Good evening everyone. Welcome to our program this evening, finding Common Ground on guns. I am amy im the executive director of the aspen center for Civic EngagementPublic Service here at George Washington university. We are the central hub for all Things Community and engagement. One of the cosponsors for this evenings exciting conversation. Im really happy to see you all. Now im delighted to introduce you to the present of the George Washington university, president has highly distinguished career academically in chemistry and holds many academic and honors. He was a chancellor of Washington University of st. Louis for 24 years prior to joining us at gw in january 2022. We are delighted to have him as our president. We are delighted to have him here this evening. [applause] thank you amy and good evening everyone. Amy, thank you for the leadership you are bringing to our university in terms of encouraging engagement and service efforts. I appreciate very much your special work. As a president of the George Washington university i am pleased to welcome all of you to this dialogue on the finding Common Ground on guns. This is the issue that has long been very important to me personally. I mentored together with my wife a young woman for about seven years. She was murdered by gunfire in st. Louis soon. This engaged me very deeply in terms of recognizing that we have a major problem in the United States. We have with us this evening, important individuals who will participate tonight in a dialogue. Murphy of connecticut, former congressman will heard of texas. And im sure we have texas. We have with us also former cds news correspondent and author jacqueline adams. I want to thank Common Ground the bridge at gw Student Group and our national and center organizing this special event tonight. At the George Washington university we are committed to an Academic Mission of teaching, research, patient care and service. And that has long had a positive impact on our nation and the world. One important way to have this impact is by convening and participating in discussions on very difficult issues. Which is what we are doing here this evening. This dialogue will help to inform the public and demonstrate the skill of respectful discourse and exchange of differing views on the critical issue of guns. Many people recognize clearly that we have a problem. There are solutions to this problem. And at a dialogue like this this evening, we can identify some of the best approaches to solving this critical problem. In addition to tonights event i also note another important effort our university is engaged in. That is joining with other washington d. C. Area universities to address gun violence through researchbased recommendations. Similar to our goal this evening through our efforts with other universities, we hope to use our knowledge and create new knowledge to address this critical problem of Public Health due to gun violence. I hope that together, through all of our efforts we will make a Good Progress and more rapid progress. Thank you for joining the event tonight. We hope you find it rewarding and illuminating. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much president wrighton. Now, i am delighted to introduce two to the other gw cosponsors for this event. These students were the impetus to bring this event here tonight. From fairfax, virginia as a sophomore at Gw Elliott School of international affairs. And among many other activities he serves in the army rotc. Sophie is off so a sophomore at studies of journalism as well as international affairs. She also has many extra curricular and co that she is involved in. She is from villa hills, kentucky. Like to introduce you to sophie and. [applause] thank you amy for the introduction per good cofounder and ceo of Common Ground committee. [applause] [applause] welcome. Thank you president wrighton, Sophie Holtzman and manraj multani for the warm welcome. Its a pleasure to coproduce tonights events with bridget gw in the National Center. At its executive director. A behalf of my colleagues at Common Ground committee in our Media Partners the Christian Science monitor, thank you all so much for coming. The video you just saw gives you a little insight into our organization. We are a nonpartisan citizen led nonprofit bringing light not heat to Public Discourse and working on the problems with the polarization that threaten our nation. This is our 18th the public form. Tonights topic is finding Common Ground on. We encourage you to tweet tonight. You can see some of the hashtags we encourage you to use. You can see them here on the screen behind me. So it he has put good policy over good cyber former undercover officer for the. For almost two decades hes been involved Security Issues found in our country. Although the author of reboot and idealist guide to getting big things done. Please welcome congressman will hurd. [applause] else on the. He has dedicated his career to Public Service as an advocate for the families he represents. He has been a strong voice in the senate on job creation, affordable healthcare, education and forwardlooking foreign policy. A Fair Community act aimed at saving lives from gun violence. Please welcome senator chris murphy. [applause] thank you so much for being with us. And with that, jackie the floor is yours but. Thank you so much for your kind introduction. It is my great pleasure to be back before a Common Ground committee audience. And we are live in we are in person here at this amazing jack morton auditorium at George Washington university. I am delighted to share the stage with our esteemed and courageous panelist tonight. Or it topic is a difficult one, a complex one. Finding Common Ground on guns. Its fraught with passionate views on both sides. Lawabiding gun owners were theres too much focus on controlling guns. Others believe guncontrol is the best way to address and perhaps even reduce gun violence. A plan tonight is to discuss the politics of guns, the role of semiotic weapons in Mass Shootings and we are going to have a lightning round discussion about an array of possible solutions. After that we will take your questions from the audience. We will conclude with what we hope a discussion of ways to end polarization in our political discourse. Our time is short. Weve got a big agenda so lets get started. Senator murphy, i have read that you have an f rating with the National Rifle association. Known as the nra. Congressman hurd you. [inaudible] you both have a truly tragic reality. Mass shootings have hit very close to home for both of you. And to remind everyone senator murphy was a young u. S. Congressman representing newtown connecticut when 21st graders and six School Employees were massacred. Two more were injured at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on december 14, 2012. The shooter had an assault style rifle. Two semi automatic pistols, a shotgun as well as several hundred rounds of ammunition stored in highcapacity magazines. Congressman hurd represent the Quiet Community of youve all day, texas. Where 19 children and two teachers were killed and 17 were wounded by another government using a semi automatic and that happened this past may 22. In june, just after the murders congressman hurd tallied the death toll nationwide in a New York Times oped you can see it. He wrote since 2009, 1565 americans have been killed in Mass Shootings. That is more than the number of u. S. Military personnel killed in hostile action in afghanistan over the same. At the same entrance to the end of august President Biden gave a speech on reducing gun violence and focused on semi automatic style weapons used in both of those school massacres. Lets listen. Imagine seeing the parent, not just of a child, would not be able to physically identify the child, or the adult because there were literally blown apart. We equip our Service Members with the most lethal weapons on earth to protect all of us. To protect americans. Vote these men received significant training, extensive background checks, Mental Health assessments, they have to learn how to lock up and store their weapons responsibly or they get kicked out. But we let any stranger, an 18yearold walkin or a 20yearold walkin and by an ar15. Back in 1994 i took on the nra and posse assault weapon ban. For ten years Mass Shootings were down. For ten years on process i pass that legislation in 1994 as a senator. 2004 republicans let that be unexpired. Mass shootings in america tripled, tripled. It is time to ban these. It is time to ban these weapons. We did it before, we can do it again. Sobering. Before we address the issue of ar15 and semi automatic weapons, lets talk about the politics of guns. Senator murphy youve been fighting for gun violence legislation for a very long time and following gun for iraq to pass the Safer Communities act. This is the first major federal legislation on gun control since 1994. How did you get a compromise bill passed finally . First of all let me think the Common Ground community, gw all your partners for having will and i hear today. Looking forward to this conversation. The view and the audience we did find Common Ground this summer on may be the most complicated, most politically vaccine issue out there. We will get into the details why the compromise of guns is so difficult. There is a whitehot intensity in this country around the issue of guns. It is cultural. Its also existential. Many of the connection to a weapon is very much tied to itself. Their sense of definition and meaning. For others, peoples access to weapons is directly relevant to whether their kids are going to come home safe from a walk to school or the local grocery store. We do not get an issue more explosive and more meaningful than this one. The reason that we found Common Ground this summer was because the American Public it had enough of an action. While sandy hook shook this country to its core, it has been the cumulative impact of mass shooting after mass shooting as well as suicides and homicides continued to use spiral upward bread brought the public to the point this summer they just were not willing to accept congress. So uvalde happened at a week later we went back to our districts, our states for the memorial day recess. Often big comp. Things fell apart when Congress Leaves Town for the opposite happen this time. Members of the senate went home and saw a sense of panic and anxiety from families and kids and parents they hadnt seen before. Came back to washington with a real sense of purpose that there was going to be a political price to be paid, for the first time maybe if there is not a bill produce that at least showed some progress on guns. It certainly helped there were a handful of us that had some fresh built hopes we done a smaller bill on guns a few years back. Senator sinema had lots of trust relationships on the republican side. So the relationships mattered. But that was secondary. What was most important was there is an imperative from the public to push us to get beyond our politics. And to make some progress. That sets the ground for what was a 30 day period of negotiation of passage. Really remarkable how little time was taken to pass a 15 billiondollar bill with five major changes and gun laws. But the point we negotiated 30 days later he got something down that had never been done or achieved in the last 30 years because of the difficulty of this issue. Congressman hurd you know how Congress Works and how difficult crafting a compromise like this is for any member of congress. What could you think finally drove this time . It starts with chris and john cornyn do this. If you look at either one of their twitter feeds during that process they were getting attacked by their supporters and people on the extreme of their parties are about doing too, christian not doing enough. That relationship between the two of them was able to see this through. That is a big component to this. But as chris said the public was tired. 50 of teenagers and the United States of america are afraid of getting shot at school. That is nuts. I do not care where you are in the political continuum, no one should think that is okay. Though i think we have to remember that moment and people were influences. We can go back a few years ago with fix mix. A town in south texas. The shooter went into a church. And again senator cornell worked on a piece of legislation in essence the criminal background check. There is a group of about 6 million records that were not being included that were supposed to be included to prevent people from ultimately being able to purchase a weapon. That was not happening. Even Something Like that what you think is pretty straightforward, updating a database was a difficult issue. I could go even further. This was after i believe this was after the ame shooting charleston about having a universal background checks. It was called hr eight back then. I was one of eight republicans. Were going to talk about that. Ask the public has to speak out. And i think chris is rated is the cumulative effect. Where we need to get to the stop retreating to our corners and arguing the same positions we have been arguing and start with the wet are those three or four things that we can agree on . How do we address those things to build upon the momentum this legislation chris and cornyn did a couple weeks ago. As i mentioned the two of you on opposite ends of spectrums and your ratings of the nra. A lot of people talk about power of the nra. How influential is this organization . I would say its weakened slightly but can you explain how wields its power over legislation . Ultimately any kind of Advocacy Group you have email lists, real people who are advocates and they wield power in a primary. I talk a lot about the importance of voting in the primaries. In the last non president ial election in 2000 average number of people that voted in a contested election primary election or a house seat is 58000 people. 54000 people. That is crazy but that means 26 out of 500 people decide who is going to be the house seat. Because a 92 of those house seats are decided in a primary. Decided in november to 275,000 people. So a group has influence in the primary especially if you know they are reliable primary voters. Now i will say this other group like moms demand action. Yes, i got an a rating from nra. Nra has supported me in some of my elections. But also groups like moms demand action who were in Advocacy Group coming in educating members on new want specific details of things happening in their district. I think that is an example of how these Advocacy Groups have influence. Senator murphy, it took decades for the legislation to pass. Do you be leave the nra played a role in the delay . Of course. The most impactful piece of legislation here is the one will mentions. The universal background checks. Data tells you if you check every weapon to mentors only going to the white hand are going get the biggest bang for your buck. It has also had Massive Public support. I think the only way you can explain that as to the power of the nra. I think with the nra did that was so effective visit was able to essentially make its endorsement mean more than a candidates position on guns. The nra folded themselves into the fabric of the broader conservative movement. And will knows better than i do but it seems to me at least that endorsement was sort of a proxy for a broader set of conservative values that you had as a candidate. That is why he became so important to republican candidates. If you really look at the amount of money the nra spends an election is a drop in the bucket compared to what modern super pacs are spending. But the impacts, the authority of that endorsement especially inside a Republican Party that was sort of becoming very antigovernment in its abuse thus the endorsement of a group that stood for the right of individuals to arm itself against the government. Started to become a little bit more important. I think it is that impact from the nra beyond the candidates gun positions that made the nra so powerful. Inside the Republican Party on for a while and said the democratic party. We also cannot say this is the only problem. This is a complicated issue. These Advocacy Groups have a role but we cannot say its the only thing that is driving this issue. I think the reliance on one entity would take away from how complicated this is and they need to educate members and for people to be active about these types of issues. But as you said senator murphy became embedded in a whole menu of cultural issues. That increase the power perhaps. Existed in a vacuum. There is not an anti Gun Violence Movement in this country prior to sandy hook. The Brady Campaign sort of held that ports but it is not substantial force in the nation. So when voters were coming out to the polls to vote on guns, they were almost exclusively voters were coming out to register an opinion about less gun laws are no new gun laws. After sandy hook what happens is your birth of the modern anti gun movement. By the time 2022 rolls around all the sudden that movement is mobilizing just as many voters if not more voters in the nra. The nra power for a long time was not just a function of its organization or message as a function of the fact there is no counterweight in the political ecosystem. We have a poll showing how attitudes have changed in 2000 now on the issue of gun control versus gun rights. Americans are divided by party over gun ownership in protecting gun rights. You can see on this chart on the right over the last decade the two parties have become even more divided on the question of how important it is to protect the rights of americans to own guns. Senator murphy, as we said this is really controversy a point. But what rights do you believe are afforded to americans through the Second Amendment . I actually think this is a really important question for proponents of stronger laws to contend with. I believe the Second Amendment protects the rights of private gun ownership or this plenty of constitutional scholars that dont believe they think the Second Amendment is about the ability to muster a militia. I think that is wrong. Think the comment wrought light at the adoption of the Second Amendment to private gun ownership. I also think it is politically important for my side to make clear that we do not think the constitution allows for the broad abolition of weapons or the confiscation of weapons. I think if we were more forthright in that position it would make it a little bit harder for the other side to suggest everything i am for is the camels nose under the tent to ultimately take all your weapons away. I think the Second Amendment protects the broad right of private gun ownership. But absolutely allows for the regulation of that right for certain people to be prohibited from buying weapons or for certain weapons to be kept in the hands of Law Enforcement. I think the reading of the era of the gun regulation the time of the adoption of the Second Amendment back that up. Congressman hurd a same question. How do you interpret the Second Amendment and is there Common Ground . I believe in the plain language of this. In this poll, if you would have asked about gun violence you probably would get a different response, right . So if you would ask questions should our kids to be to go to school and get shots, you are going to get a different response. Sometimes the words that we use trigger people in order to go to the corners. That is why we have to change some of the language how we talk about this that we ultimately agree upon. Something as simple as if you were to get a long gun or a rifle you should be 21. The same for the purchase of handgun. Its like 82 of americans agree with that. And most people do not realize that there is a difference in that age. Why that is . I do not know the answer to that. But when you Start Talking about you start with the issue we can agree on, you can Start Talking about the things we should be doing to ultimately fix the problem. That is kind of a strange question to ask. To prefer the sun being up or down . It is kind of a silly question because the sun is always going to be up and down, youre going to get both. This idea he had to choose between regulating guns in protecting the rights of gun owners and think most americans could say we could do both. We get asked to protect peoples rights to own guns and regulate that right in the two are not mutually exclusive. It is a little deceiving to suggest that is evidence of a division. Think im saying the same thing. Agreed. That was written by political scientists that want to create discord and great drama and have a disconnect. And they succeeded, right . They have succeeded. Lets move on. We are meeting in an academic institution. You are beginning to do this to identify Common Ground solutions involving guns in schools. We are going to go back to some political scientists here. According to every town research, even though school Mass Shootings are rare, over 95 of american k12 schools go through active shooter drills. Socalled active shooter incidents have become more common in recent years. As you said the students are telling us they are living in fear. Congressman hurd you wrote in your recent oped that the Violence Project has created a profile of the typical mass shooter. You described that profile as a childhood trauma, a crisis point that pushes them over the edge. Imitation of prior mass shooters and a scapegoat to blame. And the opportunity to carry out the attack. Now there is a lot of data about the impact of multiple traumas that genz have experienced in their ages 17 24 on average. I would guess most students in this room are in that category. And the traumas have been exacerbated by social media. Harvard pollster john has described a great many genz young man as feeling anxious and hopeless and depressed and isolated with some 25 of them indicating thoughts of self harm. So how can we identify these mass shooters in this generation . And can we stop them in advance how or should we prevent them from getting these guns in the first place . Yes, yes, yes is a short answer. But it is hard. And if you go back and look at many of these cases. What i like about the Violence Project i have not found anyone else who has looked up every mass shooting event since 1966 or 1964. Analyze and talk to all of the people who have committed a mass murder event. Some were even about too but stopped. Lets start with the people who collected the data and see what they had found. In all of these cases, identifying childhood trauma is a hard problem. Thats a problem it comes to Mental Health. It is health we do not have the resources and schools. We do not have the resources in our community is to deal with that. That is a huge major issue that has to be addressed. Two, something happened to them in their love life. Somebody said something to them. There was always this inciting incident. And often times they talk about it on social media. People have ignored it. Now, if tonight one of us saw somebody that we know lets say 18 or 19yearold kid that said something they were going to do and theyre going to commit harm. Would we know what to do with that . Who do you call . To call their parents . To call the school . Do you call the police . Do you give it to a tip light of the fbi . Being able to identify that case and what we do about it is what is ultimately the difficult part and we have to figure that out. I do not have all the answers we can potentially do that. But that is what we are ultimately identifying. And then we talk about how do you prevent people from getting weapons in the first place that lets start with raising the age of 21. But that have solved . Could have stopped donbas yes he waited to lose 1818 and had the money to do that. There is not one solution thats going to solve this problem. Also, we do not have to accept this continuing to happen but it is going to require Difficult Conversations in multiple areas of our society in order to solve it. We cannot just say this one magical solution is going to solve all the problems. Quick senator murphy this issue was addressed to some degree in your new bill. What portions of that new builds you think will help us address and identify those who fit the profile of a mass shooter . To an extent i have course agree with will we should raise the age. I would get rid of the weapon altogether. I frankly think a lot of these Mass Shootings would not have happened if these kids did not have access to this weapon they had used in videogames and seen in movies. I think there is a real perverse false courage that comes with having access to an ar15. And so there is an element of our bill that seeks to provide new tools to make sure the folks that fit this profile do not have access to weapons. We have a waiting period now on purchases for individuals under 21. We have extra contact at the local Police Department that has to be made for any younger buyers sweet fund at red flag laws so if there is information circulating about somebody who is making threats to do damage to others you can go and take those weapons away. But i will offer a bit of caution about putting too many eggs in the basket of profiling. Because of profiling can go right but it can also go wrong. Especially if youre talk about a profile that involves individuals with Mental Illness or histories of trauma or disability. I worry that you are ultimately looking for a handful of needles and a giant haystack. And seconds, by putting too much faith in your ability to profile you end up may be discriminated against some kids pushing some kids out of mainstream education that may be acting strange but not necessarily a threat to anybody. So i support this work, i do. But i think sometimes it is a substitute for more politically difficult things like making sure these weapons are used by the mass shooters do not in the hands of civilians by quickset is the subject. Is also the debate around the red flag laws. What is that actually mean question but i spent a lot of times with companies in artificial intelligence. People are talking about can you use these tools . Some and the crowds would know the reference of minority report the tom cruise movie we talk about precrime. But the capability exists. But do we trust the ability to do that . That is a hard question. On so i agree with chris on this, this is a difficult situation. The difficulty of dealing with the Mental Health issues is in my opinion sometimes the actual weapon. Quote lets talk about the weapons. In the call to ban a range of firearms including ar15s. Sophie whom you saw the beginning of the evening was a Vice President of bridget dw said and lets find Common Ground podcasts that the earlier assault weapons ban reduce gun violence by only 6 . On its face we might say thats a really small percentage. But sophie noted that 6 number encompassed her entire neighborhood in her small kentucky town. So congressman hurd, would you consider backing a renewed ban on assault weapons the precise definitions get tricky. But how do you define assault weapons . This is one of those areas and i am not here to defend it. Im here to try to find Common Ground on these issues. But when you go back to the assault weapons ban it was not all assault weapons. It was certain types. It was everything made after a certain date sows into the future. It did not grandfather. Stated that grandfather things. It was also included into a piece of legislation that increased incarceration of a black man and made things more difficult. And the ominous one piece you had three former president s to include Ronald Reagan involved in the advocacy of getting Something Like this past. And so the environment was a different on this particular issue. Course if you go hunting even if it is to hunt birds so theres some of those kind of education issues. The details of this ultimately matter, and again you go back to i think 2004 the department of justice has a think tank that looks at some of these issues and you still solve a number of casualty events and number of People Killed was the actual increase and it didnt decrease so again the details of this matter but i think theres other steps and elements we should be doing before we get to address this issue. I appreciate the way that he approached this. It is a fundamentally different moment. The political moment is different but theres a whole mess load out there today its a pretty rare weapon back in 1994. The industry wasnt relying on the sale to drive their profits in the way that they are today. To me this is a clearcut case we always make a decision what is owned by civilians and what needs to be by the military. These are hard to define. Of these weapons were ds land to kill as many human beings as quickly as possible. The combination of the speed and velocity of the bullet leaving the gun along with the ease of the weapon to shoot multiple rounds, sometimes 100 at a time before you have to change the cartridge. To me that doesnt belong in the hands of civilians. You dont need it to hunt and protect your home. Its designed to kill multiple human beings all at once such as not anything civilians need, and i do believe that many of these shooters wouldnt carry out the crime if they didnt have access to that weapon and even if they did, there would be a whole lot more kids alive today if the shooter walked into the schools or moving theaters with a handful of pistols or handguns and instead an assault weapon with a 30 round magazine attached to it. I agree its a different political moment and it makes it harder because this weapon is ubiquitous even though you wouldnt be passing legislation that takes it out of the hands of individuals you have a lot more public demand for it today van you did back in 1994. Its sort of part of the political consciousness of a lot of conservatives in a way that it wasnt in the 90s, so a different conversation today but i just believe the data and psychology should be back in the hands of Law Enforcement. Are you for or against mandating that teachers are armed. Where do you store the guns and classroom . I have been trained in tactical situations. Its hard this is not something putting them in a situation. I could think of a situation in which a teacher was armed and it would have to be pretty significant because to be able to perform and that stressful environment and not have consequences it takes a whole lot of training. One of the First Reading parts, that didnt prevent the situation from spiraling out of control and these were the people that were trained and part of Law Enforcement. So i think this notion that more guns in the classroom is going to prevent this. I think that is a fallacy. You hinted earlier at an issue. How do we protect public spaces other than schools like theaters and concert venues and shopping malls . Admittedly i still think of this through the prism because ive got two kids in public schools, and as much as i want them to be safe, i also dont want them to go to school in prison. I dont think that is good for their educational or emotional health. I also dont believe that the solutions to turn all of our public spaces into arms camps to be going to movie theaters guarded by guys with guns. What we know is that these weapons are so powerful that we gather in public spaces so often that if a mad man wants to shoot into a crowd theres very little way for us to create a society. To make people feel better about their daily existence i dont think the data will ever backup that loading a place of with weapons is more safe. Heres one area there could be an improvement. If you already have private security, take the pulse nightclub shooting in orlando, the attack cycle of a place like this had been the same since the dawn of time. At some point somebody has to case the location before they perform an activity. Not always the case, but there was private security were they doing suspicious activity reports and if they were doing suspicious activity reports, where was that information going . Would you have been able to protect the private security of the nightclub and private security of a mall to the private security of an Office Building the answer is no so how do you work at a local Law Enforcement where you have the resources but they are not being used in efficient ways. So instead of militarizing all of our locations where there is private security, are they being deployed at the right way and do they have an interconnectivity with local Law Enforcement when they see something that they are able to connect the dots that this is in another location. To set the stage for the last segment, lets take a look at another chart. It illustrates the top percentage that accounts for 54 and murderers account for 43 . There are three form and gun safety proposals aimed at reducing the number of these deaths. Raise minimum age to buy guns, do you have an argument against that . Why the majority of your colleagues object so this is an example where when you actually read the legislation it doesnt do what some folks say its going to do. To take weapons and kristi alluded to that earlier on and this rhetoric is out there. Talking about this and explaining to me it made a lot of sense and they are dealing with the information i needed. Being one of eight republicans in the country and the only republican in texas expecting a little bit of heat but heres what was fascinating. Not as much as i expected because part of it is when you explain to people what it actually really does, most people are like yeah, everybody should go through a check. The other part, this is where you talk to people that have guns and use them for sporting. These are law abiding people and the simple majority of them treats the weapon the right way, do things the proper way. When you talk to them, every weapon theyve ever purchased how to go through a background check so this one should be simple and its not the government trying to create a database of everybody that owns a gun. Theres nothing else in american politics as popular as universal background checks. Its somewhere between 88 and 97 like literally kittens, grandma, apple pie. They dont pole 97 . So you talk about the Common Ground, here it is. Americans have made up their mind. They think if you are going to buy a gun you should have to prove that you are not as serious criminal or you are not seriously mentally ill. This is the craziest thing. Only inside washington is it still controversial and again that speaks to this legacy power of interest that still remains. To go through the background check them to get things delivered to your house. Final question in this round. Some lawabiding gun owners say the solution is as simple as enforcing current gun laws. Are the current gun laws not being i dont know specifically what we are talking about and missing. But one example is it is it illegal to sell a weapon to someone who can have it all these loopholes people are talking about might not to be illegal to purchase it but its illegal to sell it to the person that should have it thats why anybody with federal license to sell weapons or doing background checks regardless of the transaction but it should be enforced. The problem is the same people spent a big part of the last 30 years tying the hands of Law Enforcement when they wanted to enforce those. So deep in the statute theres all these restrictions on Law Enforcement for instance you cant visit a store more than once a year to check in to see whether they are selling guns illegally. They are not allowed to computerize just to make it difficult to track an illegal weapon it takes days to get the weapon and trace it back to see where it was originally sold. A lot of folks would say we dont do need any new laws. Its hard to enforce the existing walls because a lot of the handcuffs that congress put in in the heyday. These conversations help because you learn the kind of stuff like that so that is an element i hadnt been aware of. I hadnt read anything about that. Its time for those of you in the audience to ask your questions so please line up behind one or two. Public service. Okay. We have a challenge going on right now. For anybody thats parked outside on 21st street, theres a water main break and the city is going to tow cars. So if you are parked out there, you may want to get your car moved. Sorry. Thank you. I thought i was going to squeeze in one of my questions but why dont we start over here. So this one is more so in particular for senator murphy. One thing, could you identify yourself and what year you are . Im studying Political Science. So you know, you mentioned certain firearms are not so relevant for self protection or activities like hunting that very well may be true but what about the fundamental part of the constitution which is the Second Amendment because if theres an argument going around that there are certain types of weaponry that could emerge. The Second Amendment isnt a protection of the right of individuals to rise up against their government infected is the opposite. The Second Amendment was designed to be able to muster a militia so as to put down the rebellion against the United States government. In fact that was one of the first militias that was formed after the passage of the constitution was the militia that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton raised to put down a rebellion in rural pennsylvania so this idea that the Founding Fathers were preserving the right of individuals to rise up against them is not based in reality the idea was to to be able to have a militia capability with armed citizens that could join the militia to be able to protect and preserve the republic that they decided to put together at the time of the founding of the country. I think the founders could be pretty surprised to find out that they were protecting the right of the revolution against George Washington. Not to go back all the way to the beginning, but weve known Mass Shootings and gun violence have gone for a while. What made you faulty different . Great question. I think you faulty estate in the National Conversation because of all the failures of Law Enforcement. My fear was a bunch of kids were killed and no ones going to care the next day. The reason it stayed in the public consciousness is because every second or third day we learned Something Like how many people were there . What happened . The police didnt respond or the student happen were kids were calling and saying they were still in there and the police didnt save us. So the outrage continued to bubble and in this state into consciousness for a lot longer than i think people were. That is what made it different in my opinion. We came very close to an agreement with President Trump and republicans so as time went on and the movement got stronger. To give a below the curtain view the trust built up between members having the conversation may be enough to fruition, but close to it. When you faulty happened it was particularly cataclysmic that it but itwas also at a moment whenh was enough and i think all of that explains why this summer was different. The 11yearold girl that covered herself in the blood of her colleagues and played dead, thats horrific in these kind of stories weve got to get beyond inaction so i think all of those things have that affect. I am a freshman and studying Political Science, so i have two quick questions. First, i think the conversation around assault weapons is important and the vast majority done by weapons that are not assault weapons. Im curious if your proposal dealing with that and senator murphy when we talk about this question of the voter priority you will see a lot of times they are talking about and saying they support universal background checks. A lot of them do not vote for the candidates that support universal background checks. How do you make them more of the driving issue for voters . Its my 80 to 90 dont get their way because its an issue they sort of lower down on the priority list that is changing so in the 2018 election for instance its the number one issue its higher than it had ever been before and i do think that is changing and in part because of the movement. You are also right that while we do spend a majority of the public conversation around mass shooting, that isnt the real reality of gun violence in the nation on a daily basis and that is why i spend most of my time working on universal background checks because universal background checks is the quickest way to stem Domestic Violence, homicide, suicide and sort of the average everyday gun violence in our cities because more background checks means less trafficking of illegal weapons into cities. Its not a panacea or anecdote, but to me that policy gets you the biggest downward pressure on the shootings that is still what ends up killing 99 of gun violence victims in the country. We havent even touched Domestic Violence into the problem you have at local levels with the resources to prosecute on these kind of things is outrageous in my hometown of san antonio, theres so much Domestic Violence the first offense is basically you are giving which is insane in my opinion so the problem that requires many different efforts to address it. Lets figure out the one that could have the biggest address into universal background checks, age to be able to do that and how to get more people to follow through on public desires vote primary. Its that simple weve got to vote primaries in 2020. Some folks were ranting about this earlier in 2026, 4 eligible to vote voted in the general election but only 24 voted in the primary. If you dont like your options in november its because we didnt take the options to get a better option in the primary. Thats where a small handful of people, we are not talking about, translating into a ten to 12 change in the primary. More people have to vote in primary. Some people dont do it because they feel like i dont have enough information. Guess what you are as smart as the people involved in these parties. To get involved in primaries and find those people that are likeminded and if we do that i think we will see a change in the kind of decisions in washington, d. C. Im Alex Rothstein a political major at gw. I was born in chicago and grew up by Highland Park and the question is more about your thoughts on the variability between states on their own gun laws because in chicago and all over illinois over half the shootings committed with guns are purchased outside of the states. State laws make a difference. The homicide rate in florida is 400 higher than the homicide rate in connecticut and i know the people in florida are different people but not that different. Walls make a difference, so state laws do make a difference and if you just look at the rate in the country the guns that are used to commit crimes in new york city for instance, none of them are bought in new york state. 90 or maybe 80 of the guns used for crimes in new york come from someplace other than connecticut, new jersey or new york. They are brought up from states where they are loose gun laws so the criminal can by weapons at a gun show or online, traffic them to new york or connecticut and sell them out of the back of the truck so thats why you need these to be national. But state laws the evidence tells us the state laws evidently do have an impact. Thank you for coming here. I am a freshman here and also a survivor of the Highland Park mass shooting this july 4th. One of the things that concerns me the most ive been seeing is this increased fetishization of gun ownership im sure you solve a congressperson who had their christmas Photo Holding up their assault weapons. I see photos of people where there walls are covered in guns. Why do you think america has become so obsessed with gun ownership after the assault weapons ban where people are stockpiling guns and what do you think that says about the gun lobbying organizations like the nra . This was the number one question i got asked about the culture of guns and such and i would say create contrast and so some of that is driving an issue that is almost blackandwhite. The ability to do that and stoke your own supporters and controlled the opposition i think that fuels some of that chest beating that you see when it comes around. Liberals feel from conservatives and conservatives feel from liberals. One of the ways to sort of stick it to the left and right is gun ownership. I think theres also a connection thats been made between certain important cultural rallies and the ownership of a weapon and the way to express the way you prioritize freedom and liberty is to exercise your Second Amendment rights. And then i think a lot of this has to do with good oldfashioned markets. Theyve done a fantastic job of marketing as a means of self identification and thats been true since the beginning of the gun industry. Marketing guns as the means for you identify yourself with a Pioneering Spirit westward expansion so the industry has done i think a wonderful job of marketing and starting the marketing really early on so as a kid in this country you get an awful lot of exposure to the weapons that you speak of so part of it is political and part of it is cultural. That doesnt exist everywhere. Im from south texas and represent a part of the state that had more cows than people. This is something you dont see that in people that are the responsible gun owners. Its something you didnt educate your children on and take seriously and if you abuse that tool so in a a lot of parts of texas that i represented you didnt see that chest beating does not exist in some of those communities. I just put that out there as its not reflective of everybody why dont we have the next two people come up and take the next two questions. Im actually from connecticut but i think you all for coming out and talking about such a contentious topic. My question goes more to the United States repertoire image because currently if we look at a lot of social media platforms such as facebook, instagram and ticktock theyve become a laughing stock about the inaction of the political leaders that they take on gun rights specifically Mass Shootings, School Shootings and this common theme we have to worry more about being shot in passing a test so how do you think about rebuilding our image especially our politicians image i am a freshman studying Political Science and my question is with the increase in improvised weapons and the ability for them to be made cheaply and efficiently like we saw with the assassination and the recent shooting of the conscription officer in russia both with improvised fire and rise in 3d gun parts is gun control even feasible, do we need to machine control, 3d printing control, does japan need metal pipe, like how far do we have to take this . This summers piece of legislation is incredibly important in showing the world that we are not standing back and doing nothing but i agree with you it is a blemish on our image in fact i would argue there are very few other things that cause such a disconnect between the United States into the rest of the world in particular our allies as does our fascination with weapons and ability to get our head wrapped around it people can make them in their homes but lets start by making it illegal buying of thecomponents and building them themselves just because its going to be easier to manufacture a gun doesnt mean that we are helpless to make sure folks are using that as a mechanism to trade guns criminally are not held responsible for when they ultimately end up on the open market. Our values matter. Weve got to show that and this is something we talked earlier about the erosion of trust and we are starting to see the rest of the world eroded as well and these things matter. Access to weapon is a part of this problem. Its not the only party and that is where some of these issues have to be tackled because of the complications that youve outlined a freshman studying economics into journalism this entire discussion we talked about Mass Shootings in schools and my question to you is why do we let these National Tragedies consume a disproportionate amount of the conversation when gun violence is occurring every single day in the inner cities. We have everyone here speaking on behalf of the kids. Whos speaking on behalf of the poor young black men dying in chicago every day . The reality is people like me who work every day in this movement desperately try to raise the daily carnage of gun violence but we are ultimately captured by an American Public that decides to Pay Attention only at these moments of Mass Shootings. So thats when all the Media Attention is created. Thats when the National Conversation happens. That is tragic and that is unacceptable to me. But i also understand it. Theres something descriptive about a mass shooting in the two murder 20 or 30 people. That makes me question something so yes weve got to sort of turned this narrative away from just a conversation surrounding Mass Shootings. But i also understand why americans plug into that conversation in a way that is sometimes harder for them to. Its not a justification, but trying to put myself in the shoes of americans. Speaking on behalf of those folks, courageous people like you making sure that people Pay Attention to this. Crime matters and has an impact on all of our communities. When you look at the first restriction of gun rights in the modern era it actually happened in california by a bunch of republicans because the black panthers were trying to protect the community because they were not getting the protection they saw fit and that the California Legislature was upset with that and at the time the governor of california was Ronald Reagan. That was the first step with people trying to protect themselves because of cry am and other issues. But advocates like you are an important. I want to apologize to everyone that is still in line but unfortunately, that is all the time we have for question and answer tonight. I would like to ask, hopefully inspiring thoughts. What do you do with national politics, what drives you, what about Public Service, and also what advice can you give to these amazing, brilliant soulful students so they can go forward and do what you do to defend democracy . My life obviously changed that morning in sandy hook, connecticut. I was at that fire house and i in many ways which i didnt see and havent heard the things i heard that today. Im deeply embarrassed that i only woke up to this epidemic when it happened in a schoolhouse in sandy hook. I didnt join the movement until it happened in newtown so im trying to make up for last time. But my inspiration comes from the victims into the mothers and fathers. I cant imagine being able to get out of bed if my child was shot at school or on the streets of our neighborhood and yet all across this country they are literally tens of thousands of parents and brothers and sisters who not only find the means to get out of bed every day but then marched down to the state capital or town hall or washington, d. C. And demand that things change not so that there could child comes back to life. Its too late for them, but to make sure that it doesnt happen to somebody else. So whether it is the kids from parkland, the survivors from Highland Park or the moms and dads from new britain and new haven and hartford, bridgeport, that is my inspiration. My only job is to try to channel the combination of grief and advocacy my inspiration is driven by what we call the mothers of this movement and my hope you eventually prevail. I experienced in my senior year in college that i wish i didnt have the year 12 students were killed from a collapse of bonfire. It was an event that we do at a m and i always thought and still think about those 12 people every day what would they be doing if they were 45 and then thats extended to the people in charleston that were praying and killed. What type of impact that they still be having on their communities right now and i think of 19 kids at the beginning of their life where would they be when they were my age and for me the way to try to honor these people is to think about what they would do and make sure when i talk to these moms that have to deal with this i can be honest and look them in the eye. What should you all do about this . Model the behavior you want to see. If youre not happy with the way things are you behaving the same way you all have the capacity and what i enjoy about being in places like this is i get renewed and inspired. Im not raving about the decline in universities because i see these questions about people that care so get out there its going to be hard and you will have some losses but think about all the people that would love to be in your position and what would they do if they were in your shoes. Thank you, senator murphy. Thank you, everyone. Weve had an eyeopening experience and we are not quite done yet. The congressman had some parting thoughts for us. What an incredible conversation we have here. Extraordinarily enlightening and extremely complicated issues and it certainly lived up to the motto of bringing light, not need to Public Discourse. After listening to the conversation tonight, i hope the discussion between these amazing panelists have given you a sense of hope that we can bridge our divides and youve given inspiration to perhaps engage in your own conversations with more civility and analyze towards productive outcome and aid deeper understanding of this gun issue. We value your input so im going to ask if you would please take the survey. Its not up yet but there will be a code that you can use to access it. We also encourage you to form your own discussion groups after. We will be producing a conversation guide and there will be some questions that will spark based on the points of Common Ground that was found. I also want to add based on the some of the things we heard tonight participating in our democracy is crucial so please mark your calendars november 8th and go out and vote, please. On behalf of the Common Ground committee, thank you all. [applause] thank you for that. Deepest gratitude for our partners this evening, amy cohen theexecutive director of the National Center and George Washington university extraordinaire. Thank you all for being with us tonight and our panelists youve been lightened and inspired us and have given us hope. Thank you. [applause] held on november 8th. Good evening and thanks for joining for a history evening in oregon. For the next 90 minutes on news channel 21 you will hear from the candidates for oregon governor. On the stage heres we welcome