0 us. do something. just do something. for god's sake, do something. after columbine, after sandy hook, after charleston, after orlando, after las vegas, after parkland, nothing has been done. this time, that cannot be true. this time we must actually do something. they issue we face is one of conscience and common sense. the second amendment, like all other rights, is not absolute. it was justice scalia who wrote, and i quote, like most rights, the right of the second amendment -- the rights granted by the second amendment rights are not unlimited. not unlimited. they never have been. it comes to the carnage we are willing to accept? how many more innocent american lives must be taken before we say enough? enough. let there be no mistake about the psychological trauma that gun violence leaves behind. imagine being that little girl -- that brave little girl in uvalde, who smeared blood off of her murdered friend's body, on her own face, to lie still among the corpses in her classroom to pretend that she was dead, in order to stay alive. imagine. imagine what it would be like for her to walk down the hallway of any school again. the question now is, what will congress do? >> and on that last question, what will congress do -- earlier today the house judiciary committee debated new slate of gun safety proposals, which will likely include legislation to raise the minimum age to purchase a semi-automatic weapon to 21 and ban high capacity magazines that allow shooters to fire dozens of rounds in seconds. today's hearings on this new legislation got heated to say the least. >> it has not even been 24 hours since the last mass shooting. and who knows how long until the next one. too soon? my friends, what the hell are you waiting for? >> what we are doing here is designed to appeal to democratic primary voters. it will not make schools safer. it will hamper the rights of law-abiding citizens and it will do nothing to stop mass killings. >> stop saying that nothing in this legislation will change anything! that is a lie! that is not true. it will save lives. if you do not think that that is worth doing, say that. have the courage to say that none of that matters. you think that there should be as many guns available to as as many americans as possible. you want no restrictions. >> democrats control the major cities that have the worst murder rates! that's right. your ideas have been shown to get people killed. >> do not tell me that the answer to this is to put even more guns on the streets or to militarize our schools! >> perhaps most unsettling was a performance from congressman greg steube of florida, who took the opportunity, just days after multiple mass shootings, to present his personal gun collection, kind of like a child eager to show off his toy trains. >> right here in front of me i have a sig sauer p226, comes with a 21 round magazine. here is a sig sauer 14 -- and this is a xl sig sauer p365. >> i hope that gun is not loaded. >> i am in my house and i can do whatever i want with my guns. >> i can do whatever i want with my guns, truly an inspiring message of responsible gun ownership from the congressman. the house is all but certain to pass its proposals as early as next week. but any gun safety legislation faces an uphill battle in the senate. right now, a bipartisan group of senators is attempting to cobble together any bill that can get ten republican votes to overcome a filibuster. we have been here before, too many times, with democrats trying to find common ground in the republican party just simply unwilling to compromise at all, on guns. today, the president outlined a long list of tangible proposals he would like to see enacted. as he said, the responsibilities now with congress to do something, anything, to end gun violence in this country. senator richard blumenthal is a democrat from connecticut. and part of the bipartisan senate group working on the new gun safety legislation. he joins me now. >> first, did you know what was going to be in this speech before going into it? >> i had a pretty good idea, because i heard the president before on this topic and i have heard him call for many of these measures. i agree with him totally, that every one of them is important and significant and i would like to see every one of them enacted. but i know the president is also realistic about what we can do. because we need 60 votes. and he has been here before. so have i. i am very clear-eyed about what is possible and i am encouraged by these conversations. but by no means confident about what the outcome will be. >> i want to play something he said. there is the issue of gun violence and the issue of mass shootings. then there is the meta issue of how our politics feels incapable of solving this. specifically, republican party politics. the republican party has decided nothing, nothing, nothing on this. and he said something about, having been in this fight for a long time, that i thought was striking. he has been so for decades. he has worked on this issue. here is what he said. number two, i have been in this fight for a long time. >> i have been in this fight for a long time. i know how hard it is. but i will never give up. and if congress fails, i believe this time a majority of the american people will not give up either. i believe the majority of you will act to turn your outrage into making this issue central to your vote. enough, enough, enough. >> i have covered multiple aftermaths, in which legislators have said this time is different, after multiple massacres i have covered in my ten years on the air here. i guess i am illicit to that response from you here. but what is your read of this group that has been meeting? >> chris, it is really put up or shut up time for republicans. they have heard the same message, that i heard over this memorial day weekend. i heard it at parades and ceremonies. that ia ttened all around the state of connecticut. that is, do something, you need to do something. and i am very intent on working as hard and long as possible, to reach some of the solutions. not face saving fig leaves, but real and meaningful action that will save lives. that is my criteria for what is acceptable. and i have been in this fight as well for several decades, as attorney general of my state for 20 years, beginning in the 1990s. and i want to see an assault weapons ban. but i am doubtful that we can achieve it. i will continue working for it. i do agree, most important is that we should have action on red flag statues, and on extending background checks. and on other kinds of measures that are achievable. but if we fail, the president is right, a gun violence prevention must be on the ballot. and we must hold accountable any of my colleagues who vote against this. >> just to be clear here, he called for the assault weapons ban that the bush administration allowed to lapse in 2005, to reinstated. that was passed and signed into law under the clinton administration in part of the crime bill that joe biden worked on. he called for that to be reinstated and he said, barring that, to raise the age of the purchase of those weapons, from 18 to 21. he also talked about a red flag and safe storage law. they seem to be two of the places where, from the reporting, seems to be some conversation that could be had there. could you tell us more about those? >> absolutely, yes. those are two of the more encouraging facets of what we can accomplish. i have been working on a red flag law with lindsey graham, a republican in south carolina, for about three and a half years. we have a well written and pretty specific and definite proposal that i think ought to attract bipartisan support. on safe storage, what could be more sensible then a mandate that guns should be stored so that children cannot access them. and ethan song, a teenager in gilford, who was killed accidentally, in his neighbor's home, when they were playing with a weapon that was unsafely stored, he would be alive today if that law had been passed. i think there's a possibility for progress. again, though, i am clear-eyed. i have been through these talks before. >> i guess the question is -- there is always this push and pull. the president was quite forceful and specific. it was a sort of stronger, more vociferous call for a package of policies, much of which will be embodied, i think, in what we saw in the house markup today and will we see passed out of the house, most likely. i guess the question is, since you are in the room with these individuals, what is the psychology of it? they are getting the message from a small group of people. don't do anything. but those people have an outsized voice in the heads of these republican senators. >> the gun lobby continues to intimidate and threaten. it continues to back and sometimes by legislators, whether at the state or federal level. but what is different now is that first of all, the outrage and deep grief of the country, and secondly, we have built a movement, a political movement. it's a groundswell and grassroots movement. and all of those organizations, whether it is connecticut against gun violence, or brady gifford's, the sandy hook promised organization -- all of the other groups that are at the table by proxy, through a number of us, who have worked on this issue for years and years -- and going to red flag laws, if the new york law had been enforced properly, if resources had been provided, which is what our red flag statute would do, provide incentives, then people might have been saved. lives might have been saved. that is what reg flag statutes would do, particularly in suicide cases, which are half of gun deaths in the country. they separate a gun from someone who says that they are going to kill himself or someone else. >> yeah. there is also the notion of liability. it was interesting that the president mentioned this. there was again legislation passed, i believe, around 2005, if i'm not mistaken, that shielded the gun industry from liability. and almost, essentially, blanketed it. i had an interview with a former gun executive and we talked about having a major impact on the gun industry self conceived itself and business marketing practices. especially its marketing practices. i imagine there is tremendous resistance there but it does always strike me as a uniquely american solution to a uniquely american problem, which is to let people sue the gunman. >> and chris, that point is so important. because the gun industry has this shield from legal accountability that is virtually unique to these manufacturers and retailers. and the president once said to me, if i could do one thing i would repeal the protection of lawful commerce in arms act, which gives them that immunity. and i am a trial lawyer, i was attorney general of my state. i know the importants of vindicating individual rights. the sandy hook plaintiffs were able to create an exception to the protection act and -- daniel defense in the recent shooting, they did the same kind of marketing and promotion tactics to young people, 18 year olds. and 21-year-olds also. we need to raise that age, also, for assault weapons sales. i agree with the president on that one. but plcaa repealed is important. once they sense that they will be held accountable, they need to change not only the marketing technique but they may also change their products, to make them safer and to provide for tracing of bullets. such that police can do a better job. >> yep. the protection of lawful commerce in arms exact, just an incredible name, and anyone who reads that will have them running. senator richard blumenthal, thank you very much. coming up tonight, big news from the january six committee, including an announcement on public hearings. and they surprise visitor to the committee, but first news details emerging from the tulsa hospital shooting. it happened a few hours before we came on the air last night. four people, including two doctors, were murdered, just hours after he legally bought a rifle. why jsut small changes in the law could make a big difference to matt shootings in america. that's next. 's next.