for the white house? i don t know if it changes the dialogue. it certainly sharpens the issue as one of the highest of the campaign. it s national security as well. voters will be paying a lot of attention to it. the election will serve as a referendum. but i also want to emphasize this emphasis on buyers at this point and background checks, this is only the beginning. once this happens you re going to see an additional push on assault weapons, how powerful these weapons are. it may be these people who did the shootings have bought guns legally but should they really have these kinds of guns in the hands of people who have been shooting? i think a lot of americans would say no. a lot of americans would say don t mess with guns, stay out of it. it s a great issue for voters to decide. page, how does the white house win support when you look at some of the more recent
politics. i wish i could find three or four more of them. it would certainly make november a whole lot easier. all right, ellis. brian, thank you so much, gentlemen. appreciate it. the presidential candidates weigh in on obama s executive order, orlando nary americans are also talking. cnn visited a gun show this weekend in virginia and asked people about requiring all gun sellers to be licensed, which means every gun purchase would require a background check. i think it s reasonable to have background checks. and i think that, you know i don t think that you should do away with all background checks, but i don t think trying to enforce background checks on [ inaudible ]. i think we will end up making a list they ve been trying to get more decades and that s so they can confiscate our firearms. i don t think that s to protect.
occasions? you talk about the san bernardino shootings and these gun people did not obtain their weapons by way of a gun show or even going to a shop but instead it was handed off to them from an acquaintance who we now know is facing charges of his own. how might this provision be asserted in that argument or not? well, i think president obama s trying to start with what he believes is the easiest baby step first. he believes that most americans support the idea that if you re a prohibitive person already, if off criminal conviction, if you ear convicted of dimes, you recollected not have a gun. all this additional background check executive order will do will be to try to prevent those people from getting guns. i think that motive or initiative has plenty of political support. page pate, david gergen, thanks. appreciate it. thank you. we ll talk more about that over the next few hours. you don t want to miss this live
i react not as a president but as anybody else would, as a parent. in the hard days to come, that community needs us to be at our best as americans, and i will do everything in my power as president to help. the lives that were taken from us were unique. the memories their loved ones carry are unique and they will carry them and endure long after the news cameras are gone. any shooting is troubling. obviously this reopens the pain of what happened in ft. hood five years ago. the country has to do some soul searching about this. this is becoming the norm. and we take it for granted in ways that as a parent are terrifying to me. the good news is i am confident that the outpouring of unity and strength and fellowship and love
and we do need to expand the instant background check. i don t think that s an onerous burden on anybody. reporter: so measuring americans attitudes on guns seems to depend on how you ask the question. in a recent cnn poll, a majority said they don t support stricter gun control laws or the president s handling of guns but in a quinnipiac survey an overwhelming majority, 9%, said they support requiring background checks for all gun buyer, fred. all right. chris frates, thank you so much. this has been one of the most critical issues in the obama presidency. he has made at least 12 public speeches in the aftermath of mass shootings oftentimes calling on congress to take action. we have a pattern now of mass shootings in this country that has no parallel anywhere else in the world. and there are some steps we could take not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings but to improve the