against the third firewall, and that would be the national rifle association. the nra met with vice president biden and his team. instead of having a meaningful conversation, nra president david keene said this on the today show. if you re look at the problem, which is to prevent this sort of thing, what you want to do is do those things that will actually make a difference. we have a profound disagreement with this administration, first of all, on what would make a difference. we don t think that a ban on so-called assault weapons, which hasn t worked in the past, is going to work this time. the nra is committed to injecting poison into the conversation, as i see it on gun reform. david keene knows he is not telling the truth. we know for a fact mass shootings in this country were dramatically lower during the ten years of the assault weapons ban. mass shootings have gone up since 2004, reaching a horrible peak last year. but as long as the nra keeps lying, they believe they wil
to take one as well? you heard mr. keene talk about they belong strongly in the second amendment, that there are enough americans out there that believe strongly in the second amendment. no, i think they re right. to the point where they downtown want to make any changes is what i mean. no, not at all. and this sort of exacerbates a problem that the nra has. the place where the leadership is is far away from where the nra rank and file actually is. the overwhelming majority of nra members, 87% believe in the following statement. you can protect the second amendment, and also do much more to keep people who should not have guns from having them criminals, domestic abusers, the seriously mentally ill. there is no contradiction in those two things. everybody basically believes that except for the nra s washington lobbyists. all right. a lot of people choosing upsides and weighing in on this. your group has seen a surge in membership since the shootings took place in newtown la
sensible, sane policy, who are in the embrace of the nra and who believe that the possession of a gun is to be the be all and end all of society are the problem here. no one is trying to take guns. no one is trying to reject the possibility that americans can own guns be. the worship of guns at the altar of the gun is the problem here. sure. and drawing a parallel between martin luther king jr. and, you know, his birthday and the appreciation for guns, let s be honest. martin luther king owned a gun early on in his career before kane came to montgomery, taught him the ways of nonviolence. he put the gun down. he subjected himself to the force of every evil in the country. martin luther king would never substantiate the claim that we must own guns. put the gun down. michael eric dyson, you answered my final question. it is great to have you with us tonight on this very intense subject. next, we ll hear more from phil gingrey. this time he is out defending todd akin s views on ra
do you have the support in congress to block any federal ban on assault weapons in the coming year? i do not think that there is going to be a ban on so-called assault weapons passed by the congress. david keene is dripping with confidence for a guy who claims the nra doesn t have a lot of power in washington. i don t know that the nra is that powerful. i do think that those americans who believe strongly in the second amendment and their right to own privately and use firearms for legitimate purposes is a huge number of people who really care about these issues. we try to provide leadership to those folks. we try to represent them before the congress and elsewhere. this is another big lie. the nra does not work on behalf of average gun owners in america. the huffington post reported today on the masters who are served by the nra. since 2005, the nra has raised anywhere from $14 million to $39 million from the biggest names in the gun industry. here is what all that cash pa
leaders, the mental health community, gun owners and sportsmen were included, gun safety advocates, technology experts. the vice president is taking recommendations from all groups. there is common ground on this issue from all sides. for instance, even nra members overwhelmingly support changes to background check laws. 74% want everyone purchasing a gun permit to undergo a background check with no loopholes. this is from republicans pollster frank luntz, and was taken long before the shootings in newtown, connecticut. plenty of gunowners are on board with changing the status quo. right now there are basically three major firewalls to sensible and safety laws in this country being changed. if you want to ban assault weapons in this country, i think first you have to deal with the gun nuts. and we re going to have a special segment on them coming up later on in the program. now this crowd is convinced that the government wants to ban everything, in fact even get rid