Anti-gun rights MSNBC anchor Alex Wagner was off today, but that made little difference on her Now program. Reporting live from Lafayette, Louisiana, at the site of last night's deadly movie theater shooting, network correspondent Craig Melvin conducted back-to-back biased interviews, the first with a Democratic state lawmaker, the second with a gun control activist. At no point in the program did Melvin turn to a gun rights activist for a counterpoint.
At one point during his interview with gun control activist Colin Goddard, Melvin complained that, as he sees it, the American people are simply not fed up with gun violence and hence the lack of political action in light of incidents like the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting. For his part, Goddard shot back that the real problem was not public apathy but that eternal bogeyman of the gun-control crowd, the NRA.
Below are the relevant transcripts from the July 24 program:
MSNBC
Now with Alex Wagner
July 24, 20154:37 p.m. Eastern; 6 minutes 17 seconds
CRAIG MELVIN, reporter: Let's talk a little bit right now, [guest host ] Ayman [Mohyeldin], about precisely where you ended right there. Gun laws in Louisiana, loopholes in Louisiana. I'm joined now by State Representative Terry Landry Sr., who had a news conference this morning and said that one of the things should be to figure a way to close some of the large loopholes that exist in this state. What are some of the largest loopholes?
Louisiana State Rep. TERRY LANDRY (D): Thank you. And it's a pleasure to be here and talk about these issues that are very important. Not only to this community but to our nation. Some of the loopholes in the gun laws are you can buy face to face with a person at a gun show. You can buy on the streets from an individual. Where those persons are purchasing the guns, there's no way in the world that the law enforcement and ATF, all those requirements that a normal person buy a gun and go to a gun shop and fill have to fill out this form, which is all a great piece of legislation, but how do we prevent a mental patient from walking into a gun show and make a face-to-face purchase with an individual who's got a gun for sale without any notification of the ATF, which is a requirement by federal law and what is also a requirement by most states.
MELVIN: We should note though at that this point we don't know whether he acquired the gun legally or illegally, the gun that was used.
LANDRY: We do not know whether or not he acquired that gun legally or illegally. But the chances are that he had, the reports that we're getting in our briefing is this guy had a mental case. The reports we're getting in our briefing is this guy had a mental case. He was denied a gun purchase in another state. The circumstances behind that denial is not known.
MELVIN: A criminal domestic violence complaint.
LANDRY: Should have been a national broadcast in some type of way. So I suggest that he didn't go into a gun store and purchase it the way normal citizens purchase their guns. He got it either off the streets or he bought it at a gun show where there wasn't any requirements.
MELVIN: This state, as you know, for a long time has been somewhat proud of its fairly lax gun laws. Would that be a fair characterization?
LANDRY: Well, I don't want to call it lax gun laws.
MELVIN: Laxer than.
LANDRY: They're liberal gun laws.
MELVIN: Especially compared to other states.
LANDRY: We have some of the most liberal gun laws in the country. Right here in Louisiana.
MELVIN: Why is that? Why here in the bayou are they still--?
LANDRY: Because of hunting and those type of initiatives are a way of life. It is a part of the culture. Hunting, we hunt ducks. We hunt rabbits. We hunt deer. I mean, it's a way of life for people that come up, especially in the rural areas. Those are not the people that are causing this type of incident. It's the people that are going out there that have a mental problem. People who are trying to cause harm. People who have an agenda that is contrary to what government is.
You know we had a debate from a group of people that government is wrong, they were talking about military exercise in Texas, whether or not we're going to invade. When people in this country go to a presidential visit with a gun, something is wrong. And we've got to have a real debate.
And any time, any time in this discussion that we put gun rights in front of human rights, we're on a slippery slope.
MELVIN: Representative Terry Landry Sr. Represents the area just south of here. Thank you sir. Thank you for your time.
MELVIN: I want to bring in Colin Goddard now. And again, Colin, unfortunately I see too much of you on television as well. Because typically we talk to you when things like this happen. Survived the Virginia Tech shooting back in 2007. Shot four times. In the wake of that became an advocate, now as a senior policy advocate for Every Town for Gun Safety. Colin thanks for being with me.
I want to pick up where the representative just left off. Because we have this conversation in the wake of every mass shooting it seems like. Is there any reason to think that this time it is going to be any different than it has been in times past?
COLIN GODDARD: I'll say this again. You know, we have become the country where when someone says did you hear about the shooting in the movie theater, we have to say with which one. Did you hear about the shooting at the school? We have to say which one. Did you hear about the shooting where the guy killed his entire family and then killed himself, this month? We have to say which one. Or the kid who found a gun in his closet and killed his friend. We have to say which one. Americans are fed up with this kind of activity happening over and over again. And we'll begin the same conversation over and over again.
MELVIN: Colin, I want to interrupt you. You say that Americans are fed up. If Americans were really that fed up, wouldn't we have universal background checks?! I mean, if people were really that fed up about what happened here, what happened in Charleston, what happened in Aurora, what's happened on countless other occasions, if people were really that fed up, don't you think that lawmakers by now would feel as if they had to do something? Would feel obligated to do something? Are people really that fed up or do we just say we're fed up?
GODDARD: No, people are absolutely fed up. Even recently since Sandy Hook we've had states improve their background check laws. Even just this year, Oregon became the 18th state to require background checks on all handgun sales. The sixth state since Sandy Hook. You cannot show me a public poll where the American poll -- no matter how you break it down -- does not support the idea of doing a background check before you sell [to] someone.
But you're right, there is a gap between that American support and what our elected officials do here in Congress, particularly here in Washington, D.C. And it is nothing but -- it is a shame. It is not right how our democracy is functioning on this issue.
Too many people here in Washington, D.C., are afraid of the gun lobby, their gun lobbyists, and are afraid if they vote for background checks they will lose their next election. And changing that narrative, changing that mindset takes time. We need major election cycles to happen where people who vote for background checks win and people who vote against them lose. And that is something that takes time. And it is going to happen when you see 2014 [sic] this coming November, and you see in the years ahead.
Because now we're seeing an equal playing field. Where we have Every Town for Gun Safety going toe-to-toe with the NRA. And we have Americans for Responsible Solutions, Gabby Giffords's group, fundraising and doing the same basic work that the NRA's been doing for years. And we are seeing progress on the state level and we'll take that there to Washington D.C.
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