milwaukee police chief edward flynn on capitol hill yesterday where testimony for gun control, assault weapon bans or even at the very least background checks got emotional. there were fireworks. fireworks and tears. hearings like this is when i would go back into the cloak room and pick my fantasy football league. i m joking. this was an exciting one. it was extremely let s just go to the headline. i m looking at drudge. only one matt drudge. look at this. he s got the president very angry. threatened. i m going to do this to make you mad. look at that. don t do that. i love bob and i would like him to come on the show to talk to me about this. i m not feeling it. an aide from the white house writes an e-mail saying he s going to regret something and this is after they re screaming at each other on the phone.
issue, parents who have children and/or people who need help and they know they need some help are often unable to get it because it s either not affordable or not available to them, and there is a probability that some of the god-awful things we ve seen could be avoided. jo goldie, don t you think that mental health is actually as critical to the fixing of gun violence as anything that we might do with regard to assault weapon bans or, indeed, controlling or reducing the number in a magazine clip? you know, i have always said that, yes, it is about the pervasive nature of the weapon you, but it s also the condition of the human mind who has it in hand. so, yes, mental health is a very important component. in lanza s case his mother had a plethora of resources to help him. i understand while he was in high school he had a full complement of counsellors and other people walking him through his high school years. so he was one of those people
there is gun control in many cities. semi-automatic weapons are not just about guns. this is about national security. these weapons can shoot down airplanes. they can blow up railroads. this is a mass security issue. you want a gun for your house. you got t. a gun to hunt, you got. it but the semi-automatic, military-style assault weapons, they shot at the white house two years ago. none of us are safe with these weapons on the streets. they have no real place in a civilized society. eric: they areauk talking about assault weapon bans on capitol bill. and they are talking about limiting the number of shots in a magazine or background checks. what would you like to see? we may choose to make a bad decision, but we will live to make the consequences am we need background checks. mental background checks, having the expect womans available. some say they want them to protect ourselves from our
that s the way that s the result in connecticut. the supreme court has already ruled in the heller case that there can be exceptions, that the d.c. gun law was unconstitutional, but other assault weapon bans might not be unconstitutional. the constitution does not preclude other restrictions on guns, and background checks. and other measures that are considered and have widespread support. do you think that republicans should take a closer look at some of the other options in the aftermath of newtown? again, i think the most productive thing being talked about here is how do we prevent mentally ill deranged people from getting firearms or any other dangerous weapons. that is a useful thing for us to get to the bottom of because that s the real problem. i thought it was interesting. vice president biden said he was not concerned about getting guns
but history shows that when we start with gun bans, the one thing gun bans are very effective at are taking guns away from law-abiding citizens that weren t the problem in the first place. the violent criminal, the person that commits these acts tend to get access to the guns anyway. i m not telling you i m not willing to listen to a broader conversation. i m not going to take any topic off the table. but i m skeptical of efforts that want to start with gun bans. because frankly history shows they don t work. but does that even sir extend to assault weapon bans? i mean, i believe the second amendment protects all kinds of guns. frankly, i believe that i m skeptical of those who want to start there. all i can tell you at this stage of the game as a new congressman who s been here a few days, i m willing to listen to a broad cross-section of the debate. but i think we have some opportunities for consensus. for example, re-examining the way we look at mental health as a nation is crit