Everyone was on the edge of their seats that these whales could die. We can report theyre free. They had a passage that led to water six miles away. The whales followed it out, saved by mother nature. This is an uz mazing story. Ac 360 starts now. Thanks. Good evening. Theres breaking news tonight. One of the governments leading disease fighters becoming the Top Health Official to say this years flu outbreak has now reached epidemic levels. According to cdc, as many as 50,000 people may die from this flu and its still getting worse. Well talk to dr. Sanjay gupta about how to protect yourself in a moment. First, another shooting at another school. This time in california. It happened on the same day the white house held meetings on ways to curtail gun violence. Well have all of the details on the meetings in a moment, but lets get the latest on the shooting. Authorities say the student showed up late to class with a 12gauge shotgone. Allegedly shooting one classmate, missing a second target. Were joined at Taft Union High school. What happened inyou saw someone who saw the gunman heading toward the school. Its really important to trace this back, anderson, because this is a boy who lived in the neighborhood. He lives in walking distance of the high school. This is a small community. Everybody knows each other. This mother whose student also goes to the high school, she saw this young boy walk right by her. She saw him carrying something, but he was so young, this is such a safe community, she thought it was a toy gun. Listen to what she told us. It looks like a play gun, but when you see the gun, we saw the handle of the gun, but we didnt see the whole gun. So it was a long gun . No, short. Two distinct shotguns she heard shortly after she saw the boy walk by her house. We anyhow they were bullets from a 12gauge shotgun. She went into a panic because her son was inside the school. Is it clear at this point, were there specific targets intended . How old was the alleged shooter . The alleged shooter is 16 years olds. He walked into his first period classroom midway through. Police are saying he absolutely targeted the people he was firing at. The first boy he shot, 16yearold boy, a class mate, he knew that boy. He had him, according to numerous parents and friends and students we talked to here, this boy had a hit list of sorts. A hit list that he was caught with last year. A list of people who he wanted to kill, according to friends and many of the parents here. And they were in fact upset when they saw him back here and heard about all of this, anderson. One other thing we should point out is that they are going to bring up questions now about why this boy was actually allowed back into school, knowing his history. I also understand that the armed guard who is normally at the school was not there today. Youre absolutely right about that. Normally, every single day, theres a Police Officer here at the high school, before, during, and after school. That offic couldnt get to school today because he was snowed in. Theres been terrible weather in this region. So that officer wasnt here, but police say it really probably would not have mattered so much. Officers responded within that first 911 call 60 seconds, but theyre really looking at a teacher, a teacher in the classroom and the campus counselor. Heres what officers told us. The heroics of these two people goes without saying, to stand there and face someone who has a shotgun, who has already discharged it and shot a student, that speaks volumes for these two young men and what they may have prevented. They could have just as easily tried to get out of the classroom and left students, and they didnt. And they knew not to let him leave the classroom with that shotgun, and they took that responsibility on very seriously, and were very proud of the job they did. Another thing that theyre also crediting are drills. The school, anderson, just this morning, had a drill as to what to do if a shooter was in the school, a drill that became real life just an hour later. Do we know hot the teachers, the administrators said to the student to get him to disarm . And also, do we know what the motive of targeting why there was allegedly this hit list or why he may have targeted these particular students . We dont know the exact language. We did ask the officers what exactly did that teacher say . But they will tell us that he used languages of distraction. He was trying to engage the student, trying to convince him to not hurt anyone else. And the reason that they were distracting the student is so the other 28 students in the classroom could get out alive. As far as the motivation of this particular student, what we have learned, anderson, is hes a troubled boy. I mention now, this is a small community, a small school. They all knew each other, a boy who for many years, everyone knew had some trouble. They believe he was bullied because he was so odd. As far as the hit list, what people are telling me because i spoke to a boy who believes he was actually on that list, he says he was putting the names of popular kids and jocks on that hit list. Kyung lah, thank you for reporting. This is all happening on the same day Vice President biden promising to put gun proposals in front of president obama by this coming tuesday, a little more than a month after the shootings in newtown. He and his task force have been hearing from a lot of different sides, including top lobbyists for the National Rifle association, the organization coming away none too pleased with the organization. The Vice President mentioned some specific recommendations emerging from groups meeting so far. What are they . Well, number one, anderson, he mentioned it right there at a News Conference of sorts with reporters. The reporters werent allowed to ask questions, but the Vice President did give a briefing as to what was going on today. He said that theyre going to be looking at universal background checks, and that would sort of replace the system we have now, sort of a hodgepodge system where at gun dealers there are background checks that are conducted but at gun shows there are not. Even private sales, if i were to sell you a gun, there would have to be a background check, according to what the Vice President was laying out earlier today. The other thing he talked about was some sort of ban or limitation on the high capacity magazines sort of like the magazines used by the shooter, adam lanza, in newtown, connecticut. A lot of people who were concerned about hand gun violence have pointed to those high capacity magazines as being a big problem, and the Vice President talked about that. He also talked about improving gun Safety Information and getting more funding for gun violence research. That kind of money has been stripped from places like the cdc in part because of the efforts of the nra over the last several years. And the nra, as you mentioned, anderson, came out of that meeting none too pleased. Look at this statement they released earlier this afternoon. It was within minutes of the meeting ending. It says we were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the second amendment. And anderson, all of this is happening so quickly. You know, in washington, if you want to sideline an issue, you appoint a commission. The Vice President , as you said, is going to have some recommendations for the president on tuesday, and heres some of what he had to say. Theres a surprising, so far, a surprising recurrence of suggestions that we have universal background checks. Not just close the gun show loophole, but total universal background checks, including private sales. I have never quite heard as much talk about the need to do something about highcapacity magazines as i have heard spontaneously from every group that we have met with so far. And anderson, the National Rifle association is indicating theyre getting ready to go and get some work done on capitol hill, telling our political unit earlier this afternoon to expect an ad campaign from the nra in the coming days. Jim acosta, appreciate that update. When president obama spoke at Memorial Services for the sandy hook victims, they said newtown, youre not alone. And people including the family of noah pozner took him at his word, but now some are saying president obama has not been living up to the words, you are not alone. His mom put out a statement today. It reads, as the mother of a decisionyearold victim of a cold blooded massacre of school children, im puzzled and disappointed by the fact that i had no information or opportunity to be heard on the upcoming legislative proposal in washington. I understand you had concerns that your voice, your familys voice was not beingurd by the white house. You just heard from them moments ago. What did they say . Thats correct. The white house contacted me on my way while i was on my way to the show. I had sent an email about eight days ago to an aide of president obama asking questions about whether the families would have an opportunity to speak about the proposal. And an opportunity to be heard. And i never received a response to that email. According to the call i just received, it was a miscommunication at the white house. And thats why there was no response to the email. They apologized for that. Why do you think they reached out to you now . One of our producers called them today in anticipation of the interview to get a comment and the Associated Press ran a story on it. Do you think thats what did it . I think to help them understand the situation better in terms of the familys desire to speak to Vice President biden. My understanding based upon my conversation with the Vice President s office is that there may be groups out there purporting to represent all of the victims families when those groups in fact do not. There is no group that represents my family in this matter. And the white house now understands that based upon our conversation. Do you know what you your family want done . Hope to have done . Have you decided on kind of a course of action you would like to see officials take regarding gun control or legislation . We do have ideas. Theyre ideas based upon our direct experience in this event, and we want to share those ideas with the white house and others. But i think its also important to note that we have tough questions and questions about the proposals that have been circulated already, and we want simply the opportunity to be heard, both our ideas but also to ask questions and to see how we can best avoid this kind of massacre again. What are some of the concerns about some of the proposals you have heard so far . Well, to give an example, with regard to armed guards, there was an armed guard in columbine, so i dont think that thats exactly maybe appropriate in certain instances, but im not sure thats going to avoid the kind of massacre that happened here. On the other side of things, with regard to assault weapons, that may be an important part of the proposal as well, but theres the arizona situation which i understand it was handguns, and handguns can be very dangerous in the classroom as well. We have questions to ask of both sides, and our focus as a family, at least my sister and i, were very much focused on School Safety and how do we insure that our children are safe. I appreciate talking to you. Were coming up on the onemonth anniversary and my thoughts are with you and your entire family and all of the families still dealing with this. I appreciate you talking tonight. Thank you. Thank you, anderson. I appreciate it. Let us know what you think about some of the proposals you have been hearing. Follow me on twitter. Coming up next, we ask Newt Gingrich if he thinks president obama is overstepping his power on gun control and if he thinks theres any Common Ground to be had on the issue. A lot of republicans are upset that the president might act on executive orders on some of the things he can act on. Well speak to former speaker gingrich about that. And well take you to chicago where the number of gun crimes are extraordinarily high. 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The drudge report read the headline, white house threatens executive orders on guns. And look at the pictures. They show pictures of josef stalin and adolf hitler. Lindsey graham weighed in as well. Gun control by executive order could be a power grab that wont go down well. Just today, Newt Gingrich told foxs Greta Van Susteren that congress should act to block any executive order. They need congress to cut off money and say no money shall be spent to do this. Newt gingrich has launched a new website. I spoke to him just a few minutes ago. Mr. Speaker, as you know, the white house is looking seriously at new gun control measures. They have talked about using executive orders, not to create new gun control laws, but to strengthen things like databases the fbi uses for background checks or getting states to share more information from criminal and Mental Health databases or even prosecuting felons who try to buy guns illegally or people who lie on background checks. Would you support any of those moves . You have to look at each one one by one. A number of them, for example, the Mental Health issues, for example, i strongly favor, looking at those actions. If theyre within the law and its an appropriate executive order, i think the priesident hs every right to do it. If its not in current law, he cant do it by executive order and the congress would have to, i think, block him if he attempted to do it by executive order. It depends on exactly what they come up with. What i really encourage is that the Vice President before he rushed around doing new things, go to chicago. Chicago has very strict gun laws. It is also the deadliest city in america, over 500 people were killed in chicago last year. And i think the Vice President ought to ask the question himself, why is it that all of these laws have failed so totally in chicago, the president s hometown . What should we maybe learn from inadequate policing, inadequate enforcement about a city whose laws on paper are terrific but whose reality has been really disastrous. We have done a number of shows from chicago on this very issue. A lot of it is young people getting killed on their way to and from school, getting caught in gang cross fire and the like. You think theres some room for Common Ground, perhaps some new gun control legislation if it was able to be passed through congress, should everything be on the table for discussion . Look, i think everything for discussion can be on the table, but i would feel a lot better if Vice President biden had invited some representatives of progun groups into these meetings. He had the nra there. Today is a good start. I did not know they came in today. They said they were very disappointed at how it turned out. They said basically hes talking about gun control issues. They wanted to focus more on School Safety issues and all that. I think youre going to have these kind of arguments. I would just come back to what i said earlier. I would be intrigued to have Vice President biden follow your leadership, go to chicago, and before he explains to the rest of us the new rules we need to have, look at the rules that dont work. Illinois, connecticut was the fourth highest ranked gun control state in the united states, according to the brady foundation. Yet look at the terrible tragedy at newtown. Chicago has supposedly got very strict gun laws. Youre not even allowed to carry your gun out of your house onto your porch. Its illegal. You cant get a gun unless you go down and pass a test. You have to be fingerprinted, you have to pay 100. The license is only good for three years. You pay 15 per gun for every gun you have. Chicago has all these rules. How come there are over 500 People Killed last year . Maybe we ought to have some commonsense, lets talk about the facts. I would be very willing to be part of a group to talk about the fact and from the facts try to develop public policy. Sometimes it will make the nra uncomfortable. Sometimes it will make people who are antigun uncomfortable, but we would be a healthier country if we could have a factbased conversation. Does it concern you, the highvolume magazine cartridges that are available, some of the militarystyle weapons that people can have . Do you think that should be part of the discussion . Is that on the table . Do you think there should be some changes there . I think we should look at all these things, but again, i would just suggest to you that in fact almost none of the killings in chicago, the deadliest place in america, almost none of those killings involved any kind of exotic weapon. They involved a system which is broken down, where the police have broken down, where the process is broken down. And so i would start and say, you know, the total number of use of those kind of devices youre talking about in the entire country is very, very smal