Approached as an afterthought and three, far too young men in this country are in a state of crisis. Tonight in the war room were going to show you how we all can take action in all of these areas because in the words of the president , surely we can do better than this. Jennifer last friday at 4 30 in the morning under the cover of darkness the Michigan Legislature passed a bill that would allow gun owners to carry concealed weapons into hospitals, churches bars stadiums Day Care Centers and schools. And just a few hours after the Legislature Passed that bill 26 people including 20 children were killed. Gunned down at the Elementary School in sandy hook elementary. The governor said that has given him clear pause. I beg your rick snyder please veto those bills and stop the madness, but here is what he is up against. 24 michigan lawmakers are acting on behalf of alec that conservative group that drafts Gun Legislation for lawmakers, and alec has been bank rolled by the nra. Michigans alec chair cosponsored the extreme Gun Legislation that rammed through the house and senate last week. But this is not just about michigan. Michigan has been passing some crazy bills these last few weeks, but this is much broader. Alecs legislation has been used across the country to weaken gun laws. Since 2009, 99nrabacked alec laws have passed in 36 states. All of those states are states where alecbacked Gun Legislation has passed. And as a result gun safety laws across the country have gotten incredibly watered down. In arizona you need a permit to cut hair but not to carry a concealed. In mississippi concealed weapons permits last longer than drivers licenses. Iowa its easier to sell a gun than lemonade. In arkansas it takes less time to buy a gun than to qualify for food stamps. Not only do we have weaker gun laws than other countries, we have significantly more guns than any other place on the planet. Look at this chart. Those little yellow dots are the number of runs that are in all of those countries, all of those advanced industrialized nations, and there are 270 million privately owned firearms in the united states, far more than any other country the world. Thats an average of roughly nine guns for every 10 americans. Almost as many guns as there are people. And sadly the sandy hook venn has only aggravated this trend. The Largest Online gun sales groups saw record sales. One of the administrators said this. Blow it away this is after sandy hook. And with an increase in gun ownership in this country, the number of mass killings has increased also. They have speaked in the last 20 years. This has got to stop. And the majority of americans agree. In fact a Washington Post abc news poll out today found that just over half of americans saw the the shooting at sandy hook elementary as a sign of broader problems rather than an isolated incident. And this cuts across party lines with most democrats, republicans, and independents all viewing the newtown shooting as part of a wider issue, and that reverses a trend we have seen in past Mass Shootings, because polls did show the majority of americans viewed those previous incidents as isolated incidents. A petition on the white house website that demands that the president and Congress Take action now has more than 150,000 signatures making it one of the most popular petitions ever. Last night the president indicated that he was prepared to take action. Were not doing enough. And we will have to change. These tragedies must end. And to end them we must change. We will be told that the causes of such violence are complex, and that is true but they cant be excuse or inaction. Surely we can do better than this. Jennifer surely we can do better than that. The president nor spokesman jay carney provided specifics today, but congressional leaders are moving ahead. Four democratic senator called for increased gun control laws. Reinstituted the ban of weapons guns, mark warner who actually got an arating from the nra he today called for the introduction of rational guncontrol measures. On the republican side though . Crickets. Its not as if they didnt have the opportunity. Meet the press reached out to 31 progunright senators to appear on the show this weekend, but all 31 declined the invitation. We cannot stand by any longer and watch this go on. Tonight were going to tell you how you can get involved as parents o children as voters as proud americans. Were going to talk about how we can reach the young men and boys who unfortunately are overwhelmingly likely to commit such crimes. 61 of the last 62 mass murders in this country were committed by young men. So stay there. You know who is coming on to me now . You know the kind of guys that do reverse mortgage commercials . Those types are coming on to me all the time now. vo she gets the comedians laughing and the thinkers thinking. Ok, so theres wiggle room in the ten commandments, thats what youre saying. You would rather deal with ahmadinejad than me. Absolutely. And so would mitt romney. vo shes joy behar. And the best part is that current will let me say anything. What the hell were they thinking . Alright, in 15 minutes were going to do the young turks. I think the number one thing that viewers like about the young turks is that were honest. They know that im not bsing them with some hidden agenda, actually supporting one party or the other. When the democrats are wrong, they know that im going to be the first one to call them out. They can question whether im right, but i think that the audience gets that this guy, to the best of his ability, is trying to look out for us. As your senator ill protect your Second Amendment rights thats why the nra endorsed me. Jennifer that was San Francisco political reporter joe garofoli joe manchin in a campaign ad. And this was him today. We need action. I think seeing the massacre of so many innocent children has changed America Jennifer after fridays massacre, the issue of gun safety is dominating the conversation. Diane feinstein as i mentioned earlier vows to interview a bill that would ban any new sales, transfers importation and possession of assault weapons and ban these highcapacity clips of more than ten bullets. In addition new york senator Chuck Schumer has also called for action to make it harder for people who are quote mentally unstable to get guns. John larson from connecticut wants congress to close the gun show loophole. So has the newtown shooting changed the Political Climate for gun safety in america. Here is robert reich the author of beyond outrage. He is joining us tonight from berkeley, thank you so much bob for joining me today. Well good evening, jennifer. Ill tell you this is something that only tangentially touches on my normal topics but goes to the heart of the moral understanding and ability of americans to take action. I think we have reached a Tipping Point here. I think the normal approach we take as a country, because of an at attention Deficit Disorder that we have in the media is when some horrendous thing like that happens, we talk about gun control and change and then we sort of lose our way. The gun lobbies become more activated, and then when it looks like we are serious, they mount all of their possible cloud. I think this time it is going to be different. Theres no way that americans are going to forget 20 six year olds and the way they were gunned down. I think were going to see a change. Jennifer i hope you are right. You were in president clintons administration. Do you think this will be a changing of the Political Climate to make the passage of at least an assault weapons ban possible . I am because i am hearing politicians who have begun owners and champions of the Second Amendment. Have argued in the past. They are beginning to say we want gun controls. We think its important to restrict the registration and have a variety of things that they had opposed before. These are not necessarily republicans, but i think the tenor of the debate has changed. I remember back in 1994 it was very hard to get any gun controls then. We had had a few incidents the babedy bill had been up for consideration for many years, and finally politicians did have the courage, but then many politicians feel that they paid for it at the ballot box in those midterm elections, and that scared off a lot of politician politicians. I think those, that fear is no long we are us. Jennifer i hope you are right. Republicans have been really quiet. Cnn producer approached Senate Minority leader Mitch Mcconnell about that issue today. Take a listen to his response. No comment either way . A lot of our viewers are saying they would like that debate. No comment . Jennifer no comment. Mcconnell did express sympathy for the families and victims, but said nothing about guns. How hard do you think it is going to be to get these republicans to support at least the assault weapons ban . I i think it is going to be difficult, jennifer to be completely candid about it. They have said no to every bit of legislation whether its gun control or for that matter anything else. Certainly everyone who has a memory over the last four years, they dont want to have the nra against them. But these images the understanding of the necessity of doing something to reduce the easy access particularly by people with mental illnesses, easy access to guns. The country overwhelmingly understands that. What the nra and what many people say who are gun supporters, they say look guns dont kill people people kill people. But we understand that we have to have licensing even for to drive a car. Even to do all sorts of things that are potentially unsafe in the wrong hands. We have got to do something to stop the mayhem that we are experiencing, and i think republicans will come around to that view. Jennifer i hope you are right. Of course it is not just republicans, but the president too who seems to be heading in this direction, if you listen to his statements that he has been making. After Gabby Giffords was shop in 2011 there was a number of steps that the administration could take to improve the system of background checks like pooling information from other agencies to help identify people who are not mentally competent. I as a former person in the executive branch used to love stuff that i could do without having to go to the state legislature, the president presumably has an opportunity here to pick up those regulatory measures can he not . Yes. Some can be done by executive order, which by definition congress cant stop him. There may be efforts to say he has exceeded his authority under executive order. I think the big factor here for the president , the white house, democrats, is the election is over. I dont want to appear too cynical about this jennifer but one reason the president may not have taken up this issue before the election was the fear that there would be a backlash among gun owners. But now he is reelected and i dont think there is any reason why he cant move ahead particularly with the issues that dont require congressional approval. Jennifer back to your area of expertise it has been interesting to see what has happened in the negotiations of the fiscal cliff, we have seen clearly some big movement on the part of john boehner. Do you think that this tragedy is going to impact the fiscal cliff negotiations to have these guys get a deal because there are some really big and important issues to deal with. I dont see much of a relationship between either one, except there was a great deal of at attention and focus on the pending fiscal cliff. That caused some degree of movement. John boehner did give some indication on friday that perhaps they would move on the fiscal cliff over the weekend there was a somebody more Republican Movement with regard to saying perhaps we will raise tax rates on people who have a Million Dollars or more but without the at attention now that the publics at attention is now focused on this massacre in in connecticut, there may not be the feeling among republicans that they have got to move quite as quickly as if they will suffer the same kind of public backlash that they were suffering for weeks as they dragged their feet on the fiscal cliff. Jennifer so it might lessen the urgency, wratheder than increase the urgency of acting like rashal adults. Yeah. I dont ever think there is too much urgency in washington in terms of acting like rational adults, i think it depends on where the focus is at the time. And now it may give them a little bit more cover for dragging their feet. Jennifer all right. Robert reich thank you. Tonight is about action and getting involved. The first thing we want you to do is go to white house werent gov and make your voice heard. More than 150,000 people have signed on to this website. We want to have you do the same. Let your government know this is important to you, if it is. And coming up were going to give you some more as simple as this, as a country we dont like talking about Mental Health. There is a stigma attached to Mental Health but if were serious about stopping these massacres, its vital to understand the holes in the every day presents another exciting issue. From financial regulation, fraud on wall street. Things everyday exploding around the world that leave no shortage for exciting conversations. At the end of the show, you know what has happened, why its happened and more importantly, whats going to happen tomorrow. Jennifer we have talked about guns but tonight were examining a similaric approach to ease how we can deal with these problems to look at how we can deal with these problems and begin to stop these tragic shootings. Here is how president obama laid out how he is going to proceed, at least generally dur vizual last night. I would use by power to help an effort aimed at preventing tragedies like this. Because what choice do we have . We cant accept events like this a as routine. Jennifer im glad he mentioned Mental Health because for too long our focus has been to react to gun laws. But there is more to. Obviously not all people with Mental Health issues are violent, but the difficulty with these subjects is that people generalize and we have to be really careful with our language, but without the right treatment some people are going to be prone to violent acts. Well this country takes care of its own, and its time that we start taking care of those in need to Mental Health treatment. There should not be a difference between the way we look at Mental Health and the way we look at physical health. Its all part of the same body. States cut 1. 8 billion from Mental Health services during the recession. As the governor of michigan we had to cut too. Well, the future is not encouraging. If congress doesnt reach a deal on the fiscal cliff, because funding for Mental Health programs are going to cut even further. Those programs include. So its time that we start taking care of all of our own, and enjoying me now for a round table discussion on the Mental Health aspect to the solution of a solution to gun safety is mychal thompson, a psychiatrist, School Consultant and coauthor of raising cane. He is joining us from new york city. Here in studio is warren feral. He is heading up an effort to create a White House Council on men and boys. Welcome to you both inside the war room. Thank you. Thank you, jennifer. Jennifer you bet. Michael, i want to start with you. How have cutbacks to state and local funding affected the ability to identify and treat young people who may be dealing with these very difficult social issues. There have been cutbacks my whole career as a child psychologist because legislatures have wanted to save money on state hospitals, and they have thrown it out to the community. It is because of the sigma of Mental Health, the shame associated with it. We can imagine that adams mother wanted to get him treatment because she knew how lonely and isolated he was, and quirky, and maybe terribly disturbed, but where do you go to get help . And how do you get past your own shame of having a boy who may be mentally ill, so many of these School Shooters virginia columbine, so many of them have clear diagnosable mental illnesses. And nothing ever came of it. Why is that . Boys dont want to get Mental Health treatment. Their families are often embarrassed and ashamed, and there are not very Good Services for them. They wait long long periods of time. Jennifer people listening to this the community Mental Health movement as you mentioned it has been cut, if somebody listening to this show has a son or daughter who needest Mental Health treatment where should you go. Start with the Mental Health counselor. Of course when schools have budget cuts the counselor is the first to go. There are certain minimums that states and schools have to meet but they get really threadbare and the Mental Health professionals are often overwhelmed, but this is when wr the children spend their day. But you have to say im worried, im scared. What do you do with a young adult like adam lanza, who dropped out, from what i read in the news what do you do when he gets bigger . You may feel stuck and ashamed. I recommending you read a piece written today by a woman in idaho who wrote a piece called i am adam lanzas mother. Its one human being tried to touch the soul of another, find our his or her teams, and i