families he spoke with.
Thank you.
This latest attack has once
again raised questions about how
to prevent these kinds of
tragedies.
And here in Washington, a
bipartisan group of lawmakers
met today to discuss what, if
any, potential solutions could
earn the necessary 60 votes in
the U.S. Senate.
Carl Hulse is the chief
Washington correspondent for
"The New York Times."
He joins me from capitol hill.
Welcome back to the newshour.
Your piece that you wrote this
morning was headlined, "Why
Republicans won't budge on
guns."
And you quoted a comment from
North Dakota, senator Kevin
Cramer.
Tell us about that exchange and
what he said.
Carl: Senator Kramer, I give him
credit for being forthright, was
engaged in a discussion and
said, you know, I don't want to
take things off the table, I am
going to consider things.
And I said, what would happen to
you, how would your voters
respond if you back in control?
He said they will probably throw
me out of office.
I think that kind of sums up
where a lot of Republicans are
on this issue.
Unfortunately, we have been here
before.
There is a terrible, horrific
mass killing, pressure on
capitol hill to do something
about it, talks start about
doing something about it, but
they don't really lead anywhere.
There is a little bit of
optimism this evening that
despite partisan group could get
somewhere, members say things
feel different this time, but it
is hard to imagine in this
environment in a midterm
election year them finding any
really significant agreement.
So we are just going to have to
watch it.
Congress left today, the senate,
for about 10 days, and that can
take momentum out of these talks
too.
So, a little bit of hope, but
not much optimism if those two
things can go together.
Judy: We have heard in the past
a little bit of hope after these
kinds of incidents, but most of
the time it has faded after.
I do want to ask you where this
opposition comes from, since
there are public opinion polls
that show a large percentage of
Americans favor some kind of
regulation, background checks,
for example.
So where does this opposition
come from?
Carl: It is an interesting
thing.
It is overwhelmingly popular.
But these members here, the
Republicans, they are from
conservative states.
People take their gun rights
very seriously, certainly in
North Dakota, South Dakota,
those states where these votes
would have to come from.
Members worry the backlash will
come from those people, almost a
single issue voter type of
situation, where if they go
ahead and agree with some kind
of gun control, that that will
be it for them.
Of course the NRA, it is wounded
and weakened, the NRA, by some
internal scandals, but it is
still a force in Republican
politics.
No Republican wants to be
attacked by the NRA.
Of course a lot of the primaries
are already done this year, but
that does not change the
calculation.
A lot of Republicans really
think that guns, gun rights just
have to be unfettered and they
are going to act that way.
It is hard to see -- as you
said, it's going to take 10
votes from Republicans to break
a logjam or a filibuster on gun
rights.
It is hard to count to 10.
Judy: Just to be clear here, you
are saying that even if there
were not the NRA out there
lobbying, and of course they are
a powerful organization and they
give a lot of money, you are
saying even without that,
because of the grassroot support
for gun rights, you believe
Republican numbers would be what
Carl: I do.
I believe they are responding
not just to the NRA but from
their constituents.
They hear from their
constituents, there is a lot of
fear in that community that the
federal government is out to
take their guns.
Of course that is not correct.
Even with the limited universal
background checks that people
would like to see put in place,
Americans have a lot of
opportunity to buy guns.
But it's just this ideological
issue, and they are not moving
away from it, even in this
setting.
However, these talks might
produce something.
There are some new developments.
Senator John Cornyn, who of
course you know from Texas,
former member of the leadership,
he seems to be taking part.
It is his home state, people are
saying he is someone to look at.
It is possible.
But Chris Murphy, snator from
Connecticut, Newtown, who has
been a big leader on gun control
efforts in congress, said today,
we're going to try, we're going
to give maybe two weeks, but
there is no agreement we are
still going to force votes on
the senate floor and get
everyone on the record.
Judy: We actually spoke with
senator Murphy here last night.
What is so interesting is seeing
this opposition to any
regulation stays so strong,
despite these rapidfire,
military style weapons that are