Douglas high school shortly before students were supposed to be dismissed. The gunmshoot began reportedly 2 30. The shooter pulled the alarm so students would come into the hallway and he could shoot into the crowd. When deputies arrived at the School Hundreds of students were already fleeing. According to the Broward CountySheriffs Office, the suspected 19yearold was con sealed himself running out of the school. 17 victims died at the school. 2 more died at the hospital. Welcome to morning joe. Its thursday, february 15th. Joe, here we are again. Mika, here we are again. More than 33,000 people are killed by guns in the United States every year. Thats according to the cdc. 33,000. We have had 1,670 mass shoots since sandy hook and we said never again. In schools, where we send our children every day to learn. 430 people have been shot in School Shootings since sandy hook. If you want to take it beyond our children, being gunned down in schools, well, three of the ten deadliest shootings in u. S. History have come in the last five months. Let me say that again, because this is an epidemic thats growing. Three of the ten deadliest shootings in the history of the United States of america, have come in the last five months. 15 of the 20 worst Mass Shootings in u. S. History has occurred since the turn of century starting with the Columbine School shooting in 1999. The five worst Mass Shootings have all occurred from 2007. Ill say it again the five worst Mass Shootings in u. S. History have occurred in this past decade. Three of those five were in 2016 and 2017. You know, mika, we have been talking an awful lot about vietnam lately. Unfortunately, were looking back 50 years later, were looking at the documentary, were looking at the carnage, were looking at the people still impacted by those deaths and yes, we americans are still haunted by the 58,000 americans who lost their lives needlessly in vietnam. And yet, more than 58,000 americans will be killed by guns before the end of next year. Let me say that again, more people will die in america by guns this year and next, than died in a decade in vietnam. And yet, congress does nothing. The president does nothing. Washington does nothing to protect our children from this continued madness. And protect the rest of us from this insanity. Mika, im sorry but just saying we can do nothing is not enough. Americans must do something and its not just gun control measures that most americans support. Over90 of americans believe we need enhabsed background checks to keep guns away from those mentally ill, to keep guns away from terrorists. 95 want increased background checks on gun buyers. And you know what, mika, that includes me. Im going to be buying guns, shotguns, for my children. A lot of people do that. They go out hunting. They go out target practicing. Its way of life. But heres the biggest kick, mika, heres the kicker to it all, the people who have grown up with guns around them like you and like me, and all of my friends in pensacola, think the nra has become extreme and what their schools to be safe just like we want our childrens schools to be safe. The nra we grew up with that nra is no longer interested in protecting gun rights, theyre interested in promoting gun sales. Im all for gun rights. Im for the Second Amendment. I believe it means what it means. I think americans should be able to have handguns and shotguns. I dont want the government regulating that. Im even uncomfortable with state carry laws. But the insanity that we have seen has to be curved and it has to be start and dont tell me you need militarystyle assault weapons to protect your home or to go hunting. You do not. This madness must stop and these background checks have to be enhance zbld real conversations and the real story of what happened yesterday has to be told. Im looking at our esteemed list of guests today. I dont mean to unbook the show. Im going to warn anybody, if anybody comes on this show and say now this is not the time to not look at this, why dont you get back in your car and go home. Were going to tell the horrific stories. Were going to talk about how to move this conversation forward. What needs to happen in washington, finally. With this this morning, veteran climb nis Mike Barnicle and john hillman. A former attorney general and worked closely with Police Department while in office. And jon meachem is with us as well. We have much to get to. Id like to get to some of the scenes of yesterday, to set the scene for the conversation. Some of the children, the kids, the teens were screaming while others ran for cover. Some hid in closets, under tables, shielded by their teachers. Well talk about those teachers. Some sent Text Messages to their moms saying they love them. Others recorded the horrifying moment firsthand as a shooter turned their school into a scene of a mass murder. Im trying to keep, you know, keep really calm, you know, im not trying to panic, other kids are going to panic, you know, im telling kids to silent their phone, keep calm, pray to god, some kids are actually in pain. Were all bunched in one corner. You know what, just deal through the pain, be quiet. Rather to deal with the pain than risk lives. We heard gunshots, everybodys confused, panicked. Some people started running, some people stayed back. There were also stories of heroism and bravery from inside the school. The schools football coach reportedly jumped in front of students to protect them from the shooting. Last night the broward sheriff announced that a beloved football coach had died. Part of this massacre was captured in graphic detail. Videos of students hunkered down in classrooms as gunshots rang out. Video is 11 seconds. Worth warning you, its extremely difficult to watch. But this is our reality. Holy oh, my god it goes on and its much worse for the kids who were in there who remember everything, joe. Well, and of course, for those who dully saw the gunman come into the room and shoot down friends and coaches and teachers, you know, john there are many things that historians will back upon on in this dysfunctional era of american politics and shake their head they will not understand it. I think one of the most perplexing things for those removed 50 years from now, were 50 years now from vietnam and the chaos of that time, the fact that these shootings continue unabated, 95 of americans support enhanced background checks to try and make gun usage safer, to keep guns out of the hands of the criminally insane. To try and keep guns out of the hands of terrorists. To try to keep hands out of the hands of domestic abusers. Yet congress stayed with the 4 . Thats what we said after sandy hook, there were senators and congressmen that chose to be with the 4 in the nra instead of the 95 of the rest of us, now as you look at the mass slayings that continue, assaultstyle weapon bans, now in one poll, one recent poll supported by threefourths of americans support that. Yet, one School Shooting after another School Shooting. Las vegas, we still dont know what happened in las vegas. 79 of americans according to a recent poll support that kind of ban. We cant get a vote. We cant get hearings. We cant have a real conversation about that. What will historians say, what do we tell our grandchildren in. I have no idea. And you know, i feel like we have this conversation, obviously with alarming frequency. One of the great moral outrages of our lifetime that this happens. One of the great political conundrums and puzzles. Its not just what well tell our grandchildren, just get on a plane. And leave the United States today and spend time in any other industrialized country in the world, one of the questions that youll get and its the question that basically in my adult lifetime over 30 years i have been getting it only gets more urgent, now in the world today, they all look at any american and say, theres lot we admire about your kind and some things criticize, whats the deal with you guys and guns. Let me stop you. John, look at this chart. This the is the 2016 rate of violent deaths per 100,000 people. Look at how high we are above every other industrialized nation. Yes. And thats because we have a gun lobby that shoves millions and millions of dollars towards politicians who get millions and millions of dollars to vote with the 4 of americans. And thats what theyre doing. Joe, you know, john just said its a puzzle, a conundrum , its really not. One essential fact that ought to be repeated each and every day on every news program on this country, local and national and it is this children die in schools because the vast majority of members of congress are afraid to lose their seats. Children lose their lives because politicians are afraid to lose their seats. Were 4 of the worlds poum lags. Yet we own 42 of the worlds guns. Were on par with yemen, a nation involved in a civil war. We now identify off the top of our heads, mass slaughters, columbine, sandy hook, Virginia Tech, a night club in florida, we identify them by their names and it no longer shocks the American Public. We have become immune to the sense of violence created by that shooting yesterday in that school. The one big reason is the gun. Mike, i just say, i agree with everything you just said. To me thats just another way of talking the puzzlement. A its not clear to me cowardice. In the face of this mass slaughter people find more couns courage. I dont think theyre wrong taking some of the votes that joe are talking about, 95 to 5 are issue. Its puzzling both that they dont have more courage and puzzling theyre using this calculus that makes them think if they voted for increased background checks that would necessarily mean they would lose their seat. I think theyre wrong about that. Joe . Theyre dead wrong about that. And again, 95 of americans support increased background checks. And most republicans and overwhelming number of republicans support increased background checks. Overwhelming number of americans support a ban on militarystyle assault weapons. Those militarystyle assault weapons that are being used to gun down our children in schools in florida, people in nightclubs in orlando, people at Country Music concerts in las vegas, those are not constitutionally protected. Theyre not anybody that knows anything about the United States constitution, anybody that has read the decision the most aggressively progun decision in the history of the United States in the supreme court, one in which i wholeheartedly embrace, even Justice Scalia said, you have a right to have a handgun in your home to protect your home. This doesnt extend to militarystyle assault weapons. Mika, yesterday we talked about epidemics. We talked about the opioid crisis. We talked about the number of people who died from opioids every year. Well, this is an epidemic as well. It wasnt an epidemic back in the 1990s. It wasnt even an epidemic after columbine. But three of the deadliest Mass Shootings have come in the last five months. Three of the ten deadliest shootings in America History have come in the last five months. At that point, it becomes an epidem epidemic. 15 of the 20 worst mass shoots in the u. S. History have occurred since columbine. The five worst have all occurred since 2007. Mika, were in the midst of an epidemic and yes, gun if you want to talk about overall gun violence it has gone down over the past 20 years. But what were talking about is protecting our children in schools. Giving people the right to go to Country Music concerts. To go to nascar events. To go to football games. To go to baseball games. To go to churches, little chu h churches deep in the heart of texas. Were talking about people having that right without being gripped with fear that this sunday as they pray in church might be the sunday they get gunned down. Enough. It needs to be treated. It does need to be treated. I can tell you, that kids across america, teenagers across america, College Students across america, im hearing from a lot of them, they can count and they feel theyre next. They feel their schools have become war zones and they dont know when the next shooter is going to walk into the doors. Thats how they feel. The impact this is having on generation of children is as bad as it gets. Its an epidemic. We can talk about the psychiatri psychiatristic impact. We can talk about the proliferation of guns. You work closely with Police Department. Reporter yes. If you look at the measures that joe is just mentioning, few of them, none of them are perfect. None of them will solve the problem. But, we have none of them in place at this point. Gun buybacks work. Background checks might work. It would take ten years. It would take ten years at this point if we did everything that we seem to have problems getting even agreement on some things. If we put everything through it would take a decade to clean up our society at this point. What do cops want . These types of incidents are for Law Enforcement, theyre trained, from what we see they did an extraordinary job responding. Theres no question in my mind that we in Law Enforcement and people prosecutors, police, we understand i think theres an obligation to keep children safe and schools safe. I also believe that i dont think any one of us were doing that if we 18 School Shootings in the last 30 were failing our children. At least every other day in a school in america a child is being shot. Theres a shooting happen. We have to ask a question, you know, if a plane crash happens theres an faa review, incredibly extensive review and thats not a conversation we have in america. Theres a School Shooting and every Police Department, this Police Department will do an afteraction review. Did the school do the right things . We have to go to that next level which places like the faa does. Every conversation has to be had, any way to avoid a single accident or a single death. To me, our obligation is to keep children safe. Law enforcement, let me say this, also, an assault rifle, ar15, thats an incredible threat to a Police Officer at the scene. The first thing they want to do is basically, you know, minimize the harm to anyone on the scene including the officers. It really is which is why you have to go with a tank to a high school. Its incredibly dangerous for the students there and the Law Enforcement walking in that door. They dont want to be in that situation. Definitely not. Joe, were at a point where this is off the rails. The shooters are winning. Well, the gun lobbyists are winning because jon meachem. This is not a left, right issue. This is not a left, right issue. You have republicans used to support Police Officers. They used to support Law Enforcement until donald trump told them to stop but im still a conservative. I still believe in the Second Amendment. I still support our Police Officers. Ill ask you the question that i asked john, what will historians look back 50 years later, our politicians sat back and they didnt listen to cops on the street . They didnt listen to police commissioners. They didnt listen to sheriffs, they didnt listen to prosecutors. They saw that 33,000 americans died every year in mass shoot g shootings not Mass Shootings, 33,000 americans died every year by guns. Add those two years up, more than the americans died in vietnam. Yetter, were doing nothing. People like me not afraid of guns but take my children out, and what do we say . What do historians say about this congress, about this president , about this era where our children cant go to schools without being afraid and people in texas cant go to church and Rural Communities without the fear of being gunned down. Well, its the most extreme and tragic and troubling example of a tendency in the american soul, the american way of being to allow a small number of people to have an outside effect. I think thats the case with the gun lobby, i own guns as you do. I have no problem whatever with these kind of restrictions because, you know, quail and dove dont need to be hit by an ar15. It doesnt work that way. Any sensible person whos in the even remotely in the main stream of American Life understands that. Its a common sense of the matter. Its what jefferson would call a selfevident truth. The other thing i would say, when you watch those images that mika was narrated, were basically under a wave of terror attacks. Those images, that sound feels like september 11th. And imagine if foreign prep pray or thes were clearly behind this number of attacks the last x number of days. We would be bombing countries. We would be back at war in a very active and forward way. Why theres why we manage to get outraged for six to eight hours and then move on is something that i think we have to be focused on. Yeah, hey, jon, you grew up in tennessee. You live in tennessee now. I grew up in mississippi, alabama, georgia, florida, for most of my life. You went to church with people that went hunting with their kids, i go to church with people and went to church in the deep south with people that went hunting with their kids. After Something Like this happens, its not like its just my friends in the media that i work with in washington or new york that are saying, whats going on . Its my friends who have taken their children hunting, whose fathers took them hunting when they were 5 years old. That are saying, i dont nee