Transcripts For KGO Nightline 20121221

So at this moment of National Conversation in a search to understand the complexities driving both sides, nightline teams fanned out across one nation under the gun and deeply divided. Philadelphia, 7 30 p. M. Sergeant john hoyt works overnight. A shift that makes a reasonable man question how anyone could call this the city of brotherly love. And just moments into his night, it begins. Right now, a man was just shot in the face. Actually, its just a boy. 17yearold. Shot during a robbery. Riding along and bearing witness to this all too common ritual is our pierre thomas. Reporter this is a city that has 3,000 shootings per year. And more than 300 homicides so far in 2012. 85 involving guns. This is the story playing out in big cities across the nation. Night after night. Shot twice in the face, once in the back. They cant give us a definite. Its very serious. Hes extremely critical and hes in the trauma bay and theyre doing everything they can for him. Sergeant hoyt knows his night is just beginning, and it would be the night of the sound of gunfire popping over and over and over again. Meanwhile, in chicago, pete begins his overnight shift in the newsroom, waiting for police scans to begin their predictable cry. Reporter theres more than 2,400 shootings so far this year and theres still two weeks left. Covering this beat means you will see more killed in cook county than the battlefield of afghanistan. Reporter shot in the back and the arm a couple times. The location is ominous. Reporter i dont know if kids are on christmas break or whatever, but theyre going to find out somebody got shot next to their elementary school. He finds evidence markers. The victim scooped into a car and driven off. Reporter theyre going to transfer him to a trauma center. Waiting there are teams of battle weary doctors and nurses and our david wright. Reporter 11 35 p. M. , rush hour at cook county trauma center. Were going to move you over to this bed, okay . So what happened, man . [ bleep ], man. Yeah, but how many shots . First task for the doctors, counting the bullet holes. One, two theres one here. Four. Reporter hes the victim from the crime scene near the elementary school. And hes clearly in pain. The xrays show he has more bullets inside him. This guy came in with i think we counted a total of 10 or 12 bullet holes. Reporter ten . Thats a bullet . Thats a piece of a bullet, yeah. Reporter one of them still lodged in his gut, another passed less than an inch from his heart. The question is are we opening his chest or are we opening his belly . You open the wrong cavity and he starts bleeding, you could lose him on the table if you made the wrong choice. Reporter 12 13. Less than an hour after he came into the trauma center, hes in surgery. Major surgery. Whatever went in has to come out. So we have to find the hole on the back side. Reporter past 3 00 a. M. By the time theyre sewing him up, alive, but not out of the woods yet. Midnight, virginia beach, virginia. This is one of the seven states that allow guns in bars, so when Jessica Abbott stops by knuckleheads, she keeps her nine millimeter baretta on her hip. I wanted an extra way to defend myself. Chances are nobodys going to mess with me when im open carrying. For some, Second Amendment rights are grounded in the suspicion of the government. For others, the selfdefense urge comes from fear, and these days, it seems there are more sources of fear than ever. If you think that somebody is about to go down, or something is going down, that you can rectify, then you should be able to do it. I carry a few different weapons. I just do it to protect myself. Im not going to have a hassle with a man or get into a fight with an altercation where my children can be in jeopardy if i go down. In houston on that night, that source is facebook. After a mom discovers posts on her sons account discussing a possible shootout at his high school. Responding is lieutenant robert henry. Okay, ill see you there. He specialized in cases potentially involving the mentally ill. You never know on calls like this if theyre serious or not. So we take these situations very seriously. What do you have, sir . Police questioned 13 kids over what is probably a hoax, but these days, who knows . Uncertainty brings fear. And back in philly, the parents of that 17yearold are wrestling with the worst kinds of both. I cant make any promises, okay . What i can tell you is the best hospital in the world for this, okay . Theyre doing everything they can. Theres 15 people work on him right now. While their son was slipping into critical condition, police in this town had taken a gun from a drug dealer. The saying goes, where theres drugs, theres guns. Responded to a woman shot in the back while walking near upscale south street. Shes comfort to be in stable condition after being struck in her abdomen. It went in and out of her body. And just before 1 00 a. M. , comes word that two 24yearolds are hit. One of the males is shot in the chest. Extremely critical. Theyre transporting him to temple hospital now. Which ones chest, this one . It may be hard to fathom in places like these, but when we come back, well visit those parts of america where happiness is a warm gun. Where families bond at the range and display their passion even in the picture with santa. 6 and cut very good. People are always asking me how we make these geico adverts. So were taking you behind the scenes. This coffee cup, for example, is computer animated. Its not real. Geicos Customer Satisfaction is quite real though. This computeranimated coffee tastes dreadful. Geico. 15 minutes could save you 15 or more on car insurance. Someone get me a latte will ya, please . [ male announcer ] every time you say no to a cigarette you celebrate a little win. Nicorette gum helps calm your cravings and makes you less irritable. Quit one cigarette at a time. This special edition of nightline a day in the life of the american gun continues. Morning in chicago. In a year that has seen over 400 gunshot deaths here, pete wraps up another busy night by visiting a few of those statistics at the morgue. We have to, for the sake of having a record, know when people are getting killed. Like that matters. The names matter. The stories matter. A gunshot wound. While at cook county hospital, another day begins with another bullet wound roll call. A 17yearold with multiple gunshot wounds. Ems did say they removed one bullet. Critical care nurse gloria hall has seen enough. A nine millimeter. You have your tech nines. You have your assault rifles. People are coming in with holes so big, its unbelievable. But for every place conditioned to equate bullets with pain, there is another corner of america where guns bring pure joy. Like utah, where the Butler Family is down at the quartry. They invited juju chang to squeeze off a few rounds. You have to look through this eye, right . Reporter 4yearold gauge butler needs a little help from dad to aim his. 22 caliber rifle. Now what can you do . Put your finger on the trigger. Squeeze one off when youre ready. Okay, lets grab your gun then. Reporter gauges older sister brayley told me she got her rifle as a 4th birthday present. Oh, my head did you get too close . You know what thats called . Getting scoped. Reporter their dad casey is passing down a revered family tradition. His rugged outdoor escapades on youtube include ice fishing in idaho, bear hunting with a bow and arrow. But mostly, hunting game with high caliber rifles. Boom good shot, bud. You see you nailed it . Yeah. Give me five. Reporter a lot of people dont think children should be shooting guns. I agree to some extent. Some children shouldnt be shooting guns. Some adults shouldnt be shooting guns. With my kids, i always teach them responsibility. Reporter how many guns does your house have . Like 13 or so. Reporter what are they for . For protecting us and for hunting. I like to go hunting with my dad because i like shooting my gun and i like memories. Reporter their mom caylee thinks gun owners are often misunderstood. We want people to know that were just regular people. Were not like shooting everything and pulling our guns out and playing with guns all the time. We are very responsible and respectful of guns. Its locked. You cant get into it. I guess if youre really wanting to get in, you could break the glass. But theres just guns in here. You can break the glass, take the gun out, its just a gun. All my bullets and ammunition is in this one, which you obviously cant get into. Im not worried about my kids getting into guns because they know youre not supposed to get around a gun unless what . Parent supervision. Reporter so you dont feel nervous with guns in the house . Not at all. I grew up with my parents having guns and my grandparents having guns and my friends parents having guns. Reporter so youre well versed in gun safety. Right. We learned it at a young age. Reporter guns put food on the table. Lets eat. Reporter tonight its venison steaks, courtesy of a recent hunt. Toni me, its important becae its my livelihood. It supplies food and my kids like to g out and do it. As the sunsets in utah, the action is just heating up at the eagle gun range in dallas. A place that offers pictures with santa and his ar15 bushmaster. Hohoho, merry christmas. Anything to get the kids in and have something fun to do. David prince runs the range. They do birthday parties, bachelor parties. And yes, even ladies night, where the range is filled with pink guns, pink targets, and a little friendly sass. Not going to break a nail. Its a different kind of girls night out. The women really have taken on to the sport. They quadruple the number in the last five years. Its just nice to see women coming together and shooting guns. Usually people are like oh, guns, its scary. But now i love shooting my gun. Okay, youre a badass. Back in chicago, dr. Andrew dennis is among those who enjoy a trip to the shooting range, but he knows that much like his scalpel, guns are tools that can help or harm. Hes among the countless people wondering where we can find a common sense fix. Can america live by the gun without dying by the gun . The search for solutions when we return. A great life. But she has some dental issues shes not happy about. So jills dentist introduced her to crest prohealth for life. Selected for people over 50. Prohealth for life is a toothpaste that defends against tender, inflamed gums, sensitivity and weak enamel. Conditions people over 50 experience. Crest prohealth for life. So jill can keep living the good life. Crest. Life opens up when you do. We return to chicago now, where a trauma surgeon at cook county hospital is preparing to move yet another slug from yet another gunshot victim. As david wright tells us, this doctor is also a cop serving on his countys swat team. Reporter dr. Andrew dennis is a gun owner himself, but he also sees the toll guns take, every day here in the o. R. The lowest moment of my career was when i had to open the chest of a 3yearold in this room on this bed and he died in front of us. Reporter dr. Dennis keeps a collection of bullets, a teaching tool for the residents about what theyre likely to encounter at the cook county trauma center. I get it. Being a police officer, i understand where these kids come from. I understand these neighborhoods to a degree. Reporter its a dangerous place. They feel like they need guns to protect themselves. A lot of people, they feel like their lives are at risk from the time they leave their house to the bus stop. Reporter when they end up here, theyre not so tough anymore. Quite the contrary. Theyre as vulnerable as theyll ever be. Human beings in pain. When i first came in, i thought i was going to die. Reporter remember that guy who had surgery for multiple gunshot wounds last night . His name is antwan morton, hes 26 years old, he has a 4monthold son. All i could think about is as soon as i have my first baby, i cant wait for christmas. Reporter plenty of his patients are innocent bystanders caught in the crossfire. Darrell was walking his little brother home from a basketball game when he got shot. I just wish people would make better choices. Reporter how do you mean . By not shooting people. Because theres no sense of it. Reporter darrell spent thanksgiving here at the cook county icu. Hell spend christmas and new years here, too. Lucky to be alive. But that young man on the stretcher in philadelphia, not so lucky. The young man we just pulled out of the wagon was pronounced dead at Temple University hospital at 1 09 a. M. Another statistic. According to the cdc, he is one of the nearly 12,000 People Killed in america each year by gun violence. As the bodies pile up, so do the weapons. The boss stands in an arsenal full of confiscated guns. 3,500 of them recovered here this year alone. This kind of carnage should not be happening on the streets of our city. Were not in beirut. Were not in afghanistan. Were in philadelphia. At some point in time, youve got to say thats enough. Kids are shooting each other every day in the streets and innocent people are dying every day. What happened this week is a tragedy and theres no way around it. If you can guarantee me that nothing like that will ever happen again, that i will never be faced with the fact that i will have to protect my family from a bad person or from anybody using a gun, no innocent child will ever be shot, no innocent person will ever be shot again, i will hand you my guns right now. And one gun store that we visited, they sold as many guns in the day four days after the newtown shooting as they normally sell in a month. Thats a trend weve been seeing nationwide. So those who think more guns are the answer, are certainly getting their way in the near term. Our thanks to cojuju and David D Pierre for their reporting. Tomorrow, the final night of our special coverage. Well hear from the nra as well as new york mayor michael bloomberg. Thank you for watching, everybody. See you tomorrow. Dicky up next on Jimmy Kimmel Live jimmy Justin Bieber and selena gomez have broken up. She was cheating on him with general petraeus. Dicky jessica lange. Jimmy was king kong nice . He seemed like he was really nice. Congratulations, everybody, im now on a downward spiral. Baby, baby, baby and call me in the morning