Following President Barack Obama’s angry reaction Thursday night to the deadly community college shooting in Oregon and pleas to “politicize” mass shootings, the CBS Evening News did just that with a full story lamenting the lack of gun control by laying blame at the feet of the GOP-led Senate and the National Rifle Association (NRA) for their support of candidates in favor of gun rights.
Anchor Scott Pelley tossed to congressional correspondent Nancy Cordes by observing that “[e]ach mass shooting brings new calls for tougher gun laws” while Cordes declared that “sympathy and best wishes are all about the victims’ families can expect from Congress” because it “has not seriously debated strengthening gun laws since 2013” after the Sandy Hook shooting.
Without mentioning the role played by moderate Senate Democrats in early 2013, Cordes lamented that the “Senate easily defeated legislation that would have increased punishment for gun trafficking and expanded background checks, something 88 percent of Americans say they support.” In turn, she added, “[t]he loss left the mostly Democratic backers pessimistic.”
The CBS reporter then complained that Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid “has even fewer votes today” than in 2013 since Reid’s “Democrats lost control of the Senate in 2014, and can't reintroduce bills to close the gun show loophole, block more of the mentally ill from buying guns or restrict use of high-capacity magazines.”
With nothing from Congress, Cordes pointed out that after the D.C. Navy Yard and Charleston church shootings, “almost all the talk of gun laws came from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.”
In the lone soundbite provided to Republicans and Second Amendment advocates, Cordes explained leading up to a soundbite from Senator Ted Cruz (Tex.) that the GOP “have long argued felons will find a way to get guns no matter what the laws say.”
Cordes concluded by taking a shot at none other than the NRA and their backing of gun rights candidates “despite...an overwhelming majority of Americans” supposedly being open to gun control: “And the National Rifle Association spends tens of millions of dollars backing candidates who share that view, despite those polls, Scott, that show an overwhelming majority of Americans are open to some changes to gun laws.”
The transcript of the segment from the CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley on October 1 can be found below.
CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley
October 1, 2015
6:37 p.m. Eastern[ON-SCREEN HEADLINE CAPTION: Gun Laws]
SCOTT PELLEY: Each mass shooting brings new calls for tougher gun laws, and our Nancy Cordes has been looking at this story on Capitol Hill.
SENATE MINORITY LEADER HARRY REID (D-Nev.): We extend our sympathy, our best wishes.
NANCY CORDES: Sympathy and best wishes are about all that the victims' families can expect from Congress which has not seriously debated strengthening gun laws since 2013, after 20 children and six adults were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut, but even then, the Senate easily defeated legislation that would have increased punishment for gun trafficking and expanded background checks, something 88 percent of Americans say they support. The loss left the mostly Democratic backers pessimistic. Democratic leader Harry Reid. [TO REID][on 11/05/13]: Do you intend to bring gun control legislation back up?
REID [on 11/05/13]: I would love to bring it back up, but I can't do it until I have the votes.
CORDES: And he has even fewer votes today. Democrats lost control of the Senate in 2014, and can't reintroduce bills to close the gun show loophole, block more of the mentally ill from buying guns or restrict use of high-capacity magazines and so, when 12 were killed at D.C.'s Navy Yard and nine in a Charleston church, almost all the talk of gun laws came from the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: This type of mass violence does not happen in other advanced countries.
CORDES: Congressional Republicans have long argued felons will find a way to get guns no matter what the laws say. Texas Senator Ted Cruz:
REPUBLICAN SENATOR TED CRUZ (Tex.)[on 02/27/13]: And we should not target our efforts to needlessly restricting the constitutional liberties of law-abiding citizen.
CORDES: And the National Rifle Association spends tens of millions of dollars backing candidates who share that view, despite those polls, Scott, that show an overwhelming majority of Americans are open to some changes to gun laws.
PELLEY: Nancy Cordes on Capitol Hill. Nancy, thank you.
