Political Viability of Gun Control Legislation Debated; School Invents Device to Combat School Shooters
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Guns in America. Billions of dollars generated millions of gun enthusiasts and thousands killed each year. I'm Christine Romans. This is "YOUR MONEY." It's been almost one year since 26 children and educators were shot and killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and the debate over gun sales and gun reform rages on. Big business has become involved. Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz asks customers to leave their guns at home when grabbing a latte.</s>HOWARD SCHULTZ, CEO, STARBUCKS: We are respectfully requesting that those customers who are carrying a gun just honor the request and not bring the gun into Starbucks.</s>ROMANS: Then there's Wal-Mart. The world's largest retailer and lightning rod would likely prefer to sit out this controversy, but it can't. The company hasn't released specific gun sales data, but it was widely reported some Wal-Mart stores sold out of the AR-15 rifle in the days following the Newtown massacre. That's the very type of firearm involved in the shooting. I asked Bill Simon, the Wal-Mart's U.S. CEO, if he has second thoughts about selling these types of firearms in the very same stores that would ban a cd for controversial lyrics?</s>BILL SIMON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, WAL-MART, U.S.: We are very responsible in our sales of firearms. It's something that we're focused on. The debate in the country about whether they should be legal or not legal is not one we get to participate in on a day to day basis. That's an issue that Congress has to deal with. But I would tell if they're sold in the U.S., we want them sold through formal channels rather than through gun shows.</s>ROMANS: No matter how a gun is purchased or obtained, the gun debate has changed since last December. Here's what chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour told me a year ago.</s>CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This was a red line by anybody's account. These were babies. This was a biblical slaughter of the innocents.</s>ROMANS: But talk of reform, big talk of reform, was sidelined for more pressing problems in Washington. I sat down with Christiane Amanpour and chief political correspondent Candy Crowley and I asked them why.</s>AMANPOUR: It's tragic. And the president made a lot of very good speeches and made a lot of efforts, but it didn't go far enough. And, look, all you have to do is look at the politicians who are worried, scared, what is the right word, about the NRA. On my program we interviewed a lawmaker from Tennessee who recounted chapter and verse about how she was in good standing with the NRA, but nonetheless because she wanted a minimal sensible change, she was literally run out of office. And that is what the politicians are afraid of. It's very, very frightening because overseas, Australia, Britain, after big massacres they made very tough political conditions to rein in gun control and they haven't had those same massacres.</s>ROMANS: Is this an example of a domestic agenda by this president that has been sidelined, that he has not been able to achieve? In the state of the union, for example, he talked about early childhood education. He talked about immigration reform. He talked last year about gun control, or gun reform. He hasn't been able to do any of those things.</s>CANDY CROWLEY, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: He hasn't. In part it's been the economy, and he would say today, my biggest focus has to be on creating jobs. And then came health care, and that's been an ongoing problem for them. And besides, you know, those saying we can walk and chew gum at the same time, but they have gone to the state level for gun control. That this is -- you know, that's where the big fight is now is what states do, because at a national level it becomes very difficult. It also -- the Virginia win for the democrat, for Terry McAuliffe is being seen as a defeat for the NRA. I think that's, you know, people, view it through their own Rorschach tests. So, you know, yes, Cuccinelli, who lost, the Republican, was backed by the NRA. But this is not as simple, and this is what -- and, by the way, what kind of end to the gun control push, certainly in the Senate, had -- would have ended in the House, anyway -- there was a lot of Democrats who come from gun culture states. They say, wait a second, wait a second, wait a second. And the problem is there has to be some sort of two- track thing, because everyone will come back to you and say, look at the last -- you know, five gun -- gun incidents that have been big, all mentally deranged people, all people with huge mental problems. The country's not doing a good enough job on mental health.</s>ROMANS: Despite some high-profile school shootings, school has become a safer place over the past two decades. That's according to new numbers from the U.S. departments of justice and education. I want you to take a look at this. During the 1992-93 school year, there were 57 violent deaths occurred at school or when traveling to or attending a school sponsored event. You see the trend there. During the 2010-1011 number that number was 31. It's important to note numbers are not in for 2012 and 2013. Of course, that school year when 26 deaths occurred at Sandy Hook elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. Overall, youth homicide at school accounts for less than two percent of all youth homicides. That, of course, doesn't do much for the fear factor among many parents and students. Our Zain Asher visiting a school that has taken the fear of school shootings and channeled it into innovation. Hi there, Zain.</s>ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi. So it's pretty interesting. You have a group of high school students at a high school in Washington, D.C. invented what they call a mocking device, a device they hope will protect them in an intruder or a school shooter tries to break into their classroom. It's pretty simple stuff. It's made of a PVC pipe and a steel pin, something you can pick up at a local hardware store. I think what's really sad about this is that you have a situation whereby 15 and 16-year-olds are trying to protect themselves from arm the gunmen. Take a listen.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is dead stop.</s>ASHER: It costs just $5 to make, weighs less than a pound, but students here at high school in Washington, D.C. hope that this simple invention could protect more students during school shootings than metal detectors and bag checks.</s>JOHN MAHONEY, MATH TEACHER: With active shooters being unfortunately so prevalent we need to come up with other ways to secure buildings.</s>ASHER: Students and teachers here have been oh shaken by recent shootings --</s>MAHONEY: For me, the key shooting was in Columbine High School in Colorado where it was actually a mathematics teacher who was killed and I teach mathematics here.</s>ASHER: They've invented a locking device for classroom doors.</s>DEONTE ANTRUM, STUDENT: It can happen in Connecticut it can also happen here in</s>D.C. ASHER: Made up of a PVC pipe and a steel pin, the device can be fitted over a hydraulic door closer if ever there's an intruder in the hallway, keeping the classroom firmly locked and preventing a gunman from gaining entry.</s>ANITA BERGER, PRINCIPAL: In lieu of trying to get all of the school doors with dead bolt locks on it, I think this is a quick, practical way of doing it.</s>ASHER: Like in many schools across the country, schools cannot be locked from the inside for fire hazard reasons. At Sandy Hook elementary school last December, one teacher had to lock her students in a bathroom to protect them from 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza.</s>ANJREYEV HARVEY, STUDENT: The recent shooting at another school where the shooter broke into the building and shot a lot of kids, it inspired us, because the doors aren't that secure.</s>ASHER: Students here were recently awarded a $6,600 grant from MIT to develop a final version of their device.</s>MAHONEY: We're not ready for an IPO yet, but we anticipate having a really good prototype by the spring.</s>ASHER: And with this crude safety mechanism, they say they now have an extra barrier in place, if they ever hear gunshots from the hallway.</s>ASHER: And I did get a little good news from that professor you just so, John Mahoney. He said to me a lawyer in Denver randomly heard about the device and offered to patent it for free. He has no idea how he heard about it. But he says they're not interested in making money off this. It's just something they wanted to share.</s>ROMANS: It's only $5 and a PVC and a clip. Sad that we have to look at these innovations, but interesting we have to make them. Zain Asher, thank you. All right, the Fed has been pumping $85 billion a month into the economy, keeping stocks and housing hot, right? What happens when it eases up and is not going in anymore? Can the economy hold up on its own?