Good evening everyone. Welcome to our program this evening, finding Common Ground on guns. I am amy im the executive director of the aspen center for Civic EngagementPublic Service here at George Washington university. We are the central hub for all Things Community and engagement. One of the cosponsors for this evenings exciting conversation. Im really happy to see you all. Now im delighted to introduce you to the present of the George Washington university, president has highly distinguished career academically in chemistry and holds many academic and honors. He was a chancellor of Washington University of st. Louis for 24 years prior to joining us at gw in january 2022. We are delighted to have him as our president. We are delighted to have him here this evening. [applause] thank you amy and good evening everyone. Amy, thank you for the leadership you are bringing to our university in terms of encouraging engagement and service efforts. I appreciate very much your special work. As a president of the George Washington university i am pleased to welcome all of you to this dialogue on the finding Common Ground on guns. This is the issue that has long been very important to me personally. I mentored together with my wife a young woman for about seven years. She was murdered by gunfire in st. Louis soon. This engaged me very deeply in terms of recognizing that we have a major problem in the United States. We have with us this evening, important individuals who will participate tonight in a dialogue. Murphy of connecticut, former congressman will heard of texas. And im sure we have texas. We have with us also former cds news correspondent and author jacqueline adams. I want to thank Common Ground the bridge at gw Student Group and our national and center organizing this special event tonight. At the George Washington university we are committed to an Academic Mission of teaching, research, patient care and service. And that has long had a positive impact on our nation and the world. One important way to have this impact is by convening and participating in discussions on very difficult issues. Which is what we are doing here this evening. This dialogue will help to inform the public and demonstrate the skill of respectful discourse and exchange of differing views on the critical issue of guns. Many people recognize clearly that we have a problem. There are solutions to this problem. And at a dialogue like this this evening, we can identify some of the best approaches to solving this critical problem. In addition to tonights event i also note another important effort our university is engaged in. That is joining with other washington d. C. Area universities to address gun violence through researchbased recommendations. Similar to our goal this evening through our efforts with other universities, we hope to use our knowledge and create new knowledge to address this critical problem of Public Health due to gun violence. I hope that together, through all of our efforts we will make a Good Progress and more rapid progress. Thank you for joining the event tonight. We hope you find it rewarding and illuminating. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you very much president wrighton. Now, i am delighted to introduce two to the other gw cosponsors for this event. These students were the impetus to bring this event here tonight. From fairfax, virginia as a sophomore at Gw Elliott School of international affairs. And among many other activities he serves in the army rotc. Sophie is off so a sophomore at studies of journalism as well as international affairs. She also has many extra curricular and co that she is involved in. She is from villa hills, kentucky. Like to introduce you to sophie and. [applause] thank you amy for the introduction per good cofounder and ceo of Common Ground committee. [applause] [applause] welcome. Thank you president wrighton, Sophie Holtzman and manraj multani for the warm welcome. Its a pleasure to coproduce tonights events with bridget gw in the National Center. At its executive director. A behalf of my colleagues at Common Ground committee in our Media Partners the Christian Science monitor, thank you all so much for coming. The video you just saw gives you a little insight into our organization. We are a nonpartisan citizen led nonprofit bringing light not heat to Public Discourse and working on the problems with the polarization that threaten our nation. This is our 18th the public form. Tonights topic is finding Common Ground on. We encourage you to tweet tonight. You can see some of the hashtags we encourage you to use. You can see them here on the screen behind me. So it he has put good policy over good cyber former undercover officer for the. For almost two decades hes been involved Security Issues found in our country. Although the author of reboot and idealist guide to getting big things done. Please welcome congressman will hurd. [applause] else on the. He has dedicated his career to Public Service as an advocate for the families he represents. He has been a strong voice in the senate on job creation, affordable healthcare, education and forwardlooking foreign policy. A Fair Community act aimed at saving lives from gun violence. Please welcome senator chris murphy. [applause] thank you so much for being with us. And with that, jackie the floor is yours but. Thank you so much for your kind introduction. It is my great pleasure to be back before a Common Ground committee audience. And we are live in we are in person here at this amazing jack morton auditorium at George Washington university. I am delighted to share the stage with our esteemed and courageous panelist tonight. Or it topic is a difficult one, a complex one. Finding Common Ground on guns. Its fraught with passionate views on both sides. Lawabiding gun owners were theres too much focus on controlling guns. Others believe guncontrol is the best way to address and perhaps even reduce gun violence. A plan tonight is to discuss the politics of guns, the role of semiotic weapons in Mass Shootings and we are going to have a lightning round discussion about an array of possible solutions. After that we will take your questions from the audience. We will conclude with what we hope a discussion of ways to end polarization in our political discourse. Our time is short. Weve got a big agenda so lets get started. Senator murphy, i have read that you have an f rating with the National Rifle association. Known as the nra. Congressman hurd you. [inaudible] you both have a truly tragic reality. Mass shootings have hit very close to home for both of you. And to remind everyone senator murphy was a young u. S. Congressman representing newtown connecticut when 21st graders and six School Employees were massacred. Two more were injured at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on december 14, 2012. The shooter had an assault style rifle. Two semi automatic pistols, a shotgun as well as several hundred rounds of ammunition stored in highcapacity magazines. Congressman hurd represent the Quiet Community of youve all day, texas. Where 19 children and two teachers were killed and 17 were wounded by another government using a semi automatic and that happened this past may 22. In june, just after the murders congressman hurd tallied the death toll nationwide in a New York Times oped you can see it. He wrote since 2009, 1565 americans have been killed in Mass Shootings. That is more than the number of u. S. Military personnel killed in hostile action in afghanistan over the same. At the same entrance to the end of august President Biden gave a speech on reducing gun violence and focused on semi automatic style weapons used in both of those school massacres. Lets listen. Imagine seeing the parent, not just of a child, would not be able to physically identify the child, or the adult because there were literally blown apart. We equip our Service Members with the most lethal weapons on earth to protect all of us. To protect americans. Vote these men received significant training, extensive background checks, Mental Health assessments, they have to learn how to lock up and store their weapons responsibly or they get kicked out. But we let any stranger, an 18yearold walkin or a 20yearold walkin and by an ar15. Back in 1994 i took on the nra and posse assault weapon ban. For ten years Mass Shootings were down. For ten years on process i pass that legislation in 1994 as a senator. 2004 republicans let that be unexpired. Mass shootings in america tripled, tripled. It is time to ban these. It is time to ban these weapons. We did it before, we can do it again. Sobering. Before we address the issue of ar15 and semi automatic weapons, lets talk about the politics of guns. Senator murphy youve been fighting for gun violence legislation for a very long time and following gun for iraq to pass the Safer Communities act. This is the first major federal legislation on gun control since 1994. How did you get a compromise bill passed finally . First of all let me think the Common Ground community, gw all your partners for having will and i hear today. Looking forward to this conversation. The view and the audience we did find Common Ground this summer on may be the most complicated, most politically vaccine issue out there. We will get into the details why the compromise of guns is so difficult. There is a whitehot intensity in this country around the issue of guns. It is cultural. Its also existential. Many of the connection to a weapon is very much tied to itself. Their sense of definition and meaning. For others, peoples access to weapons is directly relevant to whether their kids are going to come home safe from a walk to school or the local grocery store. We do not get an issue more explosive and more meaningful than this one. The reason that we found Common Ground this summer was because the American Public it had enough of an action. While sandy hook shook this country to its core, it has been the cumulative impact of mass shooting after mass shooting as well as suicides and homicides continued to use spiral upward bread brought the public to the point this summer they just were not willing to accept congress. So uvalde happened at a week later we went back to our districts, our states for the memorial day recess. Often big comp. Things fell apart when Congress Leaves Town for the opposite happen this time. Members of the senate went home and saw a sense of panic and anxiety from families and kids and parents they hadnt seen before. Came back to washington with a real sense of purpose that there was going to be a political price to be paid, for the first time maybe if there is not a bill produce that at least showed some progress on guns. It certainly helped there were a handful of us that had some fresh built hopes we done a smaller bill on guns a few years back. Senator sinema had lots of trust relationships on the republican side. So the relationships mattered. But that was secondary. What was most important was there is an imperative from the public to push us to get beyond our politics. And to make some progress. That sets the ground for what was a 30 day period of negotiation of passage. Really remarkable how little time was taken to pass a 15 billiondollar bill with five major changes and gun laws. But the point we negotiated 30 days later he got something down that had never been done or achieved in the last 30 years because of the difficulty of this issue. Congressman hurd you know how Congress Works and how difficult crafting a compromise like this is for any member of congress. What could you think finally drove this time . It starts with chris and john cornyn do this. If you look at either one of their twitter feeds during that process they were getting attacked by their supporters and people on the extreme of their parties are about doing too, christian not doing enough. That relationship between the two of them was able to see this through. That is a big component to this. But as chris said the public was tired. 50 of teenagers and the United States of america are afraid of getting shot at school. That is nuts. I do not care where you are in the political continuum, no one should think that is okay. Though i think we have to remember that moment and people were influences. We can go back a few years ago with fix mix. A town in south texas. The shooter went into a church. And again senator cornell worked on a piece of legislation in essence the criminal background check. There is a group of about 6 million records that were not being included that were supposed to be included to prevent people from ultimately being able to purchase a weapon. That was not happening. Even Something Like that what you think is pretty straightforward, updating a database was a difficult issue. I could go even further. This was after i believe this was after the ame shooting charleston about having a universal background checks. It was called hr eight back then. I was one of eight republicans. Were going to talk about that. Ask the public has to speak out. And i think chris is rated is the cumulative effect. Where we need to get to the stop retreating to our corners and arguing the same positions we have been arguing and start with the wet are those three or four things that we can agree on . How do we address those things to build upon the momentum this legislation chris and cornyn did a couple weeks ago. As i mentioned the two of you on opposite ends of spectrums and your ratings of the nra. A lot of people talk about power of the nra. How influential is this organization . I would say its weakened slightly but can you explain how wields its power over legislation . Ultimately any kind of Advocacy Group you have email lists, real people who are advocates and they wield power in a primary. I talk a lot about the importance of voting in the primaries. In the last non president ial election in 2000 average number of people that voted in a contested election primary election or a house seat is 58000 people. 54000 people. That is crazy but that means 26 out of 500 people decide who is going to be the house seat. Because a 92 of those house seats are decided in a primary. Decided in november to 275,000 people. So a group has influence in the primary especially if you know they are reliable primary voters. Now i will say this other group like moms demand action. Yes, i got an a rating from nra. Nra has supported me in some of my elections. But also groups like moms demand action who were in Advocacy Group coming in educating members on new want specific details of things happening in their district. I think that is an example of how these Advocacy Groups have influence. Senator murphy, it took decades for the legislation to pass. Do you be leave the nra played a role in the delay . Of course. The most impactful piece of legislation here is the one will mentions. The universal background checks. Data tells you if you check every weapon to mentors only going to the white hand are going get the biggest bang for your buck. It has also had Massive Public support. I think the only way you can explain that as to the power of the nra. I think with the nra did that was so effective visit was able to essentially make its endorsement mean more than a candidates position on guns. The nra folded themselves into the fabric of the broader conservative movement. And will knows better than i do but it seems to me at least that endorsement was sort of a proxy for a broader set of conservative values that you had as a candidate. That is why he became so important to republican candidates. If you really look at the amount of money the nra spends an election is a drop in the bucket compared to what modern super pacs are spending. But the impacts, the authority of that endorsement especially inside a Republican Party that was sort of becoming very antigovernment in its abuse thus the endorsement of a group that stood for the right of individuals to arm itself against the government. Started to become a little bit more important. I think it is that impact from the nra beyond the candidates gun positions that made the nra so powerful. Inside the Republican Party on for a while and said the democratic party. We also cannot say this is the only problem. This is a complicated issue. These Advocacy Groups have a role but we cannot say its the only thing that is driving this issue. I think the reliance on one entity would take away from how complicated this is and they need to educate members and for people to be active about these types of issues. But as you said senator murp