Against nancy pelosi . This is mtp daily and it starts right now. Good evening. Im katy tur in for chuck todd and welcome to mtp dailyment would you take President Trump seriously if he talked about going to war with the nra . Would you take him seriously if he talked about seizing guns and background checks and limiting bump stocks and all policies meaning to go to war with the nra. Who you take his stance on Arming Teachers and if he would have run into Majory Stoneman Douglas High School if we didnt have a weapon and if we need more institutions. He said all of these things at a meeting of the nations governors at the white house and now congress has to sit through a pile of promises. If you have covered this president , as i have, you have learned that he will say anything if he thinks it will look strong or please the crowd or buy him some time. But this is deadly serious stuff hes talking about today. Is he being serious with us and with congress when he said the nra will lie down. Dont worry about the nra. Their on our side. Half of you are so afraid of the nra. There is nothing to be afraid of. And if they are not with you, we have to fight them every once in a while. Thats okay. They are doing what they think is right. I will tell you, they are doing what they think is right. But sometimes were going to have to be very tough and fight them. Is he being serious about wanting to seize guns from potentially dangerous people . When we see somebody is sick like this guy, when the police went to see him, they didnt do a good job, but they have restrictions on what they can do. We have to give them immediate access to taking those guns away. Is he being serious about banning dangerous gun accessories like bump stock . Youll do a rule, you have to wait 90 days. That is what is happening with the bump stocks, im waiting for the next process but it is gone. Dont worry about it. It is gone. Essentially gone because well make it so tough you wont be able to get them. Is he being serious about softening his stance on Arming Teachers. I dont want teachers to have guns. I want highly trained people that have a natural talent like hitting a baseball or hitting a golf ball or putting, how come some people make the four footer and some people under pressure cant even take their club back, right. Is he being serious with himself . I really believe i would run into even if i didnt have a weapon, and i think most of the people in this room would have done that too. Maybe the president is being serious, maybe hes been deeply moved by what hes seen like many of us have. Or maybe it is all meaningless. Ultimately this is the biggest question right now. Is the Republican Party serious about bucking the nra . Were about to find out. Im joined by one of the most outspoken republican lawmakers on the gun debate. The congressman from florida, a u. S. Army combat veteran and one of the few elected republicans currently pushing for sweeping gun reforms. Congressman, thank you for being here. Happy to be here. Ill going to ask you this question. Do you take the president seriously when he says all of the things he said today. I take the president seriously but i make sure ill hold him to his word. So here is what you want to do. You want to temporarily ban ar15 sales and a ban on Assault Rifles and a ban on or you want to raise the minimum age for certain guns and background checks for all purchases, ban on accessories that turn guns into automatic weapons, more research into gun violence and how make it harder for the mentally ill to buy guns. The nra doesnt back that. In fact they oppose some of that directly. Given that those are things that the nra is not going to align with, do you are you confident that youll be able to get the support from, a. , the republican colleagues, or b, the president on anything. When i go to fight for anything, i give it absolutely everything i have. I dont go out there and Say Something just to waste my breath on it and im a Firm Believer that every single one of us has an opportunity to be an inspiration every single day. Were going to inspire people for good or bad. I think the president has inspired some of my colleagues here for good with his remarks that hes made. I hope people could look at me and say ive done the same. But i take this deadly serious. Ive carried that weapon in combat and had the opportunity to save life myself and the one thing i could tell you more concretely than anything is that i was willing to give my life in defense of others. Willing to give my life. And if i have to give my political life to save others, that is nothing compared to that. So what are you doing right . Are you writing legislation. So im working on one of the things that ive been working on even before this had gone on was working on a bill for behavioral detection for the people that have the most overlap for anybody buying a firearm. That is the salesperson. Giving them access to behavaroral detection training and i penned this up saying that that weapon that i carried in combat very similar to an ar15 and an m4, by a 14. 5 inch barrel and ten magazine stacked with 20 rounds apiece of the 5. 5. 56 millimeter and an akog and given to carry in the most danger country on earth because the army told me it was the best tool to give me to kill our enemies. They didnt say take this because we think youre going to be all right. They gave it to me because it is the best. If that didnt meet the definition of what is an assault or tactical rifle, we wont agree on the color of the sky, but that is what im going out there and sell. What are you going to do about that . Youre talking about behavioral legislation and for gun owners to tell who can own one and who cannot. That is a lot of responsibility into the gun salesman or sales people in that respect. What about potentially banning the weapons that you dont think should be in the hands of civilians . That is exactly what i penned. Okay. That is exactly what ive penned. And all of those other things the one thing that i tell people, some of the biggest rebuttals that i get on this well that is not going to stop this or that is not going to stop that. I was a bomb technician. Im well aware of the ability of somebody to go out there and watch a Youtube Video and create an explosive device or somebody to take an automobile and do use it for mass vehicular slaughter. But we cant do legislation under this premise that because we cant do everything with one single act, that were not going to act and do something meaningful, something important with each individual piece of legislation so ill work on all of those things that i penned. Like i said, i dont do things to hear myself talk, i pen those things because i believe in those things. Who are you working with . Anyone on the republican side or the democrats. Ill work with anybody that wants to work with me. Ive been calling the white house to say, mr. President , please have a meeting with you and let me talk to you. I tried to pen it in way, you worked very actively for a travel ban and i think the reason that the president worked toward that travel ban was to protect our community. It was to protect our neighborhoods and keep them safe. That is a perfect model to apply to this. If we did that, to keep our community safe, because we want to know who has access, what they have access to, what are all of the agencies doing to protect those that are coming in here, let aa ploo that apply that same model for 90 or 120 days, lets do that for what we define as Assault Rifles. Who has access and what is the fbi and the atf and the state agencies, what are they doing to make sure they dont get in the next hands of the omar mateen or the next steven paddock or the next nikolas cruz because i havent talked to one democrat or republican or independent that believes the agencies are capable of stopping our weapons from getting in the hands of the next people like that. So is the white house responded . Do you have a meeting . I havent heard back from the white house. But im going to keep reaching out and i hope to speak to the president. What about your fellow republican colleagues, the ones you just mentioned that believe theyre not going to be able to stop these folks. Have they come to you and said, listen, we know that you know what you are talking about and youve been in these scenarios, you understand the force that a gun can be used for, the force for evil and the force for good, obviously. Has anybody sat down with you and said, congressman, were going to Work Together to make this happen . So the short answer is not yet. But we also just got back here into washington, all 435 members of Congress Just getting back in here. Theyll be calling votes at 6 30 and ill be having conversation with my colleagues. What is your view of the nra right now . Look, i always tell people, the nra was founded out there to advocate for responsible gun rights. I penned in my piece that my grandfather bought me my first nra membership when i when was a young boy and i know what it is like to go hunting and be a great marksman and people that are collectors and supportive of the Second Amendment because they want that god given right to defend themselves, that is important. But the nra cannot be silent in this conversation. If they want to say that theyre an advocate for responsible gun ownership, then they need to play a loud voice in this fight hold on there is irresponsible people that havent had these. How do they stop that. They do have a very loud voice and they are using it on a on a lot of very visible platforms. Right now they are saying the media loves Mass Shootings because we love the ratings and white mothers crying. That is what they are saying and saying the only thing that will stop a bad guy with a good is a good guy with a gun. They are pushing back on any form of regulation for guns. Any pullback on the rights for guns. There is a lot of corporations and companies that are cutting ties with the nra. Have you considered potentially giving back the money that the nra gave you in order to make a statement that the nra needs to come to the table and have a reasonable decision about this in. I would love for the nra to come to the table and i threw the first pitch, look, nra if you want your contribution back, i think it was 5,000, come to me and ask for it and ill be more than happy to give it back but that is a chance to sit down and have that conversation. But theyre not going to come back and ask for the money. Theyre not going to come back. And why dont you say have your money back and lets have a meaningful conversation. It is focusing on ps and not the stake. It doesnt have anything to do with the conversation. Ive made my stance. These are the things that i will stand for and fight for. You could see there was a contribution and that contribution doesnt play a role for me doing what i think is right. That is who i am. Nobody will buy brian mast, doesnt matter who you are. It is not going to happen. I served this country in one way, whether in congress or the battlefield without regard for any personal gain or personal sacrifice. Well they dont like your proposals, ill give you that. If the white house does get back to you, we would love to hear about it. Please do alert us. Absolutely. Appreciate your time, congressman. All of the best to you. And lets bring in tonights panel, nick con fisory and political analyst, zer lena maxwell, from progressive media for the Clinton Campaign and now on sirius xm and noah flouds. Thank you for being here. Brian mast proposal are not stuff that the nra is going to like. They dont get behind any of these things. A ban on Assault Rifle purchases, raising the minimum age, background checks for all purchases purchases, the nra has been an obstacle in this debate. What happens next . It is an obstacle but also a frankly a very easy target for people on the left. Who believe that it is easier to attack the nra than it is the 55 million americans who own guns an the 300 million guns in private hands. If were going to talk about meaningful gun laws then we have to focus on the people beginning to talk about meaningful gun laws like the president and rick scott that are saying raise the age. This is something the nra doesnt back. And the president was articulating something very smart when he said that the nra is essentially a paper tiger. Because this organization has presented itself as an arm of the gop. There is one game in town for the nra. And it is not the Democratic Party. If the republicans really want to pick a fight with this organization, they reason that the nra is going to fold and i think it is a reasonably smart calculation to make. So is donald trump serious when he wants to go after the nra when they are not that scary and when the nra isnt the rabid pit bull growling at his republican lawmakers. Look, i think it would be foolish to bet on the president s sticking with this line for more than a few days. He may change his mind again. He understands that the nra was the single biggest outcry that supporting him in 2016. I agree with people that said he is probably driven toward the measures just temperamentally. And he likes the idea of making a big statement and doing something and he knows who brought him to the dance and that is nra. There are so many folks that brought him to the dance and different issues. They are the only major Washington Group that got with his campaign. And the nra is not going to flex its muscles by waiving around a big flag and getting angry and they will quietly kill these things in the crib. They will never get out of committee or ever get a floor vote or specken of on the house floor by a republican and that is how it works. Hes right about that. I think that the president likes to talk big. He likes to act like hes the man coming up with the solutions. But i think that serious people would agree that arming all teachers is not a serious solution. So i think that even the fact of debating that is a distraction from a conversation about real solutions. Because are we going to arm all of the inner city teachers and arm teachers everywhere or who have a classroom with 35 plus students. How is that teacher going to go into the lock box to get a gun in a mass shooting and monitor 40 students. What does this say about the country that we have the majority of people who think there should be stricter gun laws an the vast majority of americans think there should be stricter gun laws and it is this difficult to get anything brought up in congress. It is not like this is the default position the American People. There was much more support for gun laws and gun restrictions 20 years ago. Have tl have been a there have been a change in opinion what prompted that change. I dont know. I think it was societal. But it was so broad and so substantial that weve seen a significant turn away from gun laws even in the nra. There is a clip going around of wayne la pierre saying things about 1999 we need certain restrictions and gun free zones on schools. That position changed with the country. It wasnt the nra leading opinion. The nra was reflecting public opinion. Do you think the nra is reflecting public opinion. I disagree. I think they are a classic Business Group and find a reason to be in business and collect members dues so they have to find a way to push the envelope have you been to an nra convention. I havent. I have. And it is a remarkable scene. The fear that they instill in you. You watch the videos and its it is images of new york city and big cities and talking about the folks that will try and hurt you and take this right away if you. You need to defend it as roughly as necessary. We are with you and this is america and it is forceful, the message that they are selling to people who go to those conventions. And then you go next door from where you watch the video and see the speakers and youll be sold all manner of weapon and all type of accessory meant to protect you and meant to keep you safe from all of those people that are trying to get you at all times. And you turn the television on im going on a rant and you turn the tv on and there is ad after ad for security device for your home. Ones that you could see on your phone because the bad guys are coming to get into your house while youre having a pedicure. It is this culture of fear weve created in our society. That is our business strategy. They need to scare us to buy r nor more guns. And i recall after newtown having these conversations on sirius and callers and i ask them why do you think the ar15 will protect you. Who are you protecting yourself from. Then this was barack obama. Barack obama is not going to come to your house himself. What if barack obama talks about seizing weapons. And nra is not protecting you from anyone they might send to your house. But the money is a big issue. The way our politics fundamentally work is the big money and special interest have outsides influence in what are politicians do and until we get the money out of our politics, were going to have 97 of the American Public supporting something that congress will not vote for. One last question. What if barack obama got up on a stage and talked about giving Law Enforcement the authority though seize a weapon from somebody that they didnt deem mentally fit. Donald trump did that today. There would be panic in the streets from nra reporters and gun owners and i would sympathize with it. In 2013 were talking about the postnewtown debate, democrats had an amendment that would have been a assault weapons ban and 15 democrats and one democrat voting independent voted against it. Because there was a democratic president that would sign it into law. It wouldnt have gotten to 60 otherwise but you could have had a statement of principle and they didnt because it is not where the country was at. It wasnt at that there after newtown and it wasnt there now. There could be some gun laws that pass and the president is giving members cover but it has to be narrowly crafted. Well see if things change. The teenagers in parkland are giving a voice to this debate and lending legs to this debate in the way that we have not seen in at least recent history. Guys, stick around. Well come back to you. Ahead, keeping da daca alive. The situation that is proving to be a major setback for the white house. I needed legal advice for my shop. Thats when i remembered that my exex exboyfriend actually went to law school, so i called him. He didnt call me back if your exex exboyfriend isnt a lawyer, call legalzoo