Woodruff plus, a rare bipartisan push. A new bill that proposes reforms to jail sentences, and how the u. S. Metes out justice. We hear from republican senator mike lee, and democratic senator cory booker. All that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by bnsf. And by the alfred p. Sloan foundation. Supporting science, technology, and improved Economic Performance and Financial Literacy in the 21st century. 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 the scenes are all too familiar a mass shooting today leaves a trail of death and disbelief. It happened today in oregon, when a 20year old man started shooting in classrooms at a college. Ten people were killed and seven wounded. William brangham begins our coverage. Reporter classes were well underway at ucsb when the attack shattered the calm of the campus in roseburg, about 180 miles south of portland. Within minutes, the school went into lockdown as police swarmed in to confront the gunman. Officers engaged that suspect, there was an exchange of gunfire, the shooter threat was neutralized and officers continued to sweep the campus looking for other threats. The shooter is deceased. Brangham officials evacuated faculty, staff and students off campus to the county fairgrounds. I was so excited to Start College here and then this happens and its, like, i dont want to go back there for a long time. Reporter elsewhere, small groups worried and while small groups worried and waited. Hospitals. The college remained closed, as police checked buildings and geared up their investigation. Ian campbell, thank you for talking with us. What did these students tell you . I talked to a few students today on campus, one of which was inside of the classroom where the shooting occurred, and what she told me is that she first noticed gunshots coming through a nearby window and then the shooter entered the classroom, first shot the professor in the head and then instructed the rest of the students and the people inside of the room to get on the ground shortly or immediately after the shooter then kind of randomly or in some order instructed people to stand up one by one and state their religion, and the student doesnt necessarily remember or know which religion generated a positive response to the shooter and which generated a negative response, but the student does remember the shooter mentioning christianity quite often. Woodruff did she get a look at him . She didnt. She did refer to the shooter as a male, but then immediately as, you know, connecting the dots between hearing gunfire and watch ago man, you know, murder her professor, she ducked undercover, was surrounded by other students and individuals and had her face down for most of the time. Woodruff and anything else descriptive about him or what he did or said . Not that she had again, the main thing was instructing students to stand up, state their religion and, at times, there was corresponding gunfire. She didnt know which religions he was shooting students for and which ones he wasnt but thats what she gleaned from the situation. Woodruff ian, how are the students dealing with all of this . Its a tricky situation. When i first got there, i arrived at the campus on kind of an external lawn to the campus where the police and local authorities had kind of been ushering students out in small groups and, on that campus, when i arrived, a lot of them were on the phone with their loved ones, some in tears, others hugging, a lot of people were kind of sitting by themselves staring off in space, trying to process what happened. You know, obviously, there are a bunch of mixed reactions, but, in general, everyone is so prized this could even happen in the area. Woodruff impossible to imagine. Ian campbell with the news review in roseburg, oregon. We thank you. Thank you so much. Woodruff school and College Campuses across the country are grappling with how to prevent attacks like this one. Im joined now by daniel carter, director of the vtv family outreach foundation, a group formed by families of the victims of the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in 2007. He leads the groups 32 National Campus safety initiative. Daniel carter, thank you for being here. Your connection is you advised these families of the victims of Virginia Tech, as we said, 2007, 32 students people died. There were, what, 17 others wounded. This must seem awfully familiar to you. Its a tragedy and our thoughts and prayers are with all of those affected. And you know, we were created to help prevent and respond to these types of crisis situations. So, our goal with the 32 national cam pies is to get colleges and universities to be bert able to respond to these situations. Woodruff what are colleges in general doing across the country they werent doing before Virginia Tech. Multidisciplinary assessment teams where if someone is of concern they can be reported and by Law Enforcement professionals. And you have Emergency Management protocols where you have Emergency Management notifications systems and Rapid Response by Law Enforcement. There needs to be connectivity between campuses large and small, and if they dont have their own Law Enforcement connectivity, with local Law Enforcement so their security personnel are routinely drilled and trained with local Law Enforcement. Woodruff is there a uniform set of questions that college officials, faculty and even students are to think about as they assess the people around them to determine who and who isnt a risk . I think trust your gut. Its all too often dismissed. But trust your gut and check whether or not the college has a place to report that. So if someone is acting unusual, i mean, is it as simple as that . If you see something, say something. It may sound hokey, but it is as simple as that. And you can report it to the authorities and they should take a look at it. Woodruff how many schools are following the kind of directions you just described . Most larger fouryear residential colleges and universities have adopted the threat assessment and Emergency Management models. We are just now beginning to explore community colleges, so i dont know how many of them are, but i know they have a lockdown protocol which was followed and they had an emergency identification protocol which was followed. Woodruff what more, daniel carter, do you think needs to be done to prevent these kinds of awful things from happening . I think we need to do a better job of making sure threat assessment teams are established on every campus in this country, that theyre well publicized and colleges and universities have Emergency Response procedures in place and partner with local First Responders in our Initiative Online has guidance for how colleges and universities can accomplish this as well as what students and families need to look for. Woodruff so it is an ongoing thing. It is. Weve come a long way but have a long way to go. Woodruff daniel carter, thank you very much. Thank you. The gunman has been identified as 26yearold chris harper mercer. Law enforcement officials said he lived in the roseburg area. Earlier in evening at the white house, president obama addressed as i said just a few months ago and i said a few months before that and i said each time we see one of these Mass Shootings, our thoughts and prayers are not enough. Its not enough. It does not capture the heartache and grief and anger that we should feel. And it does nothing to prevent this carnage from being inflicted someplace else in america next week or a couple of months from now. We dont yet know why this individual did what he did and its fair to say that anybody who does this has a sickness in their minds, regardless of what they think their motivations may be. But we are not the only country on earth that has people with Mental Illnesses who want to do harm to other people. We are the only advanced country on earth that sees these kinds of Mass Shootings every few months. Earlier this year, i answered a question in an interview by saying, the United States of america is the one advanced nation on earth in which we do not have sufficient commonsense gun safety laws, even in the face of repeated mass killings, and later that day there was a mass shooting in a Movie Theater in lafayette, louisiana that day. Somehow, this has become routine. The reporting is routine, my response here at this podium ends up being routine, the conversation in the aftermath of it. Weve become numb to. We talked about this after columbine, after blacksburg, after tucson, after newtown, aurora, after charleston. It cannot be this easy for somebody who wants to inflict harm on other people to get his or her hands on a gun. And whats become routine, of course, is the response of those who oppose any kind of commonsense gun legislation. Right now, i can imagine the press releases being cranked up we need more guns, theyll argue, fewer gun safety laws. Does anybody really believe that . Woodruff a clearly angry president obama just moments ago at the white house. He also pointed out, he said scores of responsible gun owners favor measures of gun control, and he also said that the u. S. Spends trillions of dollars preventing terrorist attacks on u. S. Soil, but he said congress, meanwhile, refuses even to permit collecting data on Mass Shootings in this country. Woodruff the government of afghanistan claimed today that Security Forces have regained control of kunduz from the taliban. They said they recaptured the center of the embattled Northern City after a six hour assault overnight. After daybreak, afghan Security Forces could be seen patrolling the streets. They hunted for retreating taliban fighters, as fighting continued in places. But president ashraf ghani claimed victory. translated we praise the Security Officials of our country for their tireless efforts leading the war from 10 00 p. M. Last night until the Early Morning and during the rest of the day, they managed to successfully launch operations. The good news is that we didnt have anyone martyred. Woodruff the nato coalition confirmed that u. S. Special forces fought alongside afghan groups in the battle, returning fire in selfdefense. A u. S. Military transport plane crashed in eastern afghanistan killing all eleven people on board. Six were american troops. The others were said to be civilian contractors. Officials said there was no sign of enemy fire when the plane went down. The United NationsRefugee Agency now says it expects 1. 4 million migrants and refugees to arrive in europe this year and next, up sharply from an estimate just a month ago. That report today came as new waves of people, mainly syrians, kept pouring into serbia and croatia, hoping to move on to western europe. They face the prospect of worsening weather with the onset of fall. Closer to home, Hurricane Joaquin raked the central bahamas today, and forecasters said its now extremely dangerous. Sustained winds reached 130 miles an hour, and could get even stronger. The storms future course was being closely watched, as late projections showed it is more likely to track away from the u. S. Mainland next week. In the meantime, people up and down the east coast were urged to get ready. Disaster officials warned people against waiting to see exactly where joaquin is headed. We cant always tell where these storms are gonna go. And if youre waiting till the last minute it may be too late. Weve got time. This storm is down in the bahamas. Its not gonna come out of there quickly, so if youre from the carolinas through the new england states, if you didnt get ready for hurricane season, this is your time. This is october first. Get ready. Woodruff the states of maryland, new jersey and virginia declared emergencies today, in advance of the storm. The u. S. House of representatives has set the stage for a possible veto showdown with president obama over defense spending. Republicans today passed a bill authorizing 612 billion. It gives the president much of what he wants, by padding a warfighting account. The white house says that would break through defense spending caps. The senate gets the bill next week. In new york city, the Police Department today unveiled new rules on the use of force after a highly critical report. The citys Inspector General found the n. Y. P. D. Has no clear cut guidelines for officers on using force. And he said too often, the department does not discipline those who go too far. Under the new guidelines, officials said today, police will have to document every time they use force, even in brief encounters. I speak to the issue of sanctity of human life. We are one of the few in government that have the power, the authority to take a life, to take people into custody, to pry them of their liberty. So that sanctity of life, that respect for life has to be paramount. Woodruff new york police have come under scrutiny in the chokehold death of eric garner in 2014. More recently, a policeman roughed up former tennis star james blake after mistaking him for a criminal suspect. In economic news, auto sales in the u. S. Showed doubledigit gains in september. Ford led the way with a 23 jump. But volkswagen sales were stagnant, amid a scandal over cheating on pollution tests. And on wall street, stocks were mixed as investors awaited tomorrows jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial average lost 12 points to close near 16,270. The nasdaq rose nearly seven points, and the s p 500 added three. Still to come on the newshour questions surrounding russias foray into syria. A bipartisan push in the u. S. To rein in some jail sentences. Revisiting a furor from a decade ago, over controversial cartoons. Woodruff russia continued air strikes throughout western syria today, targeting what it said were Islamic State and other terrorist targets. Meantime, the United States continued its campaign in syrias skies, and began talks to lessen the chances of further conflict, in what is becoming a crowded airspace. Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Margaret Warner begins our coverage. Warner this was just east of damascus today, moments after an apparent russian air strike on the village of deir assafir. It was one of the sites across western syria that was hit on day two of the russian bombardment. There were more strikes to the north, near turkey, in idlib province, where alqaidas syrian branch, the alnusra front, is dominant. And in homs, a building housing displaced syrians was struck. translated we were sitting here on the steps, and suddenly we heard a noise and the rocket fell here. Once it fell, children were on the floor, it was a mess. Warner that desperate scene found its exact opposite in the relative calm of a marketplace in old damascus, under firm control of the Bashar Alassad regime. translated this is a very positive step, and russia became the best solution for the crisis that we are living in. Warner as Russian Military video showed strikes across the country, a colonel speaking in syria maintained they targeted the Islamic State. translated Russian AviationGroup Carried out the first precision strikes on eight sites of the International Terrorist organization Islamic State. All targets have been destroyed. Warner but one rebel group backed by the c. I. A. Said its fighters had been hit. And at a special pentagon briefing, colonel steve warren speaking from baghdad dismissed the russians claims. What ill tell you is, the russians were very clear publicly that they were going to strike isil. We dont believe that they struck isil targets. So thats a problem. Russians said they were going to do one thing, but thats not what they did. If it looks like a terrorist, if it acts like a terrorist, if it walks like a terrorist, if it fights like a terrorist, its a terrorist, yes. Warner in turn, russias foreign minister Sergey Lavrov at the United Nations appeared to acknowledge the attacks are not limited to the Islamic State. We always said we were going to fight isil and other terrorist groups. This is the same positions which americans are taking basically our position as well. We see eye to eye with the coalition on this. Warner in fact, russian and American Military officials spoke by teleconference today for the First Time Since the russian air strikes began, in a bid to deconflict the airspace over syria. With both russian and american fighter jets active there, a pentagon spokesman said they need to avoid miscalculation. And, amid the focus on the air war, reuters reported iran has now sent