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Health almost are an afterthought or a postscript. when you look at the situations, the horrible tragedies in tucson, aurora, virginia tech and now newtown, there are two common denominators. certainly guns were involved but mental health issues were also involved. >> don't you think in the wake of newtown -- i've heard a lot more about mental health now, also about background checks. do you think getting lost in this discussion is people's full understanding of what's on the table? we're talking about trying to re-enact an assault weapons ban. it's not about rifles for hunters. it's not about...

Has to get something passed? you always hear about a lame duck presidency. some have suggested he's got 18 months to two years, others even saying he's got like 100 days. then we look and reassess to see how much more time he has. >> he definitely has no more than 18 months. and i mean 18 months to et g-20 it passed. he's going to spend the first 100 days trying to roll this out so aggressively. and he's already really made his move to go toward voters. he's trying to bypass congress right now, telling voters, contact members of congress. he's trying to build up his momentum. but once the 18-m...

That we're taking is the most important. i think we need to get over this idea that because there's one person on the extreme fringe who says one issue doesn't mean that something's controversial. >> so you say noncontroversial issue there relative to climate change. can you say the same about gun control, based on the news from that meeting? >> well, we spend a lot of time talking not necessarily about gun control but reducing gun violence. there's a big difference. the point of it is that mayors in cities have seen a lot. i have seen way, way, way too many funerals. i've been at street corne...

We just haven't totally fleshed that out. but i think we need to understand that people are passionate about constitutional rights. and i know that the tragedies are horrific and everyone feels that. any group that sees the first amendment rights, the second amendment rights, choice rights, all those things involve constitutional right and people get passionate about that. >> i want to ask you quickly about what happened in williamsburg. you had the house gop constituents all there together, all the leaders of the house. they decide, we're going to give a three-month reprieve to dealing with t...

Our city has for 11 years been acting on climate issues. it's everything from dramatically changing the fleets that we have to looking at water strategy. there's no single one thing that you do. but it's, i think, really about saying that, look it's not an accident that there's no snow in minneapolis aretha there are huge climate issues going on around the world. we have to act. and i think mayors at a local level are doing that all over the country and we have for a long time. >> what about taking the lead on a national level? what kind of policies and reforms are we talking about that you th...