Chairman and Ceo Jamie Dimon took today. Last year a london whale cost the bank 6 billion, more than the bank made last quarter. So today the board decided dimon bears ultimate responsibility. Despite the record profit, the board slashed his compensation to 11. 5 million, still something almost anyone on the entire planet would be thrilled about. Anderson cooper 360 starts now. Erin, thanks. Good evening, everyone. There is a lot to tell you about tonight. Breaking news off the top of the program. Americans being held hostage by Armed Islamic extremists in a remote part of an african country. The hostages were taken when 20 extremists attacked them in a gas field in southern algeria. The count differs to how many are bev being held. Algerian media is reporting a british subject was killed in the attack. Were going to be joined with an officer with a lot of experience to the region and a report from the state department. We begin with president obama going big and trying to move fast on gun control. We have new polling that may help explain the political need for speed. Today at the white house, as you probably know, president obama laid out a number of proposals and executive actions he is taking. In the room with him were a number of parents of children killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School in newtown, connecticut, including lynn and chris mcdonnell, the parents of grace mcdonnell. President obama spoke about grace today. And when i visited newtown last month, i spent some private time with many of the families who lost their children that day. And one was the family of grace mcdonnell. Graces parents are here. Grace was 7 years old when she was struck down. Just a gorgeous, caring, joyful little girl. Im told she loved pink. She loved the beach. She dreamed of becoming a painter. And so just before i left chris, her father gave me one of her paintings. And i hung it in my private study just off the oval office. And every time i look at this painting, i think about grace. And i think about the life that she lived and the life that lay ahead of her. And most of all, i think about how when it comes to protecting the most vulnerable among us, we must act now. You may remember i interviewed graces parents days after the killing. They gave me a copy of that same drawing as well. I spoke with them earlier this evening. They didnt want to come on camera tonight, but they were overwhelmed by the president s words, and said they drew strength from his determination. As for what president obama plans to do, it comes in two forms, really, legislative and executive. Now the president took executive action on 23 items dealing with implementing background checks, tracking firearms, making sure existing gun laws are fully enforced. Executive actions mean he does not have to get congressional approval. On the legislative side, he called for criminal background checks on all gun sales. Also limiting magazines to ten rounds, and reinstating the 1990s ban on militarystyle assault weapons. Now he acknowledged that some of the legislation faces strong opposition in congress. This will be difficult. There will be pundits and politicians and special interest lobbyists publicly warning of a tyrannical allout assault on liberty. Not because thats true but because they want to gin up fear or higher ratings or revenue for themselves. And behind the scenes theyll do everything they can to block any common sense reform and make sure nothing changes whatsoever. Congressional republicans so far have been cool to the proposals, though some are open to limiting high capacity magazines and tightening background checks. House Speaker Boehner saying only that hell review the president s recommendations. A few republicans, though, are outright hostile, with one texas congressman threatening articles of impeachment with executives dealing with guns. The National Rifle association also denounced the proposals, but is still getting far more attention for this new ad that they produced. Are the president s kids more important than yours . Then why is he skeptical about putting Armed Security in our schools when his kids are protected by armed guards at their school . Mr. Obama demands the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes, but he is just another elitist hypocrite when it comes to a fair share of security. Protection for their kids and gunfree zones for ours. That ad launched yesterday. Today the white house called it, quote, repugnant and cowardly. Thats for you to decide. Its clear, though, highlighting nra intransigence is part of the political strategy. The new cnn Time Magazine poll while momentum for change may be starting to fade, 56 now favor an assault weapons ban compared to 62 immediately after newtown. 58 support a ban on extended magazines. Last month that was 62 . However, expanded ckground checks remains very popular with 87 supporting checks on gun show purchases. Well have more on the politics shortly. But first, the personal two takes on what happened at the white house today. Lexy haller, the uncle over noah pozner killed along with colin goddard. Collin was shot four times in a classroom at virginia tech. I wuas wondering what your reaction was to what you heard. Based on what we heard before the announcement when the families met with the president and the Vice President and during the announcement itself, i was satisfied and pleased to see that the administration is treating this so seriously. And i think the strong sense i got was that they were determined to make a major change here and to enact significant reforms that would put a stop to this kind of violence. Are you optimistic, alexei . Im octuplet to some of the proposals. I still think there is a lot of work to do. I still think there is work to do in terms of other proposals. But in general, i am optimistic. I think that this is an opportunity to make real change happen. Collin, the Vice President mentioned you by name. What is your reaction to what you heard today . That was quite shocking to hear my name mentioned like that. But overall, just highly encouraged by the leadership from the white house on this issue coupled with the overwhelming support from grassroots people from across the country, including gun owners and nra members themselves who have reached out to us and say what youre talking about makes sense. So we really think now coming from the top down and working from the bottom up is going to lead to some positive change in this country. Youre part of the brady campaign. You fight for gun control measures. Its obviously become a very personal calling for you. Do you really think, though, that the president can legislatively get through an assault weapons ban . I think we need to look at all the proposals that he is putting out there. Think if we get success on any one of those, i think its moving our country forward in a great deal. Background checks on all gun sales is huge. And we see so much public support for that. The fact that 40 of gun sales every year dont have a background check . Thats insane. We have a variety of issues we can make progress on. And i think all of the people who have reached out to us over the past month and still now is going to lead us to a longterm changes that we so badly need. Alexei, what is your message to lawmakers at this point . The message is we have to act now. I dont think we can wait to enact these reforms. I think the time for action is now. And i think were not going to be satisfied. Were not going to start fighting until meaningful reforms take place. And colin, you still have you still have bullets in your body from the shooting. How how has this changed your life . I mean, the shooting opened my eyes to a world i knew nothing about. I think i was like most americans who thought that we did everything we could to keep guns out of the hand of dangerous people, and was frankly shocked to learn that dont even do background checks on everybody, you know. So this is not a career choice. This is not a lifelong fight for me. This is until we get something done. This is a box to check. We can do this. I think weve ultimately really reframed the issue from whether or not if something can pass to really when it is. And i think that time is now. Alexy, i appreciate you being on tonight, and colin as well. Thank you very much. Lets talk about the politics. So far they have included that nra ad, the congressional threat of impeachment. Here to talk about it cnn contributor and consultant margaret hooper, charles below and david gergen. David, when you look at these proposals, are some of them nonstarters . I think first of all, we have to say, anderson, many times in the past we have complained about a lack of leadership by president obama. This time he has stepped up. He is taking the lead. This is what a president who is really committed. He went big. He went big. You have to give him credit for that. His problem is that he is handicapped. He doesnt have enough power through the executive office to do this alone. Most of these are small bore initiatives that he is going to do on his own. He needs the congress to get this done. And so far we have to bring politics into this, because this is a political matter in this tragedy. And so far he just does not have the public support. He can get the background checks done. I think that is very doable this year. But anderson, he doesnt have the support in the Democratic Party much less the Republican Party that he needs to get this through the senate. Right. There are a lot of progun democrats. Who are up for reelection in 2014. Right. How much does 2014 play into the president s . I think a little, but not tremendously. I disagree with you a little bit on this. I think some of the things that some of us think are small bore are actually enormous. A lot of what the president did in his executive orders was about data. Right now we live in an information vacuum. We have no idea how to track what is happening with guns in this country. And if and by executive order requiring no approval whatsoever he is able to move on that front, and that is significant. Like the Social Security administration that doesnt get the Mental Health data. There the university of Chicago Crime Lab issued a letter to the Biden Commission earlier this month. 100 researchers from major universities across this university signed on to that. One thing they point out is from 1973 to 2012, there were four million plus gunrelated accidents, or shootings or whatever. But there were only three Research Grants from nih to look at why these things are happening. That information vacuum has to be stopped. And that is enormous. I wish you were right. I wish you were right. Thats right. I know on the health research, you can do a lot. But he does not have the power to figure out who owns these thee hundred million guns in the country when they change hands, hen they change property. Nobody knows where these things are. So youre still saying its the usual little things. And the bureau that is supposed to keep track of this, the bureau of alcohol, tobacco and firearms, atf, has been paralyzed for the last few years. Doesnt have a leader. Republicans have been blocking. Right now were not collecting any data. Were flushing all of it. And what a lot of these executive orders say is that we now are pushing people to share that information to collect it, share it. Margaret, what do you think . Is this small bore stuff or the big things you think he is going to make any headway on. I agree with david that he has certainly gone long. He is throwing the long ball. He has put big plans down on the table. I think that in order to pass anything through congress, you have to strategically win over the reasonable edge of the opposition in both the senate and in the house. And it just doesnt seem like its pragmatic to do that with an assault weapons ban. But what about the high capacity magazines . That one, i think that one is tough too. Why not start pragmatically where you know you can pull off some republicans and some democrats who have nra good nra ratings with the universal background checks. Look, a new poll today says 89 of republicans are in favor of that. I dont like to be cynical on this, but let me just throw this out here, david. Is the president looking at 2014, and by going big and losing on things like an assault weapons ban or losing on the high capacity, does he win in some way . I think there is growing evidence that this white house is looking very closely at 2014 in a variety of ways. And what is interesting to me, anderson, about this, i was there in the white house in 1994 when president clinton got an assault weapons ban through. Very important breakthrough. He got it but lost the house. He lost the house. He sort of won the battle but lost the war. In president obamas case, he may well be in a situation where he is going to lose the battle, but win the war. And he is going to win the war of public opinion. You think this could actually turn the house . I think this could be an element in shoring up his base and getting people to come out in 2014. His problem so even if he loses he doesnt get the assault weapons. Yes. But this is a play to the base strategy, not a pragmatic sort of legacy seeking. He may be trying to seek a legacy by spending Political Capital and getting an assault weapons ban. But let me just tell you, we all know, second term president sis oftentimes are legacyseeking. Did the nra go too far with this ad, do you think, margaret . Absolutely. The nra does absolutely no favors for themselves when they do that. First of all, they are playing to the president s strategy. The president s strategy is to alienate the nra and try to make Reasonable Republicans feel they dont need to stand up for nra. The nra just played played specifically into that strategy. I think we all agree on that. And theyre wrong on the facts. The president basically said not that he is opposed to having more armed guards in schools, he is just saying he is skeptical that solves the problem in schools. And in fact the white house kept proposing more money for the safe schools program. And it was congress in 2012 that killed that money in congress. And if you look at the proposal they put forth today, they basically say, they explicitly say that if some schools want to have more armed guards, thats up to them. But we want to leave to it the local districts to decide on their own. Which interesting, because you now have the nra arguing for larger government. For larger federal government, putting armed people like Government Troops into schools. As opposed to leaving them the nra came out with a proposal to put guards in schools, everybody from the president s party dumped on them. They went after them hammer and tongs. That specifically to the president is not about democrats. Push back and the president did not sate. Its just a lie. Let me just push back on that just to play devils advocate here. If at elite schools they have private security and armed guards, what is wrong with at Public Schools having armed guards . And why not pay for it . Right. So if you want if youre arguing for that massive expansion of government, what that would require, right, and were in a budget its not massive. It is massive. Were just hypothetically talking. They wouldnt even pay for the couple million that was in a safe school program. They cut that down to zero. And now theyre basically saying we want to put armed guards in every school. And to override the local government and say if you dont want at your local district and say the parents or the School Districts dont want it in that school, were still going to override it and put them there anyway, that is a massive expansion of government. I think the problem we can sometimes get into is what kind of legislation is going to make us feel better, not safer. Remember, columbine had armed guards. It didnt help. They got there too late. I think we need to think about sort of what are the reasonable laws that we can pass. Reasonable restriction. Background checks. Yes. We have to leave it there, david, charles, appreciate it. Let me know what you think. Follow me on twitter right now andersoncooper. Up next, americans held hostage. Who is holing held the. Former cia officer bill baird is joining us, and jill doherty has the latest from the state department. So if ydead battery,t tire, need a tow or lock your keys in the car, geicos emergency roadside assistance is there 24 7. Oh dear, i got a flat tire. Hmmm. Uh. Yeah, can you find a take where its a bit more dramatic on that last line, yeah . Yeah i got it right here. Someone help me i have a flat tire well its good. Good for me. What do you think . Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. Looks like youre in a pickle. Yeah. Can you get me out of it . Just so happens i know a chap. Book any flight and hotel together and get access to our free personal concierge service. Any need, any question, were on call 24 7. More on our breaking news now. Americans and other westerners among the hostages being held right now tonight by islamic extremists in algeria. Leon panetta is calling it a terrorist attack. The hostages were taken when about 20 extremists attacked a gas field. This is a file picture of the field. Its in the southern part of algeria. Its partly owned by the Energy Company bp. Now algerias interior minister said that two people were killed in the attack. Its believed to be retaliation for algerias support for the french offensive in mali. As many as ten americans were working at that oil field. The state department hasnt said how many of them right now may be hostages. We are told a special Operations Team is standing by, quote, on a very short string. This is obviously a very fluid situation. Cnn Foreign Affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty and former cia officer bill baird join me now. Jill, youve been working your sources today. What is the latest . We believe obviously this happened at a gas field. If you look at the map, its in eastern algeria. Thats 37 miles from the libyan border. And thats important because they believe that the people who carried this out came in from the east, in from libya. They went to this gas field. Its owned by bp. The algerians and the norwegians. And they carried out this attack. Apparently what happened is they had a previous attack. It didnt w