Jeff: President Biden addressing
the nation once again
traumatized by horrific
nonviolence.
The president was flanked by 56
candles representing each U.S.
State and territory.
President Biden pressing and
encouraging and calling for
congress to do something on gun
control.
He talked about how he visited
with grieving families in
Buffalo and uvalde.
In both towns, what people told
him is that they wanted congress
to do something.
After Newtown, parkland,
columbine, nothing has been
done.
This time, he says, must be
different.
I want to bring in my
colleagues.
Here with me in the studio is
Leanne Caldwell of the
Washington post.
President Biden talked about red
flag laws.
He encouraged congress to pass
incentives for states to
institute these red flag laws.
Gun rights groups they say
infringe on people's right to
due process.
Help me understand how these
laws work.
>> He accurately portrayed what
it is.
Creating some kind of a
mechanism so that if a family
member, parent, son, neighbor
recognizes that someone is in
some sort of mental health
crisis and they have guns, it's
a mechanism to appeal to law
enforcement, contact police,
contact the court.
And through the process of
signing up, they can say they
are worried about this person in
our lives.
They have these weapons and we
are appealing to you to
temporarily take those guns away
from them.
A judge has to look at the
evidence have say, ok, this
meets the criteria.
There are 19 states that have
these and the rules are a little
bit different.
A judge would say, for time, we
will take this person guns away
from them.
There is an appeals process and
ways that a person that lost
their weapons can be appealed.
But that is the basic idea.
The president used the example
of uvalde.
If someone in that shooter's
family, his sister, mother,
grandmother had appealed to
authorities, Texas doesn't have
this law, but in that example,
that would've been the kind of
moment.
The opposition to these the
president noted is the
staunchest gun rights groups in
the country think this is an
inappropriate use of allowing a
family member or a court,
unelected court as they like to
put it, it supersedes a
constitutional right and there
is no due process built into the
system and it's unacceptable.
Last year when there was a red
flag lobbying debated in regards
to service members and the
military, those groups pressured
house Republicans and they
backed off of that.
Representative Dan crenshaw has
said that you're basically
punishing someone for a crime
that they haven't committed yet.
It may sound commonsensical, but
there is a great deal of
opposition for this.
These are a very steep road
ahead.
Jeff: Some elected Republicans
support red flag laws after the
park school shooting.
Twice introduced on the senate
floor.
It never got about.
-- Got a vote.
Among the things president Biden
talked about tonight, he wants
to ban assault weapons.
That's not likely to move
forward.
But he said if you can't do
that, raise the age to purchase
them from 18 to 21.
We talked about background
checks at red flag laws.
He called for a safe storage
measure.
And more funding for mental
health.
Of that menu of ideas, that
bipartisan senate group, a lot
of this is what they are
considering right now.
>> Some of it is.
The red flag laws and incentives
for states.
The background checks, the
mental health component.
Safety in schools.
The assault weapons ban, raising
the age to purchase an assault
weapon from 18 to 21.
The one thing president Biden
said is rolling back immunity
for gun manufacturers and these
atrocious crimes, something that
congress has given gun
manufacturers, that immunity.
There is a subset that senators
are working on.
Senator Chris Murphy who has
been working on this process for
five days, has been extremely
optimistic.
He says he's much more
optimistic than any time he has
worked on gun legislation since
sandy hook.
He's from Connecticut and
represents sandy hook.
We will see where this goes.
Their goal is to have
legislation agreed upon by next
But it is a very tall task.
Jeff: Based on your reporting,
are the red flag laws effective?
Do they work?
>> It's hard to prove a
negative.
Because we stop this person from
speeding, they didn't get into a
crash.
But in the states that have used
these, there are plenty of
examples where a family has
appealed to a court, the court
said you are right, there is a
person in your life and distress
and we are going to take those
guns away from them.
In the example of Colorado,
there have been very few
instances that the things of the
critics worry about, that it
would be abused just because he
didn't like them.
Those cases are very rare.
When people have been caught
trying to use the laws and
appropriately, they get
punished.
It's hard to know exactly.
Can we demonstrate to say this
person would have committed
suicide or killed someone, it's
not clear.
There are plenty of instances
where courts said this was a
good idea and we should take
weapons away from someone