Allowing kids to talk about their differences. The truth is that Young Children noticed differences very early, by the age of three and four theyre asking questions, theyre beginning to absorb the stereotypes and misinformation. Woodruff all that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by collette. Celebrating 100 years of travel, together. Babbel. A language app that teaches reallife conversations in a new language, like spanish, french, german, italian, and more. Babbels 1015 minute lessons are available as an app, or online. More information on babbel. Com. And with the ongoing support of these institutions this program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Woodruff on this election night, democrats have picked up wins in the two biggest races. Raplh northam has outpaced republican ed gillespie in the virginia governors race. Northam received nearly 52 of the vote to 46 for gillespie. And in the contest for new jerseys governor, democrat phil murphy is projected to win over republican kim guadagno. We break down these results with Stuart Rothenberg of inside elections. So stu, this is a clear win for the democrats. Were not waiting no. Midnight for answer. Until midnight for the answer. This is a solid win. You compare this showing to last year the clinton, trump race where Hillary Clinton won the state by 5 and four years ago to the previous race, terry mmcauliffe by 3, high end of the most of the polls showed. Woodruff were talking about new jersey that will be a easy democratic win. Woodruff those numbers have now come in and youre able to look at how people voteby age gender race so forth. Lets talk about whites and nonwhites and what that looks like. Right. This has been a predictive voting group for years. And what we see now is that 67 of the electorate was white. That is a relatively low percentage in virginia. Four years ago, with 72 and last year in the president ial race, whites constituted 71 , now its only 67. More diverse electorate, more people of color, good for the democrats, thats bad for the republicans, but in fact ed gillespie did not match did not exceed certainly what other republicans have been doing with white voters. So white voters were down as a percentage of the electorate and gillespie did not overperform among them. Woodruff lets talk about party i. D. , the turnout of republicans versus are democrats in virginia. What are you seeing . Self identification, people doing exit polls, what party do you consider yourself, the breakdown with today said 29 said they wesh independents, four years ago 37 he sed they were democrats now 41. So its a more democratic ectorate. So you shouldnt be surprised that the are democratic nominee for governor got more votes. But the mix of the electorate is interesting and either democrats were more enthusiastic or more republicans switched out of the party and became independents. So while gillespie won independents narrowly, not much more than Ken Cuccinelli did. College graduates, 6040 and gillespie won noncollege graduates, more narrowly than she have. 7 election results. Woodruff womens went overwhelmingly 60 to the democrat Ralph Northham while men barely went almost split evenly. Right, another gender gap but this one northham kept his gap among men and rung up big numbers among women voters. Woodruff stu what does this mean for 2018, how much should we take from this . Younger voters, 18 to 44, depends what categories you use, they got minority voters out, african americans, asian americans, latinos, thee are groups we have been wondering are the democrats going to be enthusiastic or not. Woodruff and saying in effect donald trump was the reason they turned out. Half said he was the reason and those went 2 to 1 for northham. Republicans should look at this with some concern about the suburbs and upscale segment, no question good it. Woodruff stu rothenberg, thank you. Woodruff the days other major story the texas church massacre. New disclosures emerged today about the bloodbath in tiny sutherland springs, and about the killer. William brangham begins our coverage. All of a sudden, i hear like, firecrackers popping. Ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta. Everybody get down theyre shooting at us brangham from survivors today, new accounts of sundays horror. Rosanne solis and her husbd Joaquin Ramirez were in the congregation when the shooting started. She was wounded in the arm. Everybody started screaming, yelling, everybody got down, crawling under i mean, wherever they could hide. I mean, it was so scary and that man was shooting. I mean, he was shooting hard. Brangham solis says the gunman, devin kelley, shouted everybody die as he blasted away with a semiautomatic rifle. Ramirez says anyone making noise, even the youngest, was targeted. The babies were crying and when the babies were crying. Ta, ta, ta, ta, ta. Brangham records now show that kelley passed background checks for four guns he bought between 2014 and 2017. Thats despite a 2012 Domestic Assault conviction in the air force, followed by Death Threats against his superior officers, attempting to sneak weapons onto a military base, and a brief escape from a Mental Health facility. He spent a year in a military prison and was given a bad conduct discharge. But the air force acknowledges it failed to enter that conviction into an f. B. I. Database, which wouldve blocked his gun purchases. Air force secretary Heather Wilson we dont know, but we are checking all of the air force databases, and there are seven of them, to find out and confirm that all Court Martial convictions for these kinds of offenses have been reported in the civilian database. Brangham christopher combs, the f. B. I. Agent in charge in the church shooting, says the failure in this case meant kelley was not on the f. B. I. s radar. Unfortunately this has happened in the past from a number of agencies. Nothing is perfect. Brangham texas republican congressman Mac Thornberry chairs the House Armed Services committee. In a statement today, he called the situation appalling and said . The failure to properly report Domestic Violence convictions may be a systemic issue within the air force. Another texas republican, senator john cornyn, said hell introduce legislation to ensure National Databases are updated. When the shooter or the gun purchasers like this lie about their background. He lied that he had a felony charge. He lied that he had a Domestic Violence charge. Then the only way to catch them is through the background database. Brangham back in sutherland springs, investigators say they hope to wrap up their work at the church tomorrow. And, Vice President pence now plans to travel to the town tomorrow, to meet with families of the victims. For the pbs newshour, im william brangham. Woodruff well talk about gun laws, background checks and the victims in texas, after the news summary. In the days other news, a texas law cracking dn on sanctuary cities, for undocumented immigrants, went before a federal Appeals Court in new orleans. Under the law, police must cooperate with immigration authorities, or they could face criminal charges. Most of the states major cities are challenging the statute. Members of both parties in Congress Called today for permanent action to let some 5,000 nicaraguans stay in the u. S. They were admitted nearly 20 years ago, under a temporary program, after a hurricane hit their homeland. Last night, the Trump Administration gave them 14 months to leave the United States. A new warning today that Puerto Rico Needs help on an unprecedented scale. A House Committee heard that nearly 60 of the island still has no electricity more than a month after hurricane maria. And, thousands of people are still in temporary shelters. Natalie jaresko chairs a federal board overseeing the u. S. Territorys finances. She appealed for more federal aid. Because of the damage to the ability to collect revenues, the disruption in the underlying economic activity, and storm recovery spending, the commonwealth and its instrumentalities are facing billions of dollars in cash shortfalls just to provide the basic functions of government. Woodruff puerto rican officials estimate the storm inflicted up to 95 billion in damage. So far, congress has approved about 5 billion in aid. In india, air pollution has hit severe levels in new delhi. Heavy smog hung over the capital city today, and officials urged people to stay indoors and schools to close. The problem worsens with the onset of winter, caused by dust, crop burning and factory emissions. U. N. Humanitarian aid flights to yemen were grounded today. It came as a Saudiled Coalition tries to block iran from sending arms to rebels in yemen. The coalition has closed all of yemens air and sea ports. But u. N. Officials warn of disaster in the making. The situation is catastrophic in yemen. It is the worst food crisis we are looking at in the world today seven Million People on the brink of famine, millions of people being kept alive by our humanitarian operation. So this is a lifeline that must be continued. Woodruff a cholera epidemic is also raging in yemen, affecting hundreds of thousands of people. A former Foreign Policy adviser to the Trump Campaign now says he did speak with a highlevel russian official last year. Carter page previously denied it. But hes told a House Committee that he briefly said hello to the deputy Prime Minister after a speech in moscow. He says others in the campaign knew about the trip, including senator jeff sessions, now the attorney general. Today marked 100th anniversary of the bolshevik revolution in russia, that created the soviet union. Supporters carried soviet flags and marched in moscow. The russian government mostly ignored the anniversary. The soviet union collapsed in 1991. From twitter today, word of a major expansion. Its doubling the longstanding limit of 140 characters per tweet, to 280, in a bid to get more people tweeting. The old limit still applies for tweets in chinese, japanese and korean because it takes fewer characters to message in those languages. And, on wall street, the Dow Jones Industrial average gained about nine points to close at 23,557 another record high. The nasdaq fell 18 points, and the s p 500 slipped a fraction. Still to come on the newshour we break down how gun background checks work and when they dont. President trumps stop in south Korea Amid Nuclear threats from the north, and much more. Woodruff back to our lead story, sundays massacre in a texas church. As we reported, the killers past behavior shouldve legally blocked him from purchasing the guns he used to kill 26 people. Our nations gun laws are a patchwork, varying from state to state, and requiring the diligence of many different agencies and officials. William brangham is back with a explanation of this complicated legal landscape. Brangham in the United States, the settlement gives citizens entered right to keep and bear arms. The Supreme Court has several times affirm this fact, but there are some legal restrictions on who can purchase or keep guns. Under federal law to buy a gun from a licensed dealer, you have to be 21 to get handgun and 18 to get a rifle or shotgun. Your name must be checked in a background check system. Federal and state laws designate four main categories that restrict your ability to get a gun committing a violent crime, known drug or alcohol abuse, or crimes committed when you were a juvenile. These are all things that would show up in that background check. These restrictions might seem obvious, but not every at the present time has these rules and not every state enforces the laws in the same way. For example, in 23 states and washington, d. C. , you cant have a gun if youve been convicted of a violent or gunrelated crime. The killer in texas, devin kelley, should have been blocked from buying a gun cause he violently abused his wife and her toddler several years ago when he was in the air force. A 1996 bar bars domestic abusers from buying gun, but as we mentioned before, the air fours did not report his record to other authorities. On the issue of Mental Illness, a majority of states and d. C. Bar people with a history of mental problems from accessing firearms. But its by no means foolproof. The great majority of people suffering from Mental Illness are not violent, so who determines who is a threat . Sometimes an individual will be flagged by the legal system or by a Mental Health provider, but often reporting it to federal and state databases never happens. On the issue of drug abuse, if youre known to authorities to abuse drugs or have been convicted of a drugrelated crime, 28 states and washington, d. C. , will block your access to a firearm. The same goes for alcohol in 18 states and the district of columbia. With each of these restriction, handful of states only block people from having handguns, not shotguns or rifles. Of course, people can often bypass state and federal rules entirely, simply by buying firearms from private sellers, often at gun shows. Those sales from one private citizen to another are largely exempt from any reporting rules. This is whats known as the gun show loophole. Its estimated that almost a quarter of all guns are bought this way, with no background checks at all. Another loophole, there is no federal system for removing firearms if a person later falls into one of these prohibited categories. So if you bought a gun legally but then developed Mental Illness or commit a violent act or abuse drugs, its nearly impossible for authorities to take those guns back. So heres a crucial question do any of these laws actually make a difference in reducing gun deaths . Do they make us safer as a society . According to one analysis, done by the law center to prevent gun violence, thats the group associated with former congresswoman and gun control advocate gabi giffords, the answer is clearly yes. The center graded all 50 states from a through f on how they act ensor force gun laws and compared those grades to actual gun deaths in each state. They conclude, states with stronger laws have fewer gun deaths per capita while states with weaker laws have more gun deaths. Many Gun Rights Group take strong issue with this kind of analysis. They argue that fewer restrictions and more gun ownership is the way to better public safety. For the pbs newshour, im william brangham. Woodruff as more becomes known about the alleged shooters troubled past, lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are looking at ways to address what some critics call a broken background check system. Senator chris murphy, a democrat from connecticut, has been one of the most vocal critics for reforming gun laws following the tragedy at sandyhook elementary school. We spoke a short time ago and i started by asking him what needs to happen now. Well, its an open secret that the existing background check system is broken. People are waking up to the knowledge now that the department of defense has not been uploading lots and lots of records of people who shouldnt be able to get guns into the system. But the fact of the matter is there are many states that upload almost no records to the background check system, leaving the f. B. I. To go out and try to get those records through other means. That means there are hundreds of thousands of people who should not buy weapons who are either seriously mentally ill or who have been convicted of serious crimes who walk into gun stores and are able to walk out with weapons like the shooter in texas. Hopefully this may be one of the few areas of common cause. I talked today with senator jon cornyn, one of the biggest n. R. A. Proponents in the senate, and we committed to try to Work Together on tightening up the existing background check system. This guy should have never gotten a gun, and hopefully republicans and democrats can do something about that. Woodruff so, senator, youre suggesting that the loopholes in the background system were wellknown. If thats the case, why wasnt it brought to the publics attention before now . Well, it has been brought to the publics attention. Weve had legislation in congress for multiple sessions to improve and strengthen the background check system, the house of representatives passed funding a few years ago to give states more money to upload records. Republicans in congress have never been willing to move this legislation. They have never been willing to fund states in order to put records online. In fact, theyve been moving the opposite direction, earlier this year republicans passed legislation that was signed by President Trump that took 75,000 people with serious Mental Illness off the list of people who are prohibited from buying weapons. It seems that maybe in light of this tragedy there is some willingness to finally close these loopholes and make sure that the background check system works, but everybody has known about this and many of us have been trying to fix it for years. Woodruff so do you think there is a genuine change of view on the other side . Well, i know that senator cornyn has been the strongest opponent of many of the common sense gun safety changes like universal background checks that weve tried the make. And today he and i talked seriously about working together to try the make sure that states are uploading this information