Transcripts For CSPAN Public Forum On Gun Violence 20130113

I am a resident in santa rosa. Ive been a california resident since 1975. It pains me, and many of us that have to be here, and name from the past as some people in this room might remember charles wittman. Austin tower shooting. Since then, we have been on a path in this nation of moral degradation and the lack of god, lack of leadership at all levels right now. The lack of any kind of moral compass, as well as the lack of medical care for kids. In one of the things that is very unfortunate about a new town andorra and these other fans is that gun free zones do not seem to be a winning concept. I think that security is at some level an extremely good idea. We have more gun laws now than we know what to do with. You instructed us not to address the Second Amendment. That one phrase in there, to infringe, seems to be happening quite a lot lately. I have a lot of friends in town who have businesses that revolves around a Second Amendment. In this economy, i do not think we need to close any more businesses. Thank you. [applause] i am a Police Officer here. Thank you for coming out. Youre one of the few congressmen who is taken the initiative to do this. You called sandy hook begun tragedy. It was a human tragedy. A gun tragedy. It was not. It was a human tragedy. You lost for solutions. I am not going to stand up here and lecture asked for solutions. I am not going to stand up here and lecture. I will say i carry ar15 and my car every day. In my car every day. I find it deplorable that my wife may not be able to when i am gone. She cannot protect yourself, she does not need it, but i do, and you do . Everyone should have the ability to protect themselves if needed. The solution, i know you guys are doing the best you can with what you have they need more for Mental Health. I cannot tell you how many theyre doing all they can, but they need more. Parents need to start taking responsibility and raising their children so that i do not have to. [applause] my name is peter. I am occurred veteran, soldier in the u. S. Army. Current veteran, soldier in the u. S. Army. I agree with the personal responsibility comments and healt, Mental Health comments as well. No amount of background checks, limitations and restrictions will stop somebody who wants to read somebody else. I was stationed at fort hood. I had friends in that unit. Case in point with him, with Bradley Manning who went through some scrutiny, people are going to do what theyre going to do. No amount of restrictions, limitations on responsible citizens like myself and others will change that. I find it ridiculous that i can be trusted to carry an actual assault weapon overseas in a foreign country amongst children from other countries, and i can be trusted than to not create some type of international incident. This is when we are getting shot at every day. I find it ridiculous i can be trusted in that type of stressful situation to not open fire randomly, but i cannot be trusted youre among friends and family. Here among friends and family. Thank you. [applause] hello. Thank you for convening the storm. My name is curtis. This forum. My name is curtis. I am a gun owner. A hunter. A former nra member. I have very serious concerns about the inability to come up with a good definition for an assault weapon. Several people this evening have pointed out how difficult coming up with a definition is. I have a rather simple solution. Make semiautomatics illegal. Class them the same as a fully automatic weapon. I believe that for hunting purposes, it is not that hard to work a bold action or lever action bolt action or lever action. A lot of people prefer to hunt with a single shot. Magazine capacity, i see no reason for any more than three rounds. If you need more than three rounds when you are hunting, you need to spend some time at the range before going out. [laughter] that is all. [applause] my name is sharron. Sharon. Many thank yous to congressman thompson. Youre a brave and courageous representative for taking on this issue. I spent quite a bit of time over the last couple of weeks reading and talking about this on the internet. The number of Death Threats against senator feinstein is astonishing. These socalled lawabiding gun owners are making an awful lot of threats. We saw that on national tv last night with alex jones threatening civil war in america if he does not like the gun control that president obama and Vice President biden come up with. This is really upsetting to me, it is profoundly and american an antipatriotic unamerican and antipatriotic to threaten war if they do not get their way. Those threats are all over again discussions in this country. Gun discussions in this country. I would like one of your colleagues to speak out about this, threatening violence if you do not get your way is not part of a american way. [applause] thank you. I am from santa rosa. I have a daughter. Theyre studying this issue in the world history. 44 people were killed when a School Board Member plop the school plop the school. The issue is of violence. Blew up the school. The issue is of violence. From an analysis of 102 rampages, they were not a truck, they were not drunk, they were not on drugs. The analysis showed that most of them had Mental Illness issues. Also, most of them were unemployed. A significant number of them threatened violence prior to the event. I hope we can focus on solutions to address the Mental Health issue and our own economic issue that many of these events are started by. Thank you. [applause] thank you for hosting this. My name is laura. I was born nine months after my father returned from the board. War. He went to korea to fend off another bullet, also a gun control supporter. Bully, also a gun control supporter. I am glad that my father is not alive today to see this lunacy. I was prepared to come with facts tonight and some provide suggestions. I realized how pointless that would be. Even this committee that you care is focused on gun violence, which accounts for only 3 of Violent Crime in america. What about the other 97 of Violent Crime . Wheres the committee for that . Our government uses the horrific deaths of innocent children as a despicable ploy to present their own political agenda. The fear mongering among the media and our elected officials has deeply divided this country and driven us further apart than at any other time since the original civil war. And people afraid that were once again perched on the president s. I am afraid that were once again perched on the president s. Precipice. We see our children and grandchildren deployed at school. Bullied at school. But example do we give them . Do wet example give them . Thank you. [applause] harry johnson. My name is harry johnson. I do not have a purple heart, but i did serve in airborne. A former chief of police. A retired after 20 years a retired after 20 years. I retired after 20 years. Everything has been said that i had in my notes to say. With all due respect to the shirt, with my Law Enforcement background, sure, with a Law Enforcement background, it has been said the police cannot protect you sheriff, with a Law Enforcement background, it has been said the police cannot protect you. After 20 years with the courts, the courts are way too lenient to hold people responsible. It starts at juvenile age, goes to adults. We do not have the responsibility there. Rather than during any restriction or further restrictions on firearms, i think we would best be served by providing the resources towards the Mental Health people, and identifying and taking care of those issues first. Thank you. [applause] i am a little bit nervous. My name is brenda harris. I am a sinema county resident. Sonoma county resident. Why do avid collectors have to have bullets to go with them . I do not know if i am mistaken, but i believe Dianne Feinsteins bill that she onwants to submit allows for grandfathered and in. I think that should be eliminated totally. All assault weapons. Animals need a fair chance. They do not need to have helicopters with highpowered scopes and rifles killing. Like the gentleman said, three rounds of whatever. We used only have heroes and arrows years ago. Bowes and arose year ago. Lobbyists in an array should not run our country. Bows and good evening. I think you for calling this meeting. It has been long overdue. I met the over 20 years ago as a state senator and discuss these problems coming and solutions. I want to address that tonight. January 24, 1994, one week after this county, it exposed the fact that the cia is creating mind control projects to create killers in our country. It is all in the books. Child abuse. I discussed this in detail. Through thene District Attorney about this. We have the solutions. The fbi is covering of the use of these drugs. It tells you all about these drugs. He wrote the book those in the fact that they are doing this. Thank you. Here are some handouts for you. Could we please have mike dunlap . I was born here. My first gun i took to school for show and tell. I worked on a dairy ranch. Every kid learned how to deal with a fire arm. They knew which is not to point with anything you did not want to destroy. I would like to ask a couple of things. We want to get the violence out of the use of guns. I currently live in lake county. Last year we started a womens program. We have had a bunch coming out that have never touched a gun before. It has been extraordinary to watch the change and these women. Are we listening to me are watching him . Ok. You put it on the table that everything is on the table. I want to hold due to that. I do not want this to be everything is on the table the way that republicans were. Do not define what the middle is an start from there. Lets talk about the whole table. We need to resolve the issue. Everyone else here, thank you for the chance to comment on this gun violence issue. Pimm i am a constituent of nancy pelosi. Here in sanving a francisco. That is why i am here. Shortly after hearing of the massacre in connecticut, i posted a petition on the web at called ban assault weapons, all of them. Im here to present you with nearly 5000 signatures the people nationwide who have signed the petition. It is not done by an organization or a group. It is just me, a concerned citizen and those who share my view, a ban on assault weapons, all of them. Many use signed made comments. I urge you to leave through the comments. I will read a couple appeared as a former marine, i can guarantee very few if any civilians need anything like the assault weapons. Mental illness might be a good scapegoat to fix the blame, it is nothing more than a red herring. The real problem is the profits of these weapons generate. Thank you perce i will read the comments. Thank you. I will read the comments. I found this information. The Second Amendment was included in the bill of rights to ensure the individual maintained the right to defend himself and all occasions. The citizen is dependent for protection. What it your door is being kicked in and police are 20 minutes away . Educate yourself on how you can protect the Second Amendment. In england and australia comment that made it illegal for people to own a gun. All the criminals get their guns on the black market and the people cannot protect themselves. They are sitting ducks. If you take away the right to defend ourselves we will be in serious trouble. The schools obamas children go to have armed guards. Theyre thinking about hiring some police with guns. Shame on president obama for seeking more than control and for trying to bourbon the parents of other School Children from doing what his own do. In 1929 and the soviet union established guncontrol. From 19291953 thank you. Thank you. [applause] before you speak, sir, could we have 3 . Mike homer, larry, david haines, and bob smiley. Thank you. I am a retired teacher. I was a Junior College budget counselor for 45 years. This is foundational for all of us. The genius in this is the individuality to responsibility. Responsibility a means to respond to what . To what we think is good. Responsibility is an item not well considered in america because theres not a communality and understanding what is good for ouus and our citizenry. Ample input,be calmness, a compassion, that there be good judgment upon the legislatures and get other people out of the way so the operate from their conscious and heart. Let us all back on an ancient philosopher, aristotle. It is a little deep. It was spoken about 300 before christ. The best the is only a parent to be good person. It produces false views about principles of actions. We can not be prudent with out being good. Thank you. My rights ridges violated. I was told i cannot talk to my Public Officials with my cane and i need to walk. The Sonoma County court is out of control. I have been told to shut up. He should have seen it. It was horrible. I have a friend that was shot in the back, 19 years old. She is a cripple in a paraplegic. She carries a gun for safety which is her right. The Second Amendment applies to everybody. I believe you have the right to carry military grade tools around. Everybody has a right to carry these things. Only a well armed citizen army can sort of change of the government. She was shot in the back. He is getting out of jail soon. She was in a car with a man she was with for a couple of months. They have proved that she had no gun. They put her in jail anyway. This is what we have going on in our country. Out of control courts. There is a program for internment camps. You can join the army and become an employee of one of the camps. Dont forget your kaine. Right. Thanks. Good evening. I did not vote for you. And very much impressed. I would love to have a beer with you some time and talk manto man. The Second Amendment does not give us the right to bear arms. It is in down to us by our creator. In doubt it to us by our creator. The sediment the Second Amendment helps the government from firelight are gun rights. Three months ago i legally purchased and ar15. I go to the range of touchholes and paper. My family is safer. If there was some wind out of your shooting children will love to have my gun in their hands and the skills to operate it. The four shootings are at an alltime low. Coincidence . I do not think so. December 17 the shooting as san antonio, and man walked into a theater and started shooting. And our citizens stood up and shot him. There were no other deaths. When the Police Respond the average death toll is 14. When an armed citizen response, the average that toll is two. Good evening. I am a Second Amendment never geadvocate. I want to fix this problem as much as you. Some make firearms and assault weapons and rifles. Some ought to do this for each round the trigger is pulled. These are not assault weapons. Never work, it never will be. It refers to different types of fire arms and has different meanings and usages. An assault weapon is most commonly defined as a fire arm possessing certain features summer to those a military firearms. This considered a political drubbing catch phrase. Im one to get you copies of this. We need to stop calling the guns by the wrong names to think their weapons of mass killings. We do not need this below us. We need to force the ones before us. Thank you. Could we have crossed to word . Charles stewart . Thank you. This is about the Second Amendment. It is about whether this will be a robust amendment or an empty closet. The issue is about the definition of assault weapons. We were in the military. We both know what an Assault Rifle is. My concern is with the passage of the bill, what were going to see is only cosmetic changes. Were going to say no collapsible stocks will be allowed. How does the removal of a cosmetic effect on a rifle reduce its capacity to shoot in the rounds that it has . Highcapacity magazines may be reduced down to 10. The Virginia Tech shooter only had to run magazines at that time. The registration is up. There is the redefining of automatic weapons. This is us of civilians to next to nothing. Thank you. I am cross do it. Im a former school administrator. Charles stewart. I am a former school administrator. I know that im speaking to a largely nra audience. I am a liberal democrat. I want to speak in favor of an updated assault weapons ban, including highcapacity magazine ban. I like to speak in favor of any gun purchase requiring a background check and a license. This includes of gun shows which apparently have variously polls. Im going to cut to the chase. That is it for me. Thank you. I am so and press tonight with all my fellow citizens and their support. I am a gun owner. I personally, my definition of an assault weapon is any weapon pointed at me. I do not care if it is a single shot 22. After that were going this whole problem back word. If we look at the statistics, and they are out there. He came out. When he started that study he thought if we have less guns we will have less crime. I would encourage you all to look at that and to review it. Were under attack. We feel that youre going to take our guns away. What mean need is to lead by examples. Lean and mean this here in california. Let your assistance be educated and be part of your support. Thank you. All five more. Carlton, pam, and john materas. Good evening. I would like to think you and all your panels for taking the time to take the input from those of us. Not me tell you a little bit about my background. Ive been out here for many years. Im considered the tree hugger for california. When i am in california and considered a redneck with a gun collection. I can see both sides of the situation. What this issue brings out as the extremes on both sides. I hear friends of mine that are tree huggers telling me that we want to outlaw all semi automatic guns because they do not understand the difference between semiautomatic and automatic. When we talk about our rights that we always have, one thing we need to keep in mind that this is supposed to be a living and breathing document. Im not ever going to support guns being outlawed completely. I do think there are some limitations. I hear the right to begin. Thank you. In 2008 the u. S. Had over 12,000 gun related homicides. Japan had 11. In 2006 they had 2000 of 120 Million People. We do not need to reinvent the will the wheel. You have to attend an all day class, pass a written test, passed a shooting range class, passed a mental test. You need to check for any criminal record or extreme group. You need to provide documentation and the gun in your home. Police need to inspect the again annual. Annually. They take the gun violence seriously. Hes a we should charge 5,000 per bullet. I think taxing bullets and the highcapacity magazines makes sense. We need to set our priorities. We do not have the right to own rocket launchers and hand grenades. This is the case where we need to have lost to present ourselves 3 prevent ourselves from our own recklessness. Thank you. What is wrong with our judicial system that it is broken. If no one can see that the need to open your eyes a little wider. People are not responsible. We all understand something has to be wrong these people to shoot 20 innocent children. We understand that is a Mental Health issue. Lawabiding citizens are not the problem. We have too many laws. No one understands them. Stop doing some of this stuff that people can say i had a rough childhood. Lets put them in places where nothing happens to them. If you enforce the laws that are currently in place, maybe some of these people will think twice before they take a gun to another human being. If they cannot respect human life, there is a real problem. Those are some of the issues. Those need to be taken care of. Officers have to go out and witness some of these horrific incident. Those are some of the things that need to be taken care of. Thank you. Good evening. I am a family law attorney. A client of mine was shot before my eyes. The person who held the gun carried only a revolver, and a small one with that appeared i will remember until i died the sociopathic stair he gave me before he expired. I see this largely as a Mental Health issue. I see this, when i watch the news about a psychotic breaks, i see this as a problem with depression. We need to have more active intervention. One said violent video games are protected by the First Amendment. I think we can find a way around that. We are smart enough to do that. In terms of the highcapacity magazines, it is simply a due process issue. We can find a way to buy those bought one way or another. Those are solutions within our grasp. They are doable. They will make a difference. Thank you for your time this evening. Thank you. I wanted to thank you for this opportunity to speak. One thing that has really concerns me since the untimely death of oscar grant was the public outpouring regarding the debt of this young man as a father and grandfather. I cannot imagine losing somethinsomeone like that here t the victims in between. I would like to propose that our historic president make use of his unique position in history and digest the communities that are most affected by that, challenge them in his weekly radio address, may be the victims that were killed every week, and challenge those communities to address the problem internally. Get the guns away from the young men. Do what he could do. Pounds away at that. And lots of other comments i have have already been said. Thank you very much for this opportunity to speak. Thank you. Is not mean i get 10 minutes . Nice try. That is good. My name is carol. I am also a family law attorney. I am a former resident of San Francisco. I happen to move to San Francisco in january of 1979 which is right after Dianne Feinstein unexpectedly became mayor of that city. Coming out of San Francisco two weeks after the shootings at 101 california street. It was a very horrible set of books and to my 13 years living there. In the middle of that 13 years i had the unhappy experience of having to bury my sister who had taught herself with a gun that she legally purchase down on first street in San Francisco. She had a background check. They said she was fine. And not matter that she had been hospitalized six months earlier for attended suicide. The problem we have is everyone is pointing the finger someone else summer house in the system. The nra is saying guns to not tell people, people kill people. We do not kill people, people kill people. We hear we have to get the mentally ill people out of the way. We are a multi disciplinary society. We have a multi disciplinary issue. We have to regulate the projects. We have to get the Mental Health issue. Tell me when to go. Thank you for holding this forum. And not heard anyone mention that there is a School Shooting today in california. It was with a 12 gauge shotgun. I hope we will not talk about banning those and next. I will not be surprised. The question is how to reduce gun violence. Someone earlier mentioned Dianne Feinstein getting Death Threats. Why do we look to Dianne Feinstein for suggestions . What did she do when she got Death Threats . She got herself a concealed carry permit. She recognizes the importance of the Second Amendment. It does not matter if every Single Person in your came in and ask you to ban Assault Rifles or whatever. Government officials only have one prerequisite to hold office, to take an oath to the constitution that says people have a right to bear arms. The right should not be infringed. The agency not seem to understand what in french means. The most disturbing part is not about banning the Second Amendment. If i had a gun im pretty sure i would be charged with a crime. Thank you. We have richard kirk, bridget manser, liz kostein, and max and dede bridges. Call 383 more so they can get a lineup. Call a few more so they can get a lineup. Anonymous. [applause] thank you for having this seminar. I am a retired Police Officer. I am a criminal investigator. I have a lot of dealings with mentally disturbed individuals. One issue i want to address is about the schools and what you can do. One of my suggestions is that each one of the school rooms, regardless of what level, have a hot button. Teachers should be trained in order to determine whether they need to hit the button. It should be in conjunction with the police department. That would really alleviate a lot of problems. If anyone came in or they heard a disturbance, i think the teacher should have intensive training in how to determine whether or not an end of visual an individual is finally dangers are coming across that way. In connecticut, the parent did intend to talk to the counselor. About her young son but it was not successful. Videogames are detrimental to our children. I guess that is it. Thank you very much. Thank you. I am from sonoma. I am a pediatrician, a gun owner and a vietnams noncombat that. I deal was psychotic and suicidal people every day. Prohibition against alcohol did not work. The figure out how to regulate the use and abuse of alcohol, prohibiting other substances does not work. The drug were causes more violence than it creates. Substance abuse contributes greatly to Mental Illness and violence by decriminalizing all of the substances. We can eliminate a lot of violence. 90 6 of us and america use alcohol. Half of the alcoholics hurt other people in their alcoholism. Forties americans use pot. Only 10 did screwy on it. If you are violence. This would be a Common Ground that you in the legislature could agree on. Nobody from the nra wants a drunk or a tweeker driving toward them. I will speak for anonymous. Anonymous is right behind you. It is . Ok. [applause] [laughter] i voted for you. The time is now. I hope wyou use what everybody said to pass something. Thank you for clarifying the Second Amendment earlier. Theres not a tyrannical government trying to take away your guns. However, i do believe you should regulate armor piercing bullets, then silencers, take away high magazines. Everyone is disrespectful here in needs to be quiet. Thank you. Before the next speaker, could we have john spencer, dwayne bellinger, roy l. And bonny merrill. I have to apologize if i get loud. My hearing is a bad. I have survived three attempts of getting blown up. The hearing is not good. My identity is only known by a two federal agents. And authorization smuggles in human trafficing, guns, and drugs. People cannot struck the drugs and alcohol could be controlled with prohibition. Prohibition of guns will not stop it either. I have asked for the ninth Circuit Court to rule the law unconstitutional, which it is. I not only at the deauville and medical degrees but a degree in american history. Two medical degrees, but a degree in american history. It says the First Amendment to the constitution contain the fundamental rights and freedom of every citizen. Amendment 9 in san for big congress to adopt laws that would violate these rights. 9 and 10 for congress would adopt laws that would violate these rights. The constitution cannot be ratified until it gets 3 4 of the colonies. Thank you. Four colony said they would not unless they got a promise to guaranteeing they would be included. If you do away with the Second Amendment or alter it, you have broken the contract. Thank you very much. I have one more statement i want to make. Category one is covered by the constitution. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I find it deceitful and annette speaker, please. The next speaker, please. I am from santa rosa. Nothing we can do today will bring back the lives that were lost at sandy hook elementary school. I am not against hunters. Some of my best friend are hunters. Hopefully, they have not shot each other yet. God bless them. It was my birthday december 14, 2012. To my knowledge there were not any hunters out there trying to shoot a bag of deer or a pheasant or quail. In newtown. You can go to bushmaster online. I may be wrong on the amount, you can buy one of these awful weapons, of course i am not sure you can use it. I know california has good lollaws against that. We had a national law from 19942004. It worked fairly well. It was not perfect. Fifth one idea i have seen put out there is that the National Guard might be trained. They know local schools. They can get there faster than police can. Thank you very much. Thank you for bringing this. I would like to say that america is at war. It is not just in foreign countries. It is the government against the people. The people are sovereigns. You are their servants. As such, if he passed these laws and they decide to bring up the rope and hang you from a telephone pole i think that would be just fine. [applause] thanks. I am a Police Officer for the state of california. My comments, i have a lot of stuff to say. It is about personal protection and people being armed. The debate is whether or not 30 rock magazines will be more dangerous than a 10 round magazine. All guns are deadly. I think this goes for most law abiding citizens. 30 round magazines are not allowed for the rifle. If the tip all of these law abiding citizens and gave them 30 round magazines, i do not think they would commit crimes. They would not go down into people. And shoot people. If the issues are Mental Health, which they clearly are. You can take a lawabiding citizen and give him a machine gun and they will not go to a Movie Theater in shoe people. It is not the weapons. The Law Enforcement as the best they can to stop the criminal elements. The budget have been cut so much if we took some of that money to build it and put it back here home, i think that was of 99 of the problem. Thank you. Before you speak, could we have robert mccormick, edward dupre. , and market dupre i have watched one of the violent societies in human history. What led to the American Society been so aggressively violence . There is some good news. The violence and aggression internally has decrease since 1990. Regardless of what the statistics, there has been a decrease of crime in our islands. What caused that decrease . What i found interesting was an article that exactly correlate the decrease in violence with the fact that we have outlawed the rifle from our gasoline starting from 1917. As they eliminated, there violence rate has gone down. I would like us to check this out. Check out for residual lead in our schools. I do not see any way we cannot start by testing the soil, replacing it with clean soil. It should have been done decades ago. Whether some children are more susceptible a more likely to have a problem. I would like to check whether we do not still have the lead pipes in our congress on the last century. Thank you. [laughter] [applause] could we please have a bill harris, dan bowen and kyle keel. I see ernie carpenter. I know you called him. And bill harris, dan bowen, kyle keel. No. Signs. No signs. No signs. Thank you. I would like to add my applause see you having this hearing. I am here tonight as the first vicepresident of the National Association for the enhancement of colored people. National resolution on this issue is for your perusal. Is the second comment cause of death between 2224 year olds in the primary death of africanamericans of that age group. More americans have been killed by guns in their own country and all the United States military personnel and all the wars at the same time in the entire world. Africanamericans and latinos are being murdered in harms at significantly higher rates than the rest of our society. We cannot go into all these reasons. It should be noted that no other developed country allows the ease of access to guns possible in of the United States. Above the naacp has adopted the following to policies. Why dont you give them to me . Ok. It is my time up . You know the drill. 1. 5 minutes to solve social problem is a challenge. Leave the paper. Ok. Hello. Kenyan tell me why this Administration Estate fast and furious . Can you tell me why the federal government last year spent 1. 6 billion crowns of hollow point in the nations tbe ammunitio . I just have a sneaking suspicion that this government is planning to wage war against the citizens. Do you get that feeling . I look back at your voting record. It is like youre being controlled by a foreign operation or something. Youre voting for someone other than the american people. Why is the federal government preparing like this . I do not know what to say to your questions. I can tell you why the government buys bullets. We have reason to use the bullets. It is against the Geneva Convention to use on the battlefield. Youre not using it for target practice. Because they are hollow points. No one uses them for target practice. I hear a lot of fear in the room. The issue is really strong. I would like to talk about compassion, the bravery it takes to be compassionate. There is a letter that was written by a young man who said he understood what adam lanza did because he thought he could have done the same thing. We do not take our reach out on you because we hate you or because you are bad parents or because we are evil. We take it out on me because we know you are a captive audience in your often the only audience we have. When i attack my mother or get angry at her, it had more to do with the feelings of rejection and helplessness and isolation that have been percolating in my mind. It is the isolation that drove me to think that my solution was to take others live is. I in the father of two children who were severely neglected before we adopted them. I have had to spend a tremendous amount of energy to try to create a sense of safety for them. It has taken everything i know to do that. It has taken compassion. Thank you. How many more people want to speak . About 20, 25. I will stay long enough. Is that ok . We can hear everyone speak if we go to 1 minutes. I know you have to leave. Thank you. I do not really have anything prepared but there are so many people that are progun here. I think most people are really looking for solutions. You have a form called prevention. I am not hearing a lot of good ideas or long term solutions. We have 30,000 dundas in our country. Others have 10. 30,000 gun deaths in our country. Others have 10,000. There is a lot of talking about government workers. They were the teachers to protect other students. The firefighters went to protect a buyer and they were killed put out a fire and they were killed. We need to understand all the stresses we have, why there is so much violence and keep the dialogue going. In may not be a oneyear solution. It may not be a oneyear solution. Thank you. Good evening. I am a student. I am in a Training Program to become a Police Officer. It is unreasonable to ask law abiding citizens to give up a right they have grown up with. What we need is more training for school personnel, not just teachers, for everyone to understand how to react to acted shooters. We need more training for local Police Agencies to quickly the layoutd know ho of their local schools. What needs to be done is to emphasize personal responsibility. We cannot give people who are mentally ill, drug users are convicted killers, access to firearms. Owners, including my, of need to take that responsibility. My name is edward mendoza. I would like to express my support for requiring criminal background checks for all gun sales and private sales. I would like to see a ban of all assault weapons including high capacity magazines. I would like to make gun trafficking a federal crime. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for coming to talk with us. I am bill harris. I just retired from 46 years of active military and Contract Service to other government agencies. I am going to be quick. I have done great things like this before. Issue, a large number of mass and serial killers to not kill for the shothrill of the guns. It is only the end to a mean, and lifting the same kind of pain inflicted on them. There are 60 million sociopaths and unknown millions of psychologically ill people all untraded leaving among us living among us. Those not include those in prisons and mental hospitals. Solution, increased awareness and detection of Mental Illness to people across the country. A very High Percentage of mass murderers thank you. If you have a paper, i will read it. I do. Thank you. I am visiting you. Thank you for hosting this. I am a 15 year veteran of the u. S. Air force. I had the top security clearance. I am as well trained if not better than some of the officers out on the streets. I am the guy you want to own guns and help in a bad situation. In this state i am restricted from doing so. Many of my representatives are demonizing me because i want to own the very weapons that these Police Officers used to defend themselves from the criminal threat. I cannot do it in my own home. I was happy to hear a Police Officer actually mentioned that exact issue. The weapons they used to defend themselves on duty we cannot have at home. We cannot have the same defense they have. That is a really bad issue. Quit demonizing us for protecting ourselves. Thank you. Could we have thank you. Thank you for taking the time to listen to all of us speak what is on our mind. I have lived here in the county for 35 years. I was at work in San Francisco around the corner from one the one california from the day my friends and colleagues were needlessly murdered. Ive worked on the board to prevent gun violence. Not to ban guns but to reduce gun violence. We do need a background check. We need a ban on militarystyle assault weapons. We need a ban on large capacity magazines. That will not solve our problems. We need something very much more. That is something everyone has taught me. We need all of our freedoms and rights under our constitution. I do not believe putting our children a lot down in schools is a way to protect their freedoms and the way to teach them freedoms. There are lots of problems we need to soften things we need to do. Sensible gun laws will help us do that. For thank you. My name is nathan russell. I had the privilege and honor to train 4000 people in the last 2. 5 years. I have come across individuals that are terrified of guns and were against the guns. By the time they were trained, their opinions have all changed. They realize guns are a good tool in the tool is in place to protect ourselves from not only our government in the event Something Like that happened but also in the event of a natural disaster. I do not want a deer rifle to protect my home and family. I want a weapon designed to kill people to protect myself from crazy people. And the last century there were more than 59 Million People that were rounded up and massacred within a few years of the governments disarming them. We need to be careful of that. We need to make sure it doesnt happen here. Thank you. Could we please have curtis, sandra, sean martin, david adams, i just have a couple of notes i scratched here tonight. Im tired of people who dont know anything about guns writing gun laws. This has been something i have seen time and time again. Its all in motion and has nothing to do with logic. Banks, politicians, celebrities, all of you folks have armed guards. Our School Children do not. Havet think we need to guards in schools necessarily, but i think allowing the teachers and staff to have concealed carry permits and use them and be trained is a very good idea. I think the litmus test for any laws proposed would be would day affect what we are concerned about . We have to look at that. England top off their guns and they have three times more Violent Crime. Thank you. [applause] on a local attorney and former criminal prosecutor. I am here to try to function as a peacemaker and come it in a compassionate manner to save lives. I am going to draw a distinction between a prediction, a warning, and a threat. What i am going to say is intended to be a compassionate, motion of peace and a friendly fair warning. The gun grabbers are moving the nation closer literally to civil war. That is not a threat, that is a prediction. I know i am being recorded. Many of you will think im crazy. Ive thought about this for 15 20 years. Ive read every major federal, state discussion of the Second Amendment. Thank you. I am willing to fight. Thank you. For the sheriff one thing that sheriff. One thing that would simplify the enforcement of such an amendment laws is take shall not be infringed seriously. That makes prior restraint unconstitutional. Lets give everyone time to talk, please. [applause] my name is sean martin. I just retired after 37 years of teacher teaching in the sonoma. Dr. Kirk took some of my point i was going to make about the successes successful prohibition. There are 71,000 gun control laws, federal and state, and all the people who are talking about background checks, they are largely state by state and they are not funded. There is no money for it. Deferreds in arizona or in mexico, that individual would not i have had a gun but nobody put him in the system. Nobody had money to put it into a computer. Pennsylvania has only 16 people in their system. Maryland has one. You cant convince me theres only one person in maryland to crazy to have a gun. These laws only work if they are funded. By confiscating guns, confiscating assault weapons, there are millions of them. Thank you. [applause] also a teacher. I think there is a great deal of a genuine fear in this room and i hope we can help our neighbors find a sense of real safety in something besides automatic weapons, assault weapons, their threat to peace in that community and ignore the root causes of crime. What is really being said is trust no one but ourselves and our personal assault weapons. Every man for themselves. That is not a community. That cannot raise our children to be healthy. Its an insane asylum. I applaud Dianne Feinstein standing against the gun lobby. The government makes money off of keeping people fearful and buying guns. We have too little compassion for one another. To paraphrase Martin Luther king, we live and learn to Stay Together as brothers cordite together as fools. [reading names] hello neighbor. I am here to talk about the fifth amendment. The fifth amendment says congress may not deprive persons of life, liberty and property with out due process of law. We the people have suffered from 77 unconstitutional orders of congressional choice against cia enemies for fascists gains since world war two, a last lawful war 66 years. As a result, we have squandered our resources and killed our neighbors and later sells the most hated people on earth. Congressman, you did not vote against the law that authorized the United States use the armed forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary. That gives the president the right to use guns at will. These need to be stopped. Thank you. [applause] good evening, congressman. Can you hear me ok . I am a retired Law Enforcement and the critical instant negotiator for number of years. I have a lot of opinions on this issue but what i came to talk to you about was a group of people that are working in our schools, not in the classified section, but as staff and volunteers in afterschool programs throughout the state. We are providing training and issues for staff. We have about 450,000 kids per day in afterschool programs with about 22,000 staff that are not being given the training or ability to respond to these incidents should they occur after school hours on school property. There is some fear with these folks and i dont really think it is being looked at and i was asked if i would bring this forward tonight. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you for hosting this. There is a right to bear arms, and there are responsible gun owners. However, it seems to me in addressing a secure state, their own security, they are skipping over the well regulated militia. That is the government. It is regulation. That is part of the Second Amendment. Im not a big military person, but you might look to the military as to what regulation might be. The nra at its to training and that is wonderful. A lot of training. We know that it very much includes supervision. Can we admit to some supervision also and personal responsibility. You are responsible in the military, both supervision and the law. Thank you. Thank you very much to you all for coming. Pardon me . Lets go. We have five minutes left. Thank you. Everyone that has articulated the right for the Second Amendment, i dont need to repeat. I concur with all of them. What i am concerned about and i have not heard discussed tonight is the fact that Sonoma County and other supervisors and legislators have signed on to an arm of the United Nations. The United Nations is clearly taking away our gun rights. I see a frown on your face and you were set to tear down the guns and to take away private property rights. Im concerned about this nasa document from nasa that cites the cia, fbi, the southern command, atlantic command, etc. It says seek carriers via form of attack, capture, torture americans in living color on prime time. Terror attacks within the continental United States using biological, take down infrastructure and radiation against our brain. What are you doing about that . [applause] well. I know many of you sitting up here and im very proud to be a 35year resident of Sonoma County. Listening to everybody, the fear everybody has, it sounds like they are afraid our government is going to attack us. The biggest problem we have is that we are a violent society. What did we do in 9 11 . We went and bond and destroyed a country that was innocent. What did our children see how we solve problems . The second thing is, with these guns, education, regulation, none of that is going to help until we start addressing the main issue. That is the violence our children are exposed to every single day from cartoons on the up. What do we say . We have that guy shooting his gun when he is chasing a cat. We have to look at what is happening with our media. The last thing i want to say is mr. Thompson, i appreciate you being here, but there are two things i would suggest. Number one, the fcc. Stop taking away our airwaves so we can educate our children. The second thing is it please watch Robert Mcnamaras the fog of war. Find a way when we can have peace on earth and we will have peace in each of our communities. Thank you. My name is brice and ive lived here my whole life. One thing i would like to see you can correct me if it has not already been done. I would like to see more avenues for a psychologist to appeal to a judge or to a board or for someone they think might be a danger to someone with out perhaps printing their name without violating their privacy. If they are considered dangerous, to check and see if they have guns on records and things like that. Perhaps if they were wrong, there could be an appeal process. Considering there has been a lot of talk about how extensive are background checks are, i would like to see maybe a little bit of trust in the public in passing legislation that would allow concealing carry permits for people who prove they are worthy. It should not involve one person deciding. If you want training to be mandatory, i suggest you make it cheaper very affordable. The idea of making a owning guns very expensive is an affront to poor people owning guns. [applause] my name is jeff for long. Thank you for the opportunity. Im a gun owner who doesnt want to lose his gun rights. Most everything i have heard is open to argument. Its just a difference of opinion. But it cannot be argued that if you set a gun there and nobody touches it wont do any harm. Its not the gun. Is the people use them. Regulate the people, not the guns. [applause] my name is curtis. 21 years old. Ive lived in napa, calif. My entire life. Im a gun owner and aspire to be a Police Officer. The first thing that we do as human is to see as long as there is free will, people will make bad choices. We are not here to End Gun Violence because it gun violence used by police, citizens and military like that keep us safer in this country. Were here to end the killing of the innocent. Everyone who is here is right for doing so. Ask yourself not what others can do for you but what you can do for others. If you are a gun owner, train future weapons in the defense of yourself and others. If you dont own a gun are like them, support someone who does because they are someone who give of their life. I seek to protect others where they cannot protect themselves. We should be thinking that is support guns every day. Thank you. Thank you very much. [applause] you are the last one. You have a minute. My name is megan coffee and im short. I live in run the park. Maybe somebody already said what i have to say, but i believe we should tackle this problem in small increments and start with what everyone can agree on, like closing the gun show loophole and people who are on the terrorist watch list, it seems like most people could agree on that. Those things where we have Common Ground, get those past. Just like with health care, we cant get to where everyone is covered until we start with the small measures. Please do what you can and thank you for representing us. I want to thank everybody very much for being here. I appreciate coming out and sharing. That is to shared suggestions on how we could fix this, i appreciate that very much. Everything i heard tonight will certainly fall into the mix. I have been Holding Hearings throughout washington with all of the experts from all of the aforementioned organizations and communities of interest, Law Enforcement, education, and i have been doing the same in the district. All of that is going to be taken into consideration before my task force makes any recommendations. I just want to clarify one thing that was said twice tonight. That was that they are beating up on Mental Health. I dont think thats the case. Everyone recognizes a huge part of this is Mental Health related. It is it not be enough. Mental health has not been funded appropriately for some time and the problems keep getting bigger. We have to really make a commitment to that. The Mental Health of Mental Health component of what were doing is going to be very important to that. Thank you very much for coming. [applause] there were no Mass Shootings in the america until the cia was created. Do your homework. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] that was congressman mike thompson, democrat of california, heading a forum in his district. Hes in charge of the House Task Force on gun that legislation put together by minority leader nancy pelosi. Were going to open the phones it to you and hear what you think about gun issues in the United States. Call the numbers on your screen. There is a separate line for gun owners. Make sure that you new York Television if you call in so you dont get feedback on your line. If you have called within the past 30 days, try to give others a chance to weigh in. We just saw part of rep thompsons meeting in his home district and we want to find out what the sentiment is in your district and what your thoughts are on the gun debate. The first person to the way in today is on the gun owners line. Bill head. I am a gun owner and i agree with the second moment. The Second Amendment. I also a agree that its a big issue. The mass murder in connecticut was obviously a tragedy. I dont think banning assault weapons are mass clips are going to prevent that or stop it. I do believe it is a mental issue. I think we need to have more money to address the deeper issues we have in this country. That is how i feel and hopefully our government will see that and we will move in the right direction. From markoing to hear in stanton, california. What do you think state and federal laws can do to remedy the situation we see in the u. S. . I think that the schools themselves, alarming that teachers is not right. What i do think should be done is have the teachers be trained. If the kids get a taser, they wont kill somebody but if they have them mandatory on their side at all times and train with them, if a kid it does have it, they have an opportunity to stop the person without taking a life and stop them dead. By the time the guard gets to the kid doing the shooting, he doesnt have time. The damage can be done. But if they have these mandatory and trained with them coming is hard to grab a person who carries that. That would be a way of saving a lot of lives. On to new york, keith is on the line. I think we have been following the same course since the early 80s. We have been demonizing guns like they do anything they want on their own accord. Its time to start going the opposite way and going back to the way my great uncle then greatgrandfathers whir educating children about firearms and their use and their safety. Instead of making it such a taboo issue, we need to appropriately educate people and take the correct approach to Mental Health in this country. People talk about people on a terrorist watch list. There are children on that list. How can a 7yearold child be on a terrorist watch list . It is a lot of emotion and a lot of fear. We need to stop trying to repeat the same things that have been tried in the past. We are going to move onto lexington, ky. Tammy is on the gum line. I would like to talk about my personal experience as a gun owner. I feel a lot safer and i could not sleep at night if i didnt have one. The reason being, i was raped and i was robbed in a nice hotel, at which time, either time, i would have been killed. I would not sleep if i dont have a gun. Think everyone should be trained as i have if they are a gun owner. Military men should be stationed at schools in different locations. Thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing your experience. The numbers are up on your screen. We have a separate line set up for those who own guns. This is the san marcos, what is your name . Dorsey. Dorsey. Ive been listening to this for a long time and it seems like it is it to people fighting the nra and no guns. Why dont they put a ban on the bullets . If nobody has the bullets to shoot anyone, they are stuck. Anybody can have a gun, but if you dont have the bullets, there is the cut off. Robert, where are you calling from . The beautiful Pacific Northwest in oregon. What do you think about the state of federal gun laws right now. Im a member of the u. S. Supreme court bar as most lawyers could be if they wanted to go through the paperwork. I attended the Second Amendment hearings and i feel what distinguishes us we are not having a decent conversation about it. We of countries like switzerland which people can take guns and you dont see the violence you see here. We have to examine our own society. I am sick of the demagogues and the work out of the catastrophe we had in connecticut to launch into antigun involvement. The lady that just that than speaking about bullets, she does raise a decent point, but it is the thing a lot of folks are paranoid about, so they run out and buy all the ammo that they can. We need to have a graduated approach. Little kids, accidents at home better terrible, there needs to the restrictions as far as access to firearms for little kids. Going up from there, the focus needs to be on identifying a loner mentality kids and people that would do damage. What is the common denominator . The common denominator is we have people that have some serious pathology in their private in their prior life and we need to retain the freedom that we have to identify those people. That is the common denominator. Working in the law like you do, what is the legal aspect to gun rights and gun control . I think control and regulation as a gun owner myself becomes regulation becomes a prohibition by other means. I think the larger issue is what amounts to keep and bear arms . Ive seen it limitations like magazines. My brother has an ak47. Hes a lawabiding citizen. Hes not going to go out there and shoot them up. I think is a compensatory issue demonstrated under the Fourth Amendment as well as our Second Amendment rights. We are going to move on. What state is spear fish in . South dakota. Ive been listening to a lot of people talk and everybody has their own opinion, but i think guns are a good thing. I think we can protect ourselves that way. I realize there are a lot of people use them in a harmful matter but you hear about these incidents where people love broke into peoples homes and they were able to defend themselves with firearms. The gentleman was talking about the lady with bullets i dont agree with that. If you have the guns and you have the correct training, you should be able to have the bullets for your firearm whether its for protection for your family or hunting purposes. I dont think they should have the right to cut back on the Second Amendment like that. We just saw congressman thompson speaking in california, holding three different town hall style meetings. All sides of the gun control issue. You can watch that online if you missed those forums. The next call is from california