the divide between most gun owners and the nra leadership and the more active members of the nra is thaty say in the selective environment is they want to have enough fire power to fight police and military forces. >> frank smyth thank you for joining me tonight. some more unmasking of the nr are a is next. tom sellek has been with the nra for years. is he a man of courage or does he just play one on tv? what are you doing? nothing. are you stealing our daughter's school supplies and taking them to work? no, i was just looking for my stapler and my... this thing. i save money by using fedex ground and buy my own supplies. that's a great idea. i'm going to go... we got clients in today. [ male announcer ] save on ground shipping at fedex office. [ male announcer ] save on ground shipping living with moderate to semeans living with pain.is it could also mean living with joint damage. humira, adalimumab, can help treat more than just the pain. for many adults, humira is clinically proven to help relieve pain and stop further joint damage. humira can lower your ability to fight infections, i

the divide between most gun owners and the nra leadership and the more active members of the nra is thatt they believe but only say in the selective environment is they want to have enough fire power to fight police and military forces. >> frank smyth thank you for joining me tonight. some more unmasking of the nr are a is next. tom sellek has been with the nra for years. is he a man of courage or does he just play one on tv? husband. loving father to your children. but first you've got to get him to say, "hello." new crest 3d white arctic fresh toothpaste. use it with these 3d white products, and whiten your teeth in just 2 days. what will a 3d white smile do for you? new crest 3d white toothpaste. life opens up when you do. you won't just find us online, you'll also find us in person, with dedicated support teams at over 500 branches nationwide. so when you call or visit, you can ask for a name you know. because personal service starts with a real person. [ rodger ] at scottrade, seven dollar trades are just the start. our support teams are nearby, ready to help. it's no wonder so many

and yet, the nra keeps putting out these notices. and what they did as far as an ad, going after president obama's children, you know that has always been off the plate. you don't go after the president's children. and i was very insulted by that particular ad. but i'm telling you, we'll work like crazy, we'll bring everybody together. it is going to be a tough job and we need the american people behind us. >> steven barton, one of the lies that the nra and others continue to try to assert is that nothing the president proposed today would have changed what happened at sandy hook. we talk about the tragedy at sandy hook. there were 26 tragedies in the school that day. 26 tragedies, and that is because he got to use the kind of weapon and the kind of ammunition clip that president obama and carolyn mccarthy are trying to make illegal. they're trying to make those unavailable to the kinds of people who go in the schools like that. and his mother bought this stuff legally. she clearly was not the law breaking type. she would not have tri

the nra says congress will not approve either. we will spend the hour on guns, believing -- beginning with colin goddard, a survivor of the virginia tech massacre that killed 32. >> we're up against an industry, pe le who profit when others use bullets. we really have to engage the citizens of voice to drown out the industry that profits from shootings like this continually in our country. >> will host a debate about placing armed police officers in schools. critics say this helps school- to-prison. the deep financial ties to the firearm industry. all of that and more coming up. this is "democracy now!," democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president obama is set to propose sweeping new gun restrictions today more than a month after the newtown school massacre. obama reportedly will call for a ban on assault weapons and high- capacity ammunition magazines as well as expanded background checks for gun buyers. in washington, jay carney said obama will hold the campaign- style public even to unveil his proposal

the nra has a lot of power, no doubt. but the combined strength of all of the groups meeting with vice president joe biden can overwhelm the nra this time. biden says that he will deliver recommendations to the president on tuesday. the time for change is right now. it is a moment in history we cannot let spin to outer space and be gone forever. if they can't do it now, when can they do it? get your cell phones out. i want to know what you're thinking. tonight's question, will the obama administration get gun legislation passed? text a for yes and b for no. you can always go to our blog at ed.msnbc.com. we encourage you to do that. we'll bring the results later on in the show. joining me tonight is mark glaze, director of mayors against illegal guns. mark, good to have you with us tonight. >> thanks for having me. >> with all the discussion and media intensity tonight, what is doable? >> i think a lot is doable. there has been a real tipping point in this country that sees mass shootings happen more and more frequently and

, join the nra. so they are doing what the nra always has done, and that is drawing a very hard and firm line in the sand, very black and white terms. no shades of gray here and no budging on what they fundamentally believe is a threat to the second -- their second amendment rights. and they are, of course, going to be on the hill lobbying democrats, lobbying republicans. so far, you haven't seen any republicans break ranks with the nra. and we'll have to keep an eye on senate democrats. >> and, in fact, marco rubio, chuck, has put out a statement saying that nothing the president is proposing would have stopped the massacre at sandy hook. president obama is targeting the rights of law-abiding citizens instead of what caused the violence. that is a very strong response from someone who's talked about as a 2016 potential candidate. >> and he also accused the president of abusing his executive power in the 23 actions. when you read the 23 actions, frankly, these are very weak directives. there's not mu

in tucson top, anniversary of the massacre there, the nra has come outraging against the tucson gun buyback program. they're trying to stop it. an nra board member is threatening that the nra will sue to stop tucson from destroying the guns that they handed over. the guns, regardless what their owners wanted, done with them, those guns must be sold to the highest bidder and put back into circulation. the nra says the state must not destroy the weapons that people handed over specifically so the weapons could be destroyed. instead, the nra says the state has to sell them, keep them in circulation, and thereby become a gun dealer itself. when your response to the political cliche of low-hanging fruit is something so cartoonishly insensitive, so cartoonishly villainous, you then bring upon us a second political cliche. you have jumped the shark. blocking voluntary efforts by people to get rid of their own guns because they want to voluntarily? that is an exercise in shark jumping. this is the sort of thing that might make sense internally to the nra when they talk about this amongst themselves

does the nra have disproportionate power? rgued a moment ago that they didn't have the power they once had in a presidential election. >> look, i'll give you a good example. one of the things they decided to do in this last election was to support some candidates that were running against those that had great records with the nra, where the nra was putting their money into one side. i decided to put my money into the other side. >> joe baca in california one of those democrats that you -- >> we won four out of seven. four out of seven where the nra supported every one of those four and we won with a small amount of money. there is this myth that the nra is so powerful -- >> mr. bloomberg's experimental anti-nra pac spending, it did focus on seven races in 2012. he didn't win all of them. but he did win four of those races. and it didn't take him a ton of money to do it. and as we reported last night, the nra's own spending was profoundly impotent in the last election. less than 1% of their multimillion-dollar expenditure in 20

it was not the nra is so powerful. he paid tribute to the power of the american people to influence congress to say yes to some things that even congress is not inclined to say yes to. >> the only way we can change is if the american people demand it. and that doesn't mean from just certain parts of the country. we're going to need voices in those areas and those congressional districts where the tradition of gun ownership is strong to speak up. this will not happen unless the american people demand it. if parents and teachers, police officers and pastors, if hunters and sportsman, if every american stands up and says, enough, we suffered too much pain and care too much about our children to allow this to continue, then change will come. you know, in the letter that julia wrote me, she said i know that laws have to be passed by congress. but i beg you to try very hard. julie, i will try very hard. but she's right. the most important changes we can make depend on congressional action. they need to bring these proposals u

did you know the nra today has said that 250,000 people have signed up and joined the nra as members just the past month. they say that is an unprecedented spike in new members. it is a pretty stunning statistic. it's the kind of support that has helped transform an organization that at one point everybody was focused on training soldiers into now one of the most powerful and feared lobbying groups in the united states of america. here's jim acosta with their rise to power. >> if you're ready to make a difference for freedom in this country. >> reporter: these days, the national rifle association is a washington power house. the group's tough-talking executives -- >> we face the most dangerous election of all of our lifetimes. >> reporter: to its legendary past president, the late charlton heston. >> from my cold dead hands! >> reporter: the nra's influence has few rivals. but it wasn't always that way. the group got its start after the civil war as a firearms training organization. >> the nra began with humble origins, started by two former union soldiers after the civil war. they w

the nra gets personal. e group is out with a new ad that targets the president's gun control proposals and his family. >> are the president's kids more important than yours? why is he skeptical about putting armed security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their schools? >> was that out of line? i am going to bring in our contributors. the big question, the press secretary issued a statement saying most americans agree that a president's children should not be used as pawns in a political fight but to go so far is repuginant and cowardly. this is a very serious issue. is going after the president's kids just an absolute line you don't cross? >> i think it is completely crazy and counter productive but it makes sense according to a different strategy. we have talked a lot about the nra and how the nra has 4 million members. something like 47% of u.s. house holds report that they own a gun. that is a lot more than 4 million. the nra is concerned about rival gun rights organizations.

listen to this from the nra after today's white house meeting. quote, we were disappointed with how little this had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the second amendment. we will not allow law-abiding gun owners to be blamed for the acts of madmen. i'm in favor of a nationwide ban on semiautomatic assault womens and high volume magazines. i want to see president obama increasing federal funding for mental health treatment for all americans who need it. meanwhile, there's another school shooting today in california. a 16-year-old reportedly felt he was being bullied was accused of attempted murder. the student took direct aim and hit one classmate in taft union high school. he then aimed specifically at another classmate and then missed. kyung lah is in california with the latest. every time you hear these stories right now, a shudder comes with it because of what happened at sandy hook. what do we actually know about what happened here? >> we're learning, actually, a little more. police office

just how out of touch is the nra? e gun rights group has given no ground since the newtown school shooting and is now running a new ad that goes after the president's daughters. has the group finally given up the veneer of having from both parties? americans are generally turning on them and many of their policies are deeply unpopular. i'm talking about the nra. and they're facing right now, we'll see. will the republican party go along the same road the nra is taking? joining me now is my friend and colleague joe scarborough who often speaks common sense from the center right. is it fair to say you're in the center right politically? where would you like to have a third party describe you? i think you are center right. i'm somewhere over to the left, but i think you're somewhere on the other side of the middle point. where are you? >> you know, for the most part i'm where i was when i was in congress. 95% conservative rating. and we could start a debate right now over debt. let me just -- because this is an important

the nra are a bunch of punks for running the ad.they stand behind it, why are they removing it from their website. they are getting what they wanted. they put a youtube add up. we're talking about it. it gets out there. it shows you how weak and cowardly they are when they chose to run away from it. there is no need to invoke the president's daughters in this conversation. i can guarantee you that had anybody invoked the daughters of president george w. bush in a similar ad, folks on the right would be just as upset. >> what about the fact that politicians use kids when they want to politically all the time. remember can chelsea clip ton walking between her parents to the helicopter after the monta lewinsky affair. or this time when the white house released a picture of the president with his two daughters snuggling on the coach. they use their children for political purposes when they want to. >> walking to the helicopter, they are going on vacation. what are they supposed to do, take her to another helicopter? >> it was the hand h

ladies and gentlemen, the nra has come to the white house. >> the gun debat

so that real sli the immovable force and some ways that's akin to the nra. i think key to this is whether or not they can peel off some republicans in suburban districts. again, looking at 2014 and whether or not this is an issue on the ballot. those folks will be scared, i'm sure, of the primary. >> keith, it was asked yesterday would the president do something incremental or a bold move and interesting that andrea mitchell, i believe, the first to report this that nbc learned that the assault weapons ban and background checks will be part of the final set of proposals. some expected there to be more focus on mental health first and then put in an assault weapons ban for the very reasons that nia-malai nia-malika pointed out. >> with that reporting true, it sounds like a comprehensive approach, also talking about high capacity magazine clips banned and also include something about mental health. also do something about the issue of violence and the media and the video games and so forth. but this is not a one size fits all slugs but takes the elements togeth

, the elephant in the room is the nra that's blocking the confirmations and it's the nra that is callings anti-gun. >> without a doubt. and i just don't know why, you know, the president's nominee and other people who have been nominated including the first person that the president, president bush, put forward had been confirmed as a u.s. attorney and was in the republican party and they opposed him quite frankly because they said atf was too tough on gun dealers, so no matter who they put forward. >> right. there was an article in the "washington post" that said it's really -- it's not the federal government running the atf, it's the nra. would you agree with that? >> no, i don't think the nra is running atf. i think they have a say in who will run it, and quite frankly, having acting people rotate through every year or every two years, no one's running it. we're fortunate that career people, the civil service employees of atf, are the stable force in that agency. they've been able to keep the lid on things and trying to keep people on mission, but, again, they need a leader. they need

the headlines were, turning point in the war against the nra. the nra's now in retreat.he dynamics have changed and we remember what happened after that. >> paid a price. >> democrats kind of backed off guns in clinton years and then gore losing the rural states and now again saying can they beat the nra? >> i'm reminded all last year we talked a lot about republicans living in a bubble. right? sort of refusing to believe the reality of the election and how it was going for mitt romney and president obama. i think republicans truly believed that most of america hated the president. and that that would solve the election. well, most of the country actually really liked obama. whatever they thought of his policies and i think refusing to work in the realm of the real really hurt republicans. i would offer the same advice to some gun control advocates who often refuse to work in the realm of the real. i think they truly believe most of the country is anti-gun and despises the nra and that just isn't the case. there's a great piece in bloomberg business week saying what expl

when it comes to gun violence, the nra are blaming the shoot 'em up video games. a video game, and guess what you can do on it, seriously, guess. that's next. [ ♪ t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t irene, drop the itch. we dropped the itch, you can too. maximum strength scalpicin® is not a shampoo so you can stop intense itch fast, wherever you are. i dropped the itch. drop the itch with scalpicin®. r larry. i was surprised to hear there was no life insurance. funerals are so expensive. i hope larry can afford it. i know. that's why i'm glad i got a policy through the colonial penn program. do you think they have coverage for me... you can get permanent coverage for less than 35 cents a day. you won't have to take a physical or answer any health questions. plus, your costs will never go up and your coverage will never go down. if you're between 50 and 85, for less than 35 cents a day. there are no health questions or medical exam. you cannot be turned down because of your health. so call about the colonial penn program, and ask one of their rep

that's what the nra does. and that's why so many members of congress, frankly, are intimidated, in my view. we look at the president proposals, gun control proposals, universal background checks, high capacity magazine limit. assault weapons ban, slen strengthening penalties for trafficking. all of these show the overwhelming majority of people are with. is it really a risk for members of congress to say this time we've got to go not only with what is right, not only with what our heart tells us is the safest for our families. >> i really apreepreciate the congressman's candor. he really is interacting with what the situation has been until recently. they have been formidable. people do live in fear or have lived in fear of them. however, they've been really ineffective in the last few cycles, particularly in 2012. i'm not in a swing state, but i've spent some time in wisconsin and just seeing the ads, i was really quite fearful and they lost horribly in wisconsin. and we saw that across the country. and certai

it isn't the nra. but we do say, one of our core missions, you know, the nra has been around since 1871 and from the 1970s on, we have emerged as the defender of second amendment rights. that's a core part of our mission. >> sure. but is that -- in that do you support gun owners or gun manufacturers? >> we support gun owners, our members and the people in the country who believe in the second amendment. we have had our difference s in the past, if you know the history of the nra with the gun manufacturers, because it is not our constituency. our constituency is twofold, the american people who want to own guns and use them legally, and it is the second amendment, itself. >> david keene, president of the nra, thank you for joining us this morning. >> any time. >> coming up, while washington debates gun control, connecticut's governor pays tribute to the fallen. >> in the midst of one of the worst days in our history, we also saw the best of our state. teachers and therapist who sacrificed their lives pr

when it comes to gun violence, the nra are blaming the shoot 'em up video games. game, and guess what you can do on it, seriously, guess. that's next. [ ♪ theme music ♪ ] irene, drop the itch. we dropped the itch, you can too. maximum strength scalpicin® is not a shampoo so you can stop intense itch fast, wherever you are. i dropped the itch. drop the itch with scalpicin®. >> john: so remember after the newtown killings when nra head wayne lapierre gave that press conference? the one where he couldn't take any questions from the actual press? that's when wayne said i quote there exists in this country a callous, corrupt, and corrupting shadow industry that sells and sows silence against its own people through vicious violent video games. wayne lapierre actually blamed massacres where civilians used weapons designed to kill lots of people really fast on the fake violence of video games and not the very he is access civilians have to weapon designed to kill lots of people really fast. that speech was more tone deaf than mitt romney singing an album of keisha covers.

and the nra is increasingly marginalizing itself. quite figure out why. >> you see, my issue this, with the political part of this is i can understand certain republican congressmen and women who are in red states and who genuinely believe that actually these proposals are wrong. but there are a number of republicans i think who actually would be persuaded on some of these arguments, but who won't even think about going there because of fear of retribution from the nra. and as for the democrats who apparently are threatening to stand up to the president on this, i just don't believe them. i think they're only doing that for political expediency. >> well, and the weird thing about this is if you actually look closely at the nra's electoral strength, it's far less than they crack it up to be. i mean, we had a piece of research done by a guy named paul waltman, who is a researcher at the american spectator, on the think progress website where he analyzed the nra's endorsements, the nra's pac contributions and the nra's independent expend

people who believe what the nra has to say about itself. but they are not the only ones who get to speak to this issue anymore. now everybody gets a turn. what are you doing? nothing. are you stealing our daughter's school supplies and taking them to work? no, i was just looking for my stapler and my... this thing. i save money by using fedex ground and buy my own supplies. that's a great idea. i'm going to go... we got clients in today. [ male announcer ] save on ground shipping at fedex office. [ male announcer ] save on ground shipping so if ydead battery,t tire, need a tow or lock your keys in the car, geico's emergency roadside assistance is there 24/7. oh dear, i got a flat tire. hmmm. uh... yeah, can you find a take where it's a bit more dramatic on that last line, yeah? yeah i got it right here. someone help me!!! i have a flat tire!!! well it's good... good for me. what do you think? geico. fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. like other precious things that start off white, it yellows over time.

they were able to say we've met with the nra. we've met with the people that are strong second amendment supporters. that doesn't mean that there isn't an area for agreement. >> david keene there president of the nra. the point, mark, it's just -- it's arrogance and it's dangerous arrogance. all the nra spokesmen i see out there, none of them want to entertain any form of gun restrictions whatsoever. they're not interested. doesn't matter how bad the scale of the atrocity is. if you try and seau should you are the ones who are unpatriotic, unamerican, attacking the second amendment. >> well you know, i think gabby and i, i don't think you can get more american than the two of us. i flew of us. i flew in combat in operation desert storm and 39 combat missions over iraq and kuwait. she is a former member of congress from the western district and a gun owner who supports the second a mendment, but on assault weapons and high capacity magazines and background checks, we differ with the nra leadership. a lot of our positions on this su