Tonight, Congress Returns from winter break as students and teachers return to Stoneman Douglas high school. Well hear from some of them, and congressman and former Florida Governor charlie crist. Will anything happen this time . And later, midterm madness. A legal fight is on to keep republican seats in republican hands. We are joined by congressman Ryan Costello of pennsylvania. Plus, is bob corker about to become a candidate again for his own seat . Von hilliard brings us the murky state of play from memphis, tennessee. But first, the mass shooting in parkland, florida, did not produce the same old gun debate. It has been the voices of students that have made this one different. They have organized marches, flooded the state house in tallahassee, and demanded action from elected officials. Some are listening. Floridas republican governor rick scott who has an aplus rating with the nra announced a proposal that includes banning firearm sales to anyone younger than 21. I think most members in nra agree with me, this is logical. Im sure there are going to be some that disagree. But im a dad and a grand dad and a governor. I want my state to be safe. I want every child to be in a safe environment when theyre trying to be educated. Meanwhile, a cnn pole released today showed 7 in 10 americans support stricter gun laws, up from over 50 in october. But Congress Returns tomorrow, and the question remains. What happens next at the federal level . The president has offered up a range of ideas to enhance school safety. Most notably, training and Arming Teachers, and there is some legislation in the works. But, of course, for any piece of legislation to go anywhere, it first has to earn the support of republican leadership. And so far Mitch Mcconnell and paul ryan have been publicly silent on what, if anything, will actually make it to the floor. But one thing is clear. The students of marjory Stoneman Douglas high school who resume classes this week will be watching. With that id like to welcome in my panel. National political reporter for axios, Jonathan Swan. Catty kay, and coauthor of the political play book, jake sherman. Thank you all for being here tonight. I want to focus our conversation here at the beginning of the show on just what, if anything, could possibly happen. Jake sherman, this issue is particularly difficult in the house of representatives where the speaker faces a choice about whether or not to put the most likely of these in congress. And feel free to disagree with me, but it seems this fix nix bill that would have made changes to the shooting that happened in Sutherland Springs could potentially be a st. Louis. The house has already passed it but theyre demanding other things, concessions to the National Rifle association. Is there anything that will get done in congress . First of all, most of the people i talk to dont believe there is a legislative solution. Most republicans. There is a split. There are conservatives in the house who say this is a tipping point. I think if anything happens and again, far from certain, its some sort of bolstering of back ground checks and maybe something on bump stocks. This is low hanging fruit stuff. I want to be like abundantly clear here. Theres no chance theyre going to raise the age to buy any weapons. Theres no chance there is going to be an assault weapons ban. There is really no chance that congress is going to approve some sort of sweeping arming your Teachers Movement that the president seems to be interested in. And if there is a way to get this done, the president would be wise to focus on one or two things that are kind of easy, and there are those things. Catty kay, what jake just laid out feels to me like really nothing changes very much. Yeah, these are the things that people who support tighter gun controls would say america should have done years and years ago. Bump stocks seem obvious, firming up the background check seems fairly obvious. The only thing i can imagine would change it, youve seen some corporate response to this that we havent seen before. Thats new over the course of this weekend. That cnn poll is interesting for two reasons. The people who support raising the age limit, 70 . The tense factor. If people start to make this a voting issue for themselves, its never been on the side of people supporting gun control. If that becomes a voting issue in some districts, running up to the midterm elections maybe you start to see a shift. Jonathan swan, do you think the president is going to Push Congress on this issue . The problem with the president in any of these issues is consistency and keeping anything sustained. I believe hell keep it sustained as long as its on tv and its an issue in the media. I find it hard to believe that hell really make a longterm sustained public argument to raise the age, which is really the thing where hes crossed the nra. On Everything Else the nra is fine with his position because its not controversial as jake pointed out. Things like the cornyn bill and bump stocks and, you know, some of the Arming Teachers, which is really a state issue. I mean, theyre obviously fine with that. The concern that i hear from leadership, republican leadership, also in the senate, is the sort of Christmas Tree approach. If everyone starts attaching they have some sort of gun control bill and people start putting their own things on it, almost no chance of getting anything done. It has to be probably something modest and narrow. Right. And the question, of course, will what the students bring to the table make any difference. So that point people have been coming to washington for, frankly, too many years trying to do something about stopping these mass shootings. And now this tragic torch is being passed. In the wake of newtown, parents descended on the capital. This was back in 2013, to work with a Bipartisan Group of senators. Lets all share. I cant imagine. Okay, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much. Thank you. Mark martin has been to the white house more than once. The first time was after he lost his son daniel at sandy hook, and he was there again this week to meet with another president about a National Solution for mass shootings. This is my little daniel. Ive been holding up pictures of my little daniel since the day he was murdered at sandy hook elementary school. And here we are again. Here we are again trying to figure out what the hell are we going to do about this. Five years, im sick of this. Im sick of having to figure this out. These are my other two children, james and natalie. James and natalie are in high school now. James is a senior at Newtown High School and natalie is a sophomore. Believe me when i tell you the laws of odds and averages dont make us immune that this could happen to us again. This could happen to you. Thats why im asking for your help. We need to do something. And you know who is doing something . Are these amazing High School Students. Oh, my god, what a force to be reckoned with. That is a no [ bleep ] constituency that is speaking up, and they are protecting their own future. They are not going to be intimidated by corporate greed. Theyre not going to be bullied by money and power. They want to fix this and theyre going to do it, and lets help them, too. [ applause ] katty kay, we are talking in a way that reflects the experience that we felt after i covered i was in the room with joe manchin when that happened. And the conversation started out as lets ban these assault weapons. Lets limit the size of magazines. Lets do all of these things and what they came down to was a proposal to expand background checks that then couldnt pass the congress. Can these High School Students make a difference . Well, they couldnt pass the congress not just because of republicans, right . It also couldnt pass because of those five Democratic Senators who found themselves in an impossible position. I think jonathan has it. It depends how long this stays in the media and were going to have this huge big march on march 24th. It will be all over our television screens. If they can keep up a Public Awareness campaign, that could start perhaps to shift things. But i fear were back in the territory of the tiny things that ought to have happened that seem to obvious, what happened so many times after the shootings. Can i make a point . A lot of these republicans ive said this a few times now. I think people need to keep this in mind. The country is drawn congressional seats are drawn where a lot of people, members of congress go home every weekend to picnics and barbecues and political events where their constituents are carrying guns and all they hear from their constituents is, okay, youre going to start here. Whats next . Are they going to take my purse poll next . Are they going to take away my ability to protect my family . So i think a lot of republicans go home and their view is enforced and its informed by the fact that their constituents in a lot of these dikts have not moved. And it makes it very difficult politically internally for the leadership, for paul ryan and Kevin Mccarthy to move. We also havent seen we see these young kids doing, you know, incredible speeches on tv. But we havent seen that turned into a fear some voting force. Thats right. Its hard to think of an election that was won on a gun control message in ten days, though im not talking about this weekend. If you look at the last 20 years, election s have been won on a gun rights platform, but not the opposite. It hasnt been a single issue. What did you take away . One thing i thought was interesting was rick scott coming out. He hasnt announced or said whether hes going to run for senate or not, but it struck me that he was crossing the nra on this question of how old you should be to buy one of these guns. Whether thats simply a reflection of the fact that i i do not doubt this is going to be a front and center issue in any florida statewide race come the fall. The question for me whether this becomes national. If this is a signal to republicans, hey, this is a place where we should move or is he protected by the president . I think it all comes back whether people start making the phone calls on the other side of the argument. Were all saying this. This has been the issue. People have voted consistently and call their members of Congress Consistently in favor of the Second Amendment and gun rights. We havent ever seen people calling. And if this translates into that movement, then potentially you have people like rick scott who feel that they want to do things, even if its on a statewide level. Amy walter did an excellent piece a few days ago. The Pew Research Shows twice as many gun owners called their member of congress after gun control. We see a lot of the intensity but the actual intensity has been historically with the gun rights crowd. It is important to keep in mind. Today students were allowed to return to marjory Stoneman Douglas high school for the First Time Since the mass shooting there. Parents also joined for what was called an open house before the official start of classes on wednesday. Melissa is a teacher at marjory Stoneman Douglas. During the shooting she hid 19 students and herself in the closet of her classroom for over half an hour. She joins me now from parkland, florida. Melissa, thank you so much for being here tonight. I really appreciate it. Hi, thank you for having me. Can you take us into the classroom today . This was your first day back at school. What was it like . Actually i went back to school for the first time on thursday. I was the only one who was there. There were administrators, but i felt like it was really important for me to go back and stand in my classroom and sort of deal with whatever feelings i had about that. So, today was actually the third time ive been in my room since this happened. And were you there with your students today . What was the atmosphere like with the community at the high school . I think everyone is sort of uncertain about, you know, how we move forward. There were students there. There were parents there. It was an optional event for teachers and students. So, i mean, i think people are sort of feeling out how they feel whether theyre ready to come back. Some teachers may not be ready to come back. Some students may not be ready to come back. The district has said that theyre committed to working with everybody in terms of, you know, in their own time and what do they need and how can the district support them. One of the proposals that the president has advocated in the wake of what happened at your school is the possibility of teachers arming themselves and carrying guns in the classroom. Is that something that you personally would consider or feel comfortable with . And do you think its good policy across the board . No, its not something im comfortable with. I think its a terrible policy. It doesnt solve the problem at hand. It creates new problems, you know, in terms of where is it going to be stored . And what happens if a student gets their hands on it . What happens if the wrong teacher has a weapon . I dont believe it would have helped in this instance either because youre bringing a hand gun like a concealed weapon is a hand gun to a fight with someone who is armed with, you know, an ar15. So, i feel i honestly its a terrible policy. The president has also said that he wants to harden schools. What do you take away from that framing of it and what do you think should be done to try and physically protect schools if anything . I mean, were already doing a lot of those things. You know, most schools in our district schools are fenced. There is a single entry point. You have to come in, show your drivers license in order to gain access to the school, even to pickup your student. Im not sure what hardening the school looks like. I dont know if that means like metal detectors, bullet proof glass. To me it seems its the same as arming the teachers. Its like miss direction from the problem at hand. When are we going to talk about these Assault Rifles and whether or not thats the type of weapon we want civilians carrying around in our society. So, i support the idea of strengthening security but i dont know how much farther we can actually go. I mean, i dont support the idea of turning our schools into some form of like military compounds because our schools are supposed to be a safe place for kids to come, like a home away from home. And the idea of, you know, turning it into something that is so heavily guard and had protected as opposed to looking at the issues at hand just doesnt seem to make sense. I dont know where the money is going to come from for this either. The Broward CountySheriffs Department has been on defense over how they handled this. Scott israel was on cnn earlier today. I want to show you that clip and talk about. Are you not taking any responsibility for the multiple red flags that were brought to the attention of the Broward Sheriffs Office about this shooter before the incident . I can only take responsibility for what i knew about. I exercised my due diligence. I have given amazing leadership to this Agency Amazing leadership . Yes, jake. Do you think that they showed amazing leadership here . I mean, i think what happened with the Broward Sheriffs Office in terms of how many times, you know, they were called out, you know, to deal with this particular individual, i think, you know, scott israel pointed out the other day they have limited power in terms of, you know, what theyre able to do and so i think that is sort of indicative of the problem, too. I dont think the problem is just Assault Rifles. The problem is, you know, whether or not Law Enforcement has the ability to take an individual that they think is a threat and have them, you know, examined by medical professionals. I think there is an issue with funding for mental health. So, i think it sort of leads into the bigger problems. My issue, you know, with politicians is that they want to talk about all these other pieces, but they want to leave out the Assault Rifle piece. And i think we have to have a conversation about all of it so that we can actually make our kids at school safer and our society safer at large. Melissa, thank you very much for your time tonight. Really appreciate it. Thank you. We have much more to come on kasie d. C. Ivanka trump and donald trump, jr. , representing the u. S. Abroad. We will have Peter Alexanders exclusive interview with the first daughter. Plus, Jonathan Swan with two very interesting, shall we say, exclusive scoops about how the president wants to handle some drug dealers. All drug dealers, perhaps. But first Republican Congressman Ryan Costello joins me on set. Youre watching kasie d. C. You know whats awesome . Gigspeed internet. You know whats not awesome . When only certain people can get it. Lets fix that. Lets give this guy gig really . And these kids, and these guys, him, ah. Oh hello. That lady, these houses yes, yes and yes. And dont forget about them. Uh huh, sure. Still yes xfinity delivers gig speed to more homes than anyone. Now you can get it, too. Welcome to the party. On the idea of raising the age of assault weapons from 18 to 21, are you personally supportive of that . Im