The following is an excerpt taken from
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0704/18/ldt.01.html
DOBBS: As we learn more about all of these victims, the loss becomes even greater. And Kitty, thank you very much. Kitty Pilgrim.
The shootings at Virginia Tech have raised the politically charged issue, of course, of gun control. Virginia's governor, Tim Kaine, today said now is not the time to discuss his state's gun laws.
And as Dana Bash now reports, congressional Democrats are also trying to keep quiet about gun control.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the days after the 1999 Columbine High School shootings, Democrats were quick to demand tougher gun laws.
SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: How many of our schools have to be desecrated by blood and bullets before the Senate and the House will act?
BASH: Congress did debate gun control then but failed to enact new laws.
Now another massacre. This time Democrats control Congress, but they're shying away from talk of gun control.
SEN. HARRY REID (D-NV), MAJORITY LEADER: I hope there's not a rush to do anything. We need to take a deep breath.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Console the families and the children who were affected there. That's what we're focusing on. That's all we're focusing on right now.
BASH: Democrats are reluctant to pass new gun restrictions, in part because public support for tightening gun laws has been steadily dropping. In 1990, 78 percent of Americans backed stricter gun laws. Now it's only 49 percent.
AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Common sense, gun safety measures...
BASH: Democrats dropped gun control as a national issue after Al Gore was tagged as anti-gun in 2000, and lost big in the south and rural areas.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a very strong Second Amendment guy.
BASH: Since then, Democrats won seats from North Carolina to Indiana, pro-gun candidates.
STU ROTHENBERG, ROTHENBERG POLITICAL REPORT: So the Democratic Party has really tried to move to the center on some issues, and certainly with a lot of rhetoric. And picking up the gun issue again, I think many Democrats feel would push them further back to the left. They don't want to go there now.
BASH: Democrat Carolyn McCarthy ran for Congress after her husband was killed in 1993 by a Long Island railroad gunman.
CAROLYN MCCARTHY (D), NEW YORK: So this isn't just policy. This is personal for me.
BASH: She hopes this week's shootings will help her renew restrictions on weapons, limit clips to ten bullets in 9 millimeter guns like the one used in Virginia. But McCarthy says even that will be tough.
MCCARTHY: I have members that come up to me and say, Carolyn, I'd like to be with you, but I can't. I didn't come here to Congress to fight gun violence. I'll lose my reelection. You know what? They probably would.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: And hearings have already been scheduled on the issue of college campus safety. But several Democratic leadership sources tell CNN the chances of Congress actively pursuing new gun restrictions are slim to none -- Lou.
DOBBS: Dana, thank you very much.
Presidential candidates today not offering any further direction on their position on gun control. Substantiating the position taken there on Capitol Hill, as well. Thank you very much.
As public support for tighter gun control declines, studies show that there is no evidence that tighter gun control laws reduce gun deaths.
As Christine Romans reports now, the Second Amendment still stands.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The law of the land, these 27 words: "A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
But for years, gun control advocates and lawmakers have sought to restrict the Second Amendment, with gun-free zones, waiting periods, firearm registration and licensing, with the view that limiting access to guns would decrease crime.
JACOB SULLUM, "REASON" MAGAZINE: It's never been demonstrated in any conclusive way that gun control reduces crime. The rules disarm the law abiding people, but they leave the criminals free to attack their victims, who have no defense.
ROMANS: In fact, crime has been declining across the country, irrespective of the state gun laws, whether lenient or tough.
The CDC several years ago concluded there is no proof that gun laws reduce firearm violence. In fact, some of the most violent places have the toughest gun laws. Think Washington, D.C., and its 30-year ban on handguns.
The most restrictive gun laws in North America are in Mexico, where citizens are unarmed. Killer drug cartels are armed.
The Virginia Tech campus is a gun-free zone. That did not stop Cho Seung-Hui. But his actions inevitably are reviving the gun control debate.
A Virginia congressman.
REP. JIM MORAN (D), VIRGINIA: It is simply too easy to obtain a firearm.
ROMANS: New York's mayor.
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, NEW YORK CITY MAYOR: All mayors understand that taking illegal guns off the streets has nothing to do with the Second Amendment and everything to do with law enforcement.
ROMANS: Intense debate over the modern meaning of a 216-year-old right.
NICHOLAS JOHNSON, FORDHAM LAW SCHOOL: There is a split among the courts. There's a split among academics. But among American people, the majority of Americans believe that they have a right to arms.
ROMANS: An estimated 70 million Americans are gun owners.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: The courts most recently weighed in on gun control laws in Washington, D.C., just last month, striking down that city's 30- year-old handgun ban, ruling it unconstitutional -- unconstitutional, insisting that it is -- there is nothing ambiguous, Lou, about the Second Amendment.
DOBBS: And that is precisely the holding of the appellate courts.
It is a very difficult issue. And the reflex is understandable, the intensifying debate understandable. But at the same time, the failure to look at the broader violence on our college campuses, 1,100 suicides a year, 1,400 deaths from binge drinking, 70,000 rapes and sexual assaults, where is the clarion cry there? Because there is a broad scope of violence that is being altogether ignored.
Christine, thank you very much. Christine Romans.
A bill, by the way, in the Virginia legislature that would have given college students and university employees the right to carry handguns on campus never made it out of committee.
On Monday, the day of the shootings, House Bill 1572 was dropped during the first stage of the legislative review process in the Virginia House.
Most universities in Virginia prohibit anyone other than police from possessing a firearm on campus.
We are headed on the right direction. Democrats are aware if they mess with our gun rights they lose thier seat.
