent of the court that should be upheld. [applause] so i think that -- and by the way, i respect people's opinions about how they see the wall

that's only the electric providers because the gas providers are also the bills that passed the texas legislature also allow the gas providers to secure ties their excess costs as well. so, you know this idea. oh, it's cheaper. it's well, it's cheaper until it ain't right and what we're seeing now is the where it ain't because these these utilities are having to be made whole and they don't they try to avoid rate shock for their for their rate payers. so the securitizing the debt and paying it out over 20 30 years. exactly, right exactly. we're seeing the same thing in oklahoma, and it was up to four billion it may it may it's going to be in the billions. it's going to be billions of costs to consumers in, oklahoma. that they haven't seen yet and they're going through a process so sometime in 2022 their bill is going to go up five dollars for the next 20 years. and what happens if that happens again what happens if another storm comes through and we haven't made, you know a baseline cost a baseline of production of a combined cycle plant that's part of your system. it is a insurance. it's an insu

congress, which has been paralyzed for years, which did nothing after sandy hook than in the texas state legislature the carnage that you just laid out. you guys are not having conversations yet about what to do now? >> no, being very, very clear. that is not what i am saying. but if you look the all the obstruction that's happening in washington. at least they are sitting down to talk. in texas, we're not doing that. we've always said that we are different than washington. that we come together. we will work through a crisis. we will find solutions. we will find common ground, in some instances, we will find higher ground. that's not happening here. what disappoints me and makes me mad is that we can have an official like the governor cut off the idea of even talking about new laws in the state of texas, with all due respect to the governor, that is the legislature's job. that is my job. so i think two all due speed, we need to convene in austin to have this discussion and like i said, let's begin where each had some agreement, universe am background checks, red flag laws. let's talk there. let's s

it's the is the texas legislature so it does require more regulation of the market? oh, yeah, absolutely. absolutely crazy government needs to come in and solve that problem. yeah, it requires rules. but again, so the way to think of it is the proper policy is a form if the government has monopolizing something. that's what i call a long-term system cost analysis. so you look at the electricity needs and then you look at what mixture of things will meet that in the long term being most effective at the lowest price and when you do that you tend to favor base load things like nuclear if it was decriminalized coal to some extent natural gas. i remember the point that i missed before and it's important. so the main distortion involved in andrew's claims of solar wind is he's not looking at the full cost. so that's the main thing but it's important that even with the raw material things like solar panels and wind turbines. those do not go down indefinitely because they are real physical materials what we're seeing now is a lot of those materials are going up and in parti

. >> i want to follow up with this texas legislature. i want to bring brittani.ittani, among the republicans who appear at the nra, we saw senator cruz, christine noem, mark robinson, virginia lieutenant governor winston. they will all be here. you spent a lot of times and teach for america. i'm curious as to your thoughts for the whole solution about arming teachers. with that have stalled anything i'm having the general on this solution. >> it would've created brand new problems. it is quite possibly the most terrifying solution that i have heard proposed us far. teachers already have to be counselors, surrogate parents, discipline arians, so many different things while we are in the classroom. now you want to be armed militia people as well. the idea that the very people who helped lead our children through this pandemic, that is continuing, while being underpaid and under some reported and understaffed, they should be armed and this is asinine. i think there has been an eight to -- a proposal to add more police officers and more resources to schools. similarl

. >> you have called for the texas state legislature to reconvene to address this issue specifically.do you think needs to be done right away? >> well, we don't have a background check system that works. if we had one, this wouldn't have happened. we don't have red flag law on the books. if we had those, this wouldn't have happened. you can buy a beer, you can buy an ar-15, but what i'm trying to say is we have laws that allow this guy to buy that ar-15 when he turned 18. it should be 21. we need a 48-hour waiting period before you can buy a gun like that. these laws need to be enacted law and the legislature will not meet until january. kids are coming back to school in a few months. we had a terrible crisis in texas four years ago in a school, similar situation, we said to them now we need these laws or it will happen again and if you don't pass these laws, blood will be on your hands. blood son is on their hands. they did nothing. >> i didn't hear you mention an assault weapons ban what we heard from multiple democrats at the federal level, what they're seeking. is that something t

legislatures. i've had long conversations during voting fights with the texas state legislature.s not talked about enough, state by state by state, and the importance of what happens? and the importance, frankly, of paying attention to who you're going to elect as your state legislator. >> well, absolutely. yes. >> go ahead, charlie. i didn't realize you were back with us. go ahead. you have 30 seconds. >> yes, absolutely, yes, the states are laboratories of democracy, and we can show which laws work and which laws don't work. by the way, as for that picture, i think itis obscene, i actually screen shot it on my phone and was going to tweet it out but frankly i was too angry about it. one thing we can demand from politicians is stop treating guns as a fetish. stop saying that guns or the second amendment is more sacred than the human lives of these children. >> charlie sykes and victoria desoto, thank you. >>> lester holt's incredible conversation with survivors and parents and victims and how they're coping. this is "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. reports" only on msnbc.