After the church shooting in Sutherland Springs, Texas last year, a bipartisan group of lawmakers came together to craft legislation with the goal of making sure the federal background check system was up to date since the shooter should have been barred from buying a gun but authorities didn’t add him. And since the Parkland, Florida shooting, the bill has picked up steam. But on Monday’s CBS Evening News, the network seemed to pooh-pooh the idea of better background checks and preferred a gun ban.
“The White House said today President Trump is open to the possibility of supporting bipartisan legislation to strengthen the federal background check system,” announced anchor Jeff Glor before reporter Chip Reid ripped into it.
Reid recalled the events that led up to the church shooting and noted how “the bill before Congress is intended to put systems in place to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen again.” But after playing a clip of a White House spokesman promoting the plan on Fox and Friends, the CBS reporter deflated hopes for the proposal and hyped Democratic efforts. “In fact, though, it's not at all clear the bill would have prevented the Florida school shooter from buying his gun. Many Democrats are calling for a new ban on so-called assault weapons like the AR-15,” he claimed without explaining why it wouldn't work.
After sharing a clip of Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio dismissing a so-called “assault weapons” ban, Reid noted how President Trump was once for such a thing. “President Trump supported a ban in 2000 and criticized Republicans who walked the NRA line, but as a candidate for president in 2016, he got in line with the NRA and opposed the ban,” he chided while failing to mention the fact the original assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004, didn’t have an effect on crime.
Before CBS got to Reid’s dismissal of the much-needed background check improvements, they showed an interview correspondent Adriana Diaz did with the radical anti-gun students, who over the weekend asserted that the GOP had the blood of kids on their hands. And they were demanding a gun ban:
ADRIANA DIAZ: What is it that you want to see? Do you want all guns banned, just assault rifles?
CAMERON KAKSY: We want assault rifles off the market.
EMMA GONZALEZ: Automatic, semi-automatic have no place in civilian society.
DELANEY TAR: It's a lot more than gun control. We know that, but this is what we're starting with now.
“We feel like the politicians on both sides, but mostly the GOP, who are accepting money from the NRA, are betting on our lives, and they're betting against us,” Kasky spat.
Diaz was also greatly impressed by their activist efforts. “Jeff, the students this evening are planning and plotting. More than 100 teens will board bus tomorrow for the state capital in Tallahassee,” she praised. “They're bringing their agenda directly to lawmakers, and we’ll be following their journey. They say they can accomplish what adults before them couldn't.”
It used to be that people on the left would try to hide their gun grabbing intentions by claiming “no one is talking about taking your guns away.” But with this time around, they’re broadcasting it loud and clear.
The relevant portions of the transcript are below, click expand to read:
CBS Evening News
February 19, 2018
6:34:05 PM Eastern [2 minutes 37 seconds]JEFF GLOR: Stoneman Douglas students were organizing marches on the Florida state capitol and on Washington. Adriana Diaz talked to four of them. 18-year-old Emma Gonzalez, 17-year-old Cameron Kasky, 17-year-old Delaney Tar, 17-year-old David Hogg. Adriana?
ADRIANA DIAZ: Jeff, the students this evening are planning and plotting. More than 100 teens will board bus tomorrow for the state capital in Tallahassee. They're bringing their agenda directly to lawmakers, and we’ll be following their journey. They say they can accomplish what adults before them couldn't.
[Cuts to video]
(…)
DIAZ: What is it that you want to see? Do you want all guns banned, just assault rifles?
CAMERON KAKSY: We want assault rifles off the market.
EMMA GONZALEZ: Automatic, semi-automatic have no place in civilian society.
DELANEY TAR: It's a lot more than gun control. We know that, but this is what we're starting with now.
DIAZ: Is it a slippery slope? Do we start with AR-15s and then more gun rights are taken away from people?
GONZALEZ: We have a right to live! Those kids had a right to live. They had a right to have their futures.
(…)
KASKY: We feel neglected. We feel like the politicians on both sides, but mostly the GOP, who are accepting money from the NRA, are betting on our lives, and they're betting against us.
(…)
6:36:52 PM Eastern [2 minutes 8 seconds]
GLOR: The White House said today President Trump is open to the possibility of supporting bipartisan legislation to strengthen the federal background check system. Chip Reid is at the White House with more on this.
[Cuts to video]
CHIP REID: The bill was introduced in November after Devin Kelley shot and killed 26 people in a Texas church. Kelly had been convicted of domestic violence and received a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force, which should have prevented him from ever buying a gun. But the Air Force failed to send the information to the FBI database. The bill before Congress is intended to put systems in place to make sure that kind of thing doesn't happen again.
(…)
REID: In fact, though, it's not at all clear the bill would have prevented the Florida school shooter from buying his gun. Many Democrats are calling for a new ban on so-called assault weapons like the AR-15. But in an interview with CBS station, WFOR Republican Senator Marco Rubio used an analogy to nuclear weapons to argue a ban on assault weapons would be useless.
MARCO RUBIO: There are millions of them on the street already. They're here to stay. That genie is out of the bottle. The same argument, get rid of all nuke weapons. We could. But China is not, Russia is not.
REID: President Trump supported a ban in 2000 and criticized Republicans who walked the NRA line, but as a candidate for president in 2016, he got in line with the NRA and opposed the ban.
(…)
