with lester holt good evening i m savannah guthrie in for lester. tonight, the impassioned calls for change in this country, from the uvalde teacher, the lone survivor of his classroom among 11 dead students, to a grieving son of buffalo in a hearing room on capitol hill to the white house briefing room where this afternoon the actor and uvalde native matthew mcconaughey made a surprise appearance, eulogizing the dead in heart wrenching detail, down to the green high tops the only identifying marker left for one little girl, so ferocious the wounds from the gunman s ar-15. for a moment the nation was captivated. rare roadblock coverage on cable news we have been here many times. tonight, bipartisan momentum appears to be growing for some change to the nation s gun laws what s on the table and will it make a difference nbc s gabe gutierrez leads us off reporter: tonight as the u.s. grapples with the dramatic surge in gun violence, relatives of those killed in the buffalo m
mia cerillo covered herself in her friend s blood, pretended to be dead so that she could survive. the hearing comes as pressure mounts on u.s. lawmakers to address a recent string of mass shootings. this afternoon the house will vote on a set of bills that would raise the minimum age to buy a semiautomatic weapon from 18 to 21, ban high capacity magazines and crack down on ghost gun purchases or guns that are not traceable. the bill is unlikely to garner republican support, but a different story is unfolding in the senate where the top democratic negotiator of a bipartisan package of gun bills says a deal could be reached by the end of this week. some issues on the table include addressing mental health, expanding background checks, providing incentives for states to implement red flag laws and strengthening school security. the calls for lawmakers to act got a boost on tuesday afternoon when actor matthew mcconaughey a uvalde native made an emotional plea from the white hou
the scene. those serious questions amid the grief. we ll get to it. thank you all so much for being here. today, the president and his administration are making a major push to refocus on the economy and defend his handling of it. in a new opinion piece in the wall street journal, the president claims that the u.s. is in a better economic position than almost any country in the world. he credits his own policies can helping to achieve the strongest recovery in modern history. he s also facing public sentiment that s making clear americans don t feel that strength, not by a long shot. ga gallop s economic confidence reading is reporting this is likely the lowest public confidence has been in the economy since the tail end of the great recession in early 2009. biden s team is now outlining what they are calling a three-part plan to fight inflation and to turn this around. inflation will be number one, the number one agenda item when the president meets with the federal rese
winfield. one of the ten people killed in a mass shooting of a grocery store on may 15th. yesterday, the president and first lady were down in uvalde, texas where they met for hours with families of the 19 young children and two teachers who were killed in last week s school shooting. which of course came just ten days after buffalo. as biden left the church service in uvalde, he was met by a crowd of people chanting, do something. he responded by telling the crowd, we will. the president sounded a very similar note in the commence speech this weekend at university of delaware, telling graduates that the country can and must do something. let s be clear, evil came to the elementary school classroom in texas, to that grocery store in new york and far too many places where innocents have died. in the face of such forces, we have to stand stronger. we must stand stronger. we cannot outlaw tragedy, i know. but we can make america safer. but let s be honest, optimism is in sho
where they met with the families of the 19 children and two teachers in the school shooting which came ten days after buffalo. as biden left a church service in uvalde, he was met by a crowd of people chanting do something. he responding by telling the crowd, we will. the president sounded a similar note in the commencement speech at the university of delaware, telling graduates that the country can and must do something. let s be clear. evil came to that elementary school in texas, to that grocery store in new york, far too many places where innocents have died. the face of such forces, we have to stand stronger. we must stand stronger, we cannot outlaw, tragedy, i know, but we can make america safer. but let s be honest, optimism is in short supply on whether congress will do anything at all, even as protests raged throughout the weekend outside the nra conference that took place in houston, inside the event donald trump himself and other republican political leaders