The NRA's Powerful Influence In Washington
BURNETT: Our second story OUTFRONT, fighting gun violence. Vice President Joe Biden today met with his new gun control task force and here was the message.</s>JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We will act and we will act in a way that is designed, even if we can only save one life. We have to take action.</s>BURNETT: But how the administration will act is still in question. Meanwhile, NRA President Wayne Lapierre will publicly address the Newtown tragedy tomorrow. It is the first time the NRA has addressed it. In fact, when you say why has it taken this long, I want to emphasize, this is a dramatic shift for the NRA overall. They have remained silent following other mass shootings. OUTFRONT tonight, James Carville, Democratic strategist and Reihan Salam, writer for "National Review." All right, good to see both of you. James, let me start with you here with the numbers. The NRA spent $240 million in 2010, $17 million reportedly this election alone backing candidates that would support NRA positions. In 2009, the NRA pushed through laws relaxing the ability to carry guns on Amtrak. I will admit I don't understand the need for that at all and new laws relaxing gun bans in national parks. So what can we expect the NRA to go along with?</s>JAMES CARVILLE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, in Louisiana, they pushed a law to allow people to carry guns in churches. The bishop put the stop to that. Look, they're very powerful group. No question about it. And they put a lot of stuff through and a lot of people not just the Congress, but state legislators are mortified for these guys and for good reason. They send out a lot of mail and people follow them. I think the vice president was instrumental in passing the assault weapon ban before. He knows this. He is a good man to head up this task force, but he will be in for a heck of a fight them play pretty tough. It is not an easy thing to get done here.</s>BURNETT: Reihan, what should the NRA say? He is coming out and talking tomorrow. Is it safe to assume he will say look, we do support some kind of change, something should be banned or they will not go that far?</s>REIHAN SALAM, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, my personal view is that the NRA would be very smart to talk about gun trafficking. We have a huge gun trafficking problem in this country that is tied to the fact that really about 1 percent of gun dealers who account for a very huge proportion. Some say half of the guns that are used in violent crime in this country. And part of the problem is what is referred to as the private sales loophole. The thing is that we try to legislate around big tragedies like this and that leads us in the wrong direction. The truth is in the assault weapons ban wouldn't have stopped something like this. Even a limit on magazine capacity wouldn't have stopped something like this. We have a huge problem with gun deaths in this country and there are a lot of smart step we could take like addressing that private sales loophole. That would make a real difference.</s>BURNETT: James, we all know, at least from what Lt. Vance, the Connecticut State Police chief has said is that, Adam Lanza had enough bullets to kill every single child in that school. Maybe that was his intent. It certainly seems that it was. I'm curious about this whole task force. I mean, it is great to have a task force, right, but there are three things our John Avlon reported that the president could do now without a task force, right. We haven't had an ATF director in six years, apparently only 0.1 of 1 percent of people who lie on their background checks of which there are 71,000 in just one year actually get prosecuted and of course, the ban on assault weapons. So why doesn't the president just do that now?</s>CARVILLE: Well, I think that the ban on the assault weapons, I think it legislatively expired in 2004. Passed in the 1994, but I don't know. Other things seem like good ideas to me. I think there are two problems in this country. There are too many high magazine assault weapons and too many crazy people. And we ought to reduce both of them. We need fewer crazy people and fewer, you know, 30-clip, 30-round magazines in this country. And look, I own guns. I know a lot of my friends do. Some of this stuff is kind of absurd. And I think it makes a very good point, the gun show loophole. Some little loophole slips through and more crazy people get these things. I'm for doing something about mental health and these high ammo magazines.</s>BURNETT: Both of them are two crucial parts of the problem and both involved in what happened last Friday. After the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, I'm curious what both of you think about this. Several bills were announced to limit high-capacity magazines, which James you were just saying. You know, limit magazine is a good idea. That legislation was not enacted. Who fights for that? Who needs that?</s>SALAM: Well, one of the fundamental issues, there are a lot of folks in this country, Democrats and Republicans, who believe very strongly that there is an individual right to bear arms. When you're at limits on magazines, the last time we had a limit on magazine capacity was about ten rounds. The most popular firearm in the country, the Glock handgun has about 17 rounds in the chamber. And I think a lot of people are questioning whether or not limiting magazine capacity is appropriate when this handgun that is used by many people for self-defense and other legitimate purposes would be so heavily impacted by it. I understand the desire to limit magazine capacity but I think it will be a tough thing. Wait a second. I use my firearm for legitimate purposes and I think it is perfectly appropriate to have 17 rounds in my chamber.</s>BURNETT: James?</s>CARVILLE: Yes. I have no idea why he needs 17 rounds in your chamber. Have you got a handgun? I've got six. What are you going to do with 17? That's an argument they can make and not make. But the point is that this thing is going to be, they're in for a tough slog. What the vice president said, now the commission will come back in January and make some recommendations. There is no doubt, the only thing I would say, Erin, this one felt different. We've gone through these things in Colorado, the Gabby Giffords thing. I don't know this one feels different to me. And I think the fact that the NRA has been silent for so long is a signal it feels different to them. I think this changed the ground underneath as you little bit. Whether or not it is sufficient to do something, I have no idea.</s>SALAM: There is just one thing I want to add. James earlier on said there are two pieces to this. Part of it is an underlying violence problem. You have a lot of mental illness, a lot of anger. We are a more violent country than other countries where you have high rates of ownership. That's an unfortunate fact. The other thing I think we need to understand is that the technology for spreading violence is the real underlying issue. Think about the way we think about terrorism. A super empowered dangerous individual is a lot more dangerous now than a super empowered individual was 60 years ago. And the technology for people to create their own guns is frighteningly close at hand. So a lot of this is fighting the last battle. The truth is the capacity for deadly violence is very widespread in the form of firearms or some other weapons.</s>BURNETT: All right, we'll leave it there. A thought for our viewers, think about what happened in China last week right when this happened, 23 children were stabbed in a school and they lived. It was a knife and not a gun. It probably would have ended differently if it had been a gun like in Connecticut. Ahead, a blizzard threatens to holiday travel plans for thousands. Plus the State Department in the hot seat on Capitol Hill. Officials making promises while facing some very tough questions over what they got so very wrong on the attack in Benghazi.