firearms being stolen and rented out by gangs. there are lots of things we could go to bring our mortality more in line with the rest of the civilized world. we re not even interested in talking about them because this particular proposal wouldn t have solved that problem or because chicago has a big problem. the question this building needs to answer and the people like me need to answer is there are things we could do. why don t we do them? totally agree. it is just past the top of the hour right now. we re speaking with congressman jim himes of connecticut. also with us, mike barnicle. former fbi special agent and msnbc contribute clint watts. senior political analyst for nbc news, mark halperin, and also columnist for the wall street journal and political contributor for nbc news, peggy nunen. peggy, the supreme court is hearing a case today. i ve been waiting for this case to be heard for some time.
we have to get back to the evergreen changes, things like universal background checks that probably would have stopped many of the other murders around the woir country that happened before the shooting in las vegas. i think the gun industry wants us to only talk about the policy change that would have affected yesterday s mass shootings. background is the most likely legislation through congress because it enjoys widespread public approval and is probably most dispositive on the amount of gun violence that happens every day across this country. i understand, but it s worth talking about what would have prevented the deaths of over 50 people. he passed these backgrounds checks. to be pacific, ban bump stocks and ban semi automatic rives. are you for that? i m for both of those things. i think we ask ourselves a question in and around newtown every day. it s not just a question of the
people. those are big challenges. they are detail oriented things. they are performance thing. they are tonal things. not all of these have been the president s strength to say the least. these are two very big days not just for him but the country. jeb bush called him a chaotic country. these are chaotic times for our country. the symbolism of his leadership. i always ask this question just because the temperature changes daily inside the white house. what s the current weather report inside the white house? this is a president faced with a multitude of crises. some of the most difficult in some time with north korea, puerto rico, and the slate of other crises coming in his inbox and yet his weekend was, i think
to stop the transportation of rifles meant for mass killings to legislate common sense things, to try to prevent or dwindle the number of mass killings. how do you feel about hanging around with them? well, i ve been clear on my feelings. i said after orlando i m not participating in moments of silence in rooms where you could fix the problems. but it s worse than that. right now somewhere in this building the leadership is trying to figure out what the decent interval of time is between the horrific murders and when they can bring forward the bill joe is making reference to that makes it easier for people to get silencers. so answer the question, i need to work with them and i want to do that and that s my job. but the american people need to start holding their representatives accountable for not doing a couple of the things we know have massive support in this country. congressman, thank you for
specific damage that these weapons do. they allow you to kill a lot more people, but in newtown we ask yourselves whether he would have walked into that school without tactical weaponry. there s a false kind of courage that comes with attaching yourself to these kind of very powerful weapons, and there is a question as to whether the shooters would ever take up position if all they had was a pistol instead of a dangerous military style weapon. senator chris murphy, thank you very much for being on this morning. thank you. up next, we ll remember the victims of the las vegas massacre. their stories next on morning joe.