Over 55 people are dead. Over 500 have been wounded, and this tragedy has fundamentally altered the lives of countless families, thousands of eople. They will have to learn to lead very different lives. As gabby has. As i have. They are not alone. We are not alone. Every year roughly 33,000 people die from guns. Over 100,000 more are shot. This is the worst Case Scenario and haunted our dreams that we would wake up to the news of a massacre like this. Weapons of war in the hands of a determined killer with a tactical advantage. This was an ambush if there ever was one. This was domestic terrorism. Gabby and i are heart broken. Days like today remind us how quickly things can change. We are angry. But we also have a choice. We can offer thoughts and prayers and move on through life , numb to these losses. We can accept this galling reality. We can accept the wounds. We can accept that folks like gabby will just have to pay the price for the status quo. We could accept the enormous social, moral and economic costs imposed on this country by accepting gun violence as simply the costs of living in america. We can choose courage we can decide that this problem is worthy of our greatest effort. We can reject the idea that this is inevitable. We can distance ourselves from doing ma and political point scoring. We can also reject special interests. We can demand the leaders we elect go to work in the building behind me and the one right down the street, dont have the option to say that this is just too hard. What we are hearing today at the capitol and the white house, are thoughts and prayers. Thoughts and prayers are important. We send our thoughts and prayers, too. But they are not enough. Your thoughts and prayers arent going to stop the next shooting. Only action and leadership will do that. For years, gabby and i have been working to get the people in this building to summon the courage to take meaningful action that make our communities safer places to live. But despite the tragedies in places like aurora, newtown and orlando despite daily shootings and Domestic Violence and despite an epidemic of preventable suicides, despite the problem of toddlers shooting toddlers and their parents, the response from congress has been to do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Incredibly, congress is currently working on legislation that would weaken our gun laws. Imagine how much worse last nights shooting could have been if the gunman had a silencer. Imagine the confusion for First Responders if they arrived on the scene to a bunch of civilians wielding their own guns attempting to return fire. Imagine the gun lobbys version of society, everyone armed, everyone out for themselves, everyone at risk all of the time. Folks, thats just going backwards. We do not have to live this way. Here in america, we are 25 times more likely to die from gun violence compared to people in other sfrillized countries. In fact, no other country like ours comes close. This must stop. My fellow americans, we dont have to accept this as normal. Its not normal. Its not inevitable, but an epidemic that needs to be cured. Within and we need to marshal l every resource and take every effort to stop people from dying. Make no mistake, there are steps that they can take today to address the over 33,000 gun deaths that occur in our nation every single year. If we want to make our country safer, we cant just be working to defeat bad legislation, like federally mandated concealed carry and the deregulation of silencers. We must be working to pass good legislation that keeps extremely Deadly Weapons out of the wrong hands. But in order to do that, we, you must demand leadership. We need a president who recognizes that we have a gun violence problem and will work towards solutions. Americans need more than than our president s prayers. We need his plan. We need a congress that will stand up to the special interests, look at the evidence and act to save lives. Public safety must be our top priority. Gabby and i are in d. C. Today because we had planned on joining candidate for governor of virginia on the campaign trail talking about how to keep our communities safer. Its because politics matters. Who we elect matters. Dont let anyone tell you not to talk about politics when we talk about guns. Gabby got into politics because she wanted to govern. The people we elect will either take us backwards, condemning us for many more days when we wake up to more carnage and more lost lives or will take us forward towards a safer country. Here are a few things that our leaders can do and should do today that will keep americans safer. Pass universal back grouped check to make sure they get a back grouped check before they get a gun. The studies are clear. When these laws are passed, fewer people get shot. When they have repealed murder has increased. Subject the sale of the most lethal weapons to more stronger oversight and legislation. You can buy an ar15 in a parking lot with no background check at all. Thats crazy. Require guns to be required safely in the homes so unstable relatives do not access to them. Stop the domestics busers from getting guns. Women are too often killed by abusers of firearms and most Mass Shootings start as Domestic Violence incidents. Allow restraining orders, just like we do with a domestic abuser to stop folks in crises to use guns. Stop the trafficking of guns. D require the c. D. C. And our other Public Health agencies to increst the resources to prevent gun deaths and injuries like we do for every other similar cause of death or injury. And as a first step, congress and we are calling congress to do this, to establish a special commission, equal parts, democrat and republicans to come together towards solutions that will save lives. And finally, dont let anybody tell you that we need more giveaways to the n. R. A. And more profits to the gun industry. Does anybody actually believe that our gun laws are too strong . Give me a break. Action to save lives is the only acceptable moral course for our country. Without action we are asking one person to be the next person to die because of our weakness to address evil and not another and then another and then another. Gabby. Ms. Giffords the nation is counting on you. Mr. Kelly thank you, everybody. What do you think has been the deficiency and we have been at this over and over again, is there something that you are requesting . Do you feel there is something in your legislative strategy that has failed . Y does this not resonate and mr. Kelly polarization of our politics and people lining up on the side of a powerful corporate interest with a lot of money who happens to support a lot of candidates to get them elected to office. And thats a problem. Reporter how do you overcome that . Mr. Kelly we have been working to overcome this with the resources that we have to put the people in office that will accept this as a Public Health issue, that will work to come up with responsible and sensible solutions that by the way, protect the Second Amendment but at the same time keep guns out of the wrong hands. The resources are not balanced. We are always looking you know, its quite out of balance until we work on fixing Campaign Finance reform, it will stay out of balance. Reporter if congress didnt do anything after gabby was shot or orlando or sandy hook, what gives you hope that theyll do something now . Mr. Kelly they are going in the wrong direction. There are a couple of legislation that will make si lensers available and anybody can carry a gun, they are going in the wrong direction. We need to get them moving in the right direction. What it takes is for people that put these folks in office to demand action. Make a phone call. Its pretty easy to do and not a lot of people do it. Call your member of congress, your senator and governor and tell them you want action. Reporter what kind of legislation do you think would best minimize the carnage . Mr. Kelly background checks for all gun sales. Gun trafficking, you know, taking a hard look at what kind of legitimateal weapon should we allow people to get easy access to. We dont have the details in this shooting today, but it was clear he used some kind of automatic weapon to do this. These weapons are designed to kill a lot of people very quickly. Reporter you talked about the polarization of politics. How do you stop it . Mr. Kelly Campaign Finance reform is a good start. Our goal is to bring some balance on this issue and we have helped pass 200 pieces of legislation in 45 different states. On the state level, we have done pretty well and feel pretty good about it. But washington, d. C. , much more difficult place. Reporter your response of trying to work on the inside and you have been fighting on the outside. Mr. Kelly every time somebody asks me that question, i do think about it. Gabby and i have been getting legislation passed in more than 45 state exools. And until we seriously accept this and the people in that building accept this as a serious Public Health crisis on both sides of the aisle, we will have other Mass Shootings like this. Reporter what do you say to people and democrats who agree with you on this issue that coming out on this day of a shooting is politicizing it. Mr. Kelly if not now, when . Gabby and i have those folks in our thoughts and prayers and had 50 americans die, 500 more injured by gun fire, probably from a. 223 caliber round that can fly through multiple people and cause mass carnage. If you are not going to talk about this, how many times can we say it. Now is not the time, well, today is the time. [ [inaudible] mr. Kelly unstable people and people who shouldnt have access to these kinds of guns can easily get them. Why is this one worse than orlando . I dont know maybe after the investigation well find out what this guys intent was. Its pretty obvious he went after a group of people and ambushed people that didnt have a place to go and he had a lot of fire power. Reporter a lot of what you are suggesting and past measures compared to in australia. Will it ever be possible in the ited states to eliminate the gun culture that has the special interests built up or working around the Second Amendment . Mr. Kelly im a gun owner and gabby is a gun owner and i served 25 years in the United States navy and i flew in combat, Second Amendment is important here in this country. However, we can respect the Second Amendment and the rights of responsible gun owners and at the same time, we can keep guns out of the hands of criminals, domestic abusers, potential mass shooters and idiots. I mean we can do that. You know, and we have 33,000 last year, 2015, 35,000 americans died from gun violence. That number has been trending up in the last couple of years. Hey, there is no reason why it cant be 70,000. If we are smart about this and demand the people in the building behind me take action, we can cut that number in half. Theres no reason why we cant. Most of the children that die in the industrialized world from gun violence die here in the United States. Is that really what we want . The sad thing is that we can fix this. Thank you everybody. [applause] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org an issue in maryland that are concerned with is the heritage, the heritage of slavery and the heritage of the civil war. Justice tiny who wrote the dredscott decision and how do we have conversations about our past . Johns, Frederick Douglas s and speeches of lincoln and try to have speeches with one another about the issues and different points of view. I care about most deeply how can we as americans and marylanders have real conversation where everyone is respected but we have some real understanding about issues that really matter for our heritage, our history and what is happening today. So thats what im hoping for is not just fighting, not just arguing, not just power truggles, but real commune conversation. Devon and ame is incorporation, when people come out out of prison walls, i believe employment and housing and just the support system is very vital to staying out of isons and keeping resid vism down. And get employment and substantial to their families that will keep them and faith based. Im the president of st. Johns college. I think the issue that is most critical for us to address do is the issue of civil discourse. At st. Johns college, we offer young people to sit around the table and to discuss in our seminars, the most pertaining issues what it means to human being, what Human Flourishing is and what it takes to have a great society. And if we all have the opportunity to do that and sit around the table and look each other in the eyes and address one anothers humanity and begin conversations about important things, we will be a much stronger nation, a Better Society and come much closer to finding solutions to the problems that we face. So i encourage everybody out there to think about that model of civil discourse and address questions. Im a junior at st. Johns college and student supervisor and my etro art gallery job and responsibility as being a student supervisor is to teach people about the arts and get them involved in the work shops that we ha