Datasets:
Recag
/
C4_19

Dataset card Data Studio Files
xet
Community
text
stringlengths
10
69.1k
And by the way, if you're selling a gun, wouldn't you want to know who you're selling it to? Wouldn't you to know -- wouldn't you want in your conscious to know that the person that you're selling to isn't going to commit a crime?
OBAMA: So these enhanced background checks won't stop all gun crimes, but they will certainly help prevent some. It's common sense. And by the way, most gun owners, more than 80 percent agree this makes sense; more than 70 percent of NRA members agree; 90 percent of the American people agree. So there's no reason we can't do this unless politics is getting in the way. There's -- there's no reason we can't do this.
As soon as next week, every senator will get a chance to vote on a proposal to help strengthen school safety and help people struggling with mental health problems get the treatment that they need. As soon as next week, every senator will get to vote on whether or not we should crack down on folks who buy guns as part of a scheme to arm criminals. That would keep more guns off the streets and out of the hands of people who are intent on doing harm and it would make life a whole lot easier and safer for the people behind me, police officers.
Every Senator will get a say on whether or not we should keep weapons of war and high capacity ammunition magazines that facilitate mass killings off our streets. The type of assault rifle used in Aurora, for example, when paired with a high capacity magazine, has one purpose, to pump out as many bullets as possible as fast as possible. It's what allowed that gunman to shoot 70 people and kill 12 in a matter of a few minutes.
OBAMA: I don't believe that weapons designed for theaters of war have a place in movie theaters, most Americans agree with that.
Most of these ideas are not controversial. Right now, 90 percent of Americans -- 90 percent support background checks that will keep criminals and people who have been found to be a danger to themselves or others from buying a gun.
More than 80 percent of Republicans agree. Most gun owners agree.
Think about it -- how often do 90 percent of Americans agree on anything?
And yet, there are already some senators back in Washington floating the idea that they might use obscure procedural stunts to prevent or delay any of this votes on reform.
Think about that. They're not just saying they'll vote no on the proposal that most Americans support. They're saying they'll do everything they can to avoid even allowing a vote on a proposal that the overwhelming majority of the American people support. They're saying your opinion doesn't matter.
We knew from the beginning that change wouldn't be easy. And we knew that there'd be powerful voices that would do everything they could to run out the clock, change the subject, and ignore the majority of the American people.
We knew they'd try to make any progress collapse under the weight of fear and frustration, or maybe people would just stop paying attention.
The only way this time will be different is if the American people demand this time must be different, that this time we must do something to protect our communities and our kids.
We need parents and teachers and police officers and pastors. We need hunters and sportsmen, Americans of every background to say we've suffered too much pain. We care too much about our children to allow this to continue.
OBAMA: We're not going to just wait for the next Newtown or the next Aurora before we act. And I -- I -- I genuinely believe that's what the overwhelming majority of Americans, I don't care what party they belong to, that's what they want, they want -- they just want to see some progress.
You know, it was interesting, during the conversation, you know, a number of people have talked about the -- the trust issue. Part of the reason it's so hard to get done is because both sides of the debate sometimes don't listen to each other. The people who take absolute positions on these issues on both sides sometimes aren't willing to concede even an inch of ground.
And one of the questions we talked about was, how -- how do you build trust, how do you rebuild some trust? And I -- I told the story about two conversations I had. The first conversation was when Michelle came back from doing some campaigning out in rural Iowa, and we were sitting at -- at dinner, and she had been to, you know, a big county, a lot of driving out there, a lot of farmland.
And she said, "You know, if I was living out in -- in a farm in Iowa, I'd probably want a gun, too. Somebody just drives up in your driveway and you're not home, you don't now who these people are and you don't know how long it's going to take for the sheriffs to respond and -- I -- I can see why you'd want some guns for protection."
I had another conversation just couple months ago with a mom from Chicago -- actually Evanston, Illinois -- whose son was killed in a random shooting. And she said, "You know, I hate it when people tell me my son was shot because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time." He was in the right place. He was on his way to school. He wasn't in the wrong place. He was exactly where he was supposed to be.
Now, both those things are true. And sometimes we are so divided between rural and urban, folks who -- whose hunting is part of their lives, and folks whose only experience with guns is street crime. And the two sides talk past one another.
And more than anything, what I want to just emphasize is they are good people on both sides of this thing. But we have to be able to put ourselves in the other person's shoes. If you're a hunter, if you're a sportsman, if you have a gun in your house for protection, you've got to understand what it feels like for that mom whose son was randomly shot. And if you live in an urban area, and you're worried about street crime, you got to understand what it might be like if you were on a ranch and your dad had been taking you hunting all your life.
OBAMA: And we had a couple of sportsman in our conversation today, and one of them said something very important. He said, "All of my experiences have been positive, but I realize that for others all their experiences about guns have been negative. Well, that's a start, right? If we start listening to each other, then we should be able to get something done that's constructive.
We should be able to get that done.
Now, one -- one -- one last thing I'm going to mention is that during this conversation, I hope you don't mind me quoting you Joe -- Joe Garcia I thought also made an important point. And that is that the opponents of some of these common-sense laws, have ginned up fears among responsible gun owners that have nothing to do with what's being proposed. Nothing to do with the facts, but feeds into this suspicion about government. You hear some of these quotes, I need a gun to protect myself from the government. We can't do background checks because the government is going to come take my guns away. Well the government is us. These -- these officials are elected by you.
And -- and -- and, so surely we can have a debate that's not based on the notion somehow that your elected representatives are trying to do something to you other than potentially prevent another group of families from grieving the way that the families of Aurora, or Newtown, or Columbine have grieved. We -- we've got to get past some of the rhetoric that gets perpetuated that breaks down trust, and -- and is so over the top, that it just shuts down all discussion. And it's important for all of us when we hear that kind of talk to say, hold on a second.
Don't just listen to what some advocates, or folks who have an interest in this thing are saying, look at the actual legislation. That's what happened here in Colorado. And -- and hopefully if -- if we know the facts and we're listening to each other, then we can actually move forward. And that's what members of Congress need to hear from you. Right now members of Congress are home in their districts. Many of them are holding events where they can hear from their constituents. So I'm asking anyone out there who is listening today, find out where your member of Congress stands on these issues.
OBAMA: If they're not part of the 90 percent of Americans who agree on background checks, then ask them, why not? Why wouldn't you want to make it more difficult for a dangerous criminal to get his or her hands on a gun? Why wouldn't you want to close the loophole that allows too many criminals to buy a gun without even the simplest of background checks? Why on Earth wouldn't -- wouldn't you want to make it easier, rather than harder for law enforcement to do their job?
I know to some of the officers here today know what it's like to look into the eyes of a parent or a grandparent, a brother or a sister, or a spouse who has just lost a loved one to an act of violence. Some of those families by the way are here today.
And, as police officers, you know as well as anybody there is no magic solution to prevent every bad thing from happening in the world. You still suit up, you put on your badge, put yourself at risk every single day. Every single day you go to work and you try to do the best you can to protect the people you are sworn to protect and serve.
Well, how can the rest of us, as citizens, do anything less? If there is just one step we can take to prevent more Americans from knowing the pain that some of the families who are here have known, don't we have the obligation to try?
Don't we have an obligation to try?
If these reforms keep -- if these reforms keep one person from murdering dozens of innocent children or worshipers or moviegoers in a span of minutes, isn't it worth fighting for?
I believe it is. That's why I'm gonna keep working. I'm gonna keep on giving it my best efforts, but I will need help. This is not easy, and I'll be blunt, a lot of members of Congress, this is tough for them, because those who are opposed to any form of legislation -- legislation affecting guns, they're very well organized and they're very well financed.
But it can be done if enough voices are heard.
So I want to thank all the police officers who are here for giving their best efforts every single day, I want to thank Governor Hickenlooper for his outstanding leadership. I want to thank all the families who re here for your courage in being willing to take out of this tragedy something positive. I want to thank the people of Colorado for coming together in sensible ways.
Let's see if we can get the whole country to do so.
Thank you, Denver, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.
BLITZER: So there you have the president of the United States at the Denver Police Academy surrounded by police officers and other law enforcement in Denver making a strong pitch for universal background checks. That perhaps is the most possible of legislative initiatives that could get through the Senate and the House of Representatives, although it's by no means a done deal.
We're going to have complete analysis of what the president just said and what's going on. That's coming up.
Also here in THE SITUATION ROOM, incredibly intimate details and personal stories that we've never heard before about the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut, shooting massacre. Some of their families are speaking out for the first time since the tragedy.
BLITZER: Let's bring in our chief national correspondent John King and our senior political analyst David Gergen, who listened to the president closely.
John, it looks like most of the speech was devoted to trying to get support for background checks as opposed to some of the other more legislatively difficult challenges.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf, and that is proof positive directly from the president of how even he has lowered his sights, lowered his goals, if you will. Sure, he would love Congress to pass an assault weapons ban. He knows the math, it's not going to happen. He would love Congress to pass a ban on those larger magazine clips you can snap into a rifle or pistol, but he knows that is most unlikely to happen.
So he was focusing on priority one, the one thing that is still possible, and many believe if he keeps pushing, likely. Some sort of expanded background checks. Will he get universal background checks? Most Republicans and many Democrats, especially on the Senate side, will tell you no. But there is a possibility. But you heard the president there on the road using the bully pulpit of the presidency but essentially conceding I can't do this unless you call your congressman because I need to change some votes.
So this is a test of the president's will power, Wolf. Will he keep at this long enough to get people? And can he generate? Can the president in his second term generate people to get on the phone, call their members of Congress, and change a few votes? Because if he doesn't change a few votes and keep the pressure, even background checks are at some risk in the Senate.
BLITZER: You know, a hot of people don't understand that, David. That if 90 percent, according to the CBS News poll support universal background checks, strict background checks, and only, what, 8 percent don't support it, why is it so difficult?
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Because all politics is local. And people vote their districts, they vote their states, and they vote their own political safety. And so there are a number of Democrats, of course, who are not willing to go with the president. I think -- to John's point, Wolf, we have a speech here that was very good, it was very solid. But at 5:30 in the afternoon, to give a speech, just does not mobilize voters very well.
There are a couple of questions here. One whether the president allowed too much time to pass. Whether he shouldn't have tried to get this done 90 days ago or, you know, in the immediate aftermath of the shootings in Connecticut. Letting -- some of the passions go out of this. To get, I think if he wants -- I think he's got a good message. But if he wants to mobilize people, as John said, to get people calling their Congress, sending letters to the White House, flooding the Capitol Hill, I really think he needs to think about a primetime event of some sort, a speech or a press conference, and maybe push both gun control and immigration.
He's at a time in his presidency where speeches on the road at 5:30 in the afternoon, frankly, I don't think move the needle very much even if they're very good speeches as this one was.
BLITZER: This was a pretty strong speech, John, but I guess David makes a fair point, why not a primetime address to the American public?
KING: Well, the president may get to that point. Remember, he used part of his -- both his inaugural address and his State of the Union address to talk about these issues. So one of the questions would be, could he get primetime, could he get broadcast and cable networks to carry it if he's simply pushing his legislative agenda, not telling us something new, not adding something new to the mix?
So it is a test. Look, a second-term president, he's not on the ballot, the window for legislative action is clicking. So they need to find some new ways to move the dial and we'll see if they take David's idea. David has pushed that idea inside the White House before successfully.
BLITZER: David Gergen and John King. Guys, we're going to be discussing this a lot, especially in the coming days. We'll see if the president can get what he wants off the ground in Congress. Especially when it comes to universal background checks.
A letter to Santa, a message on the kitchen chalkboard, a twin sister aching for her other half. These are the little things left behind almost four months since that horrific shooting massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. And that -- we're only just beginning to hear about this for the first time as some of the victims' families are speaking out exclusively to "People" magazine.
Lisa Sylvester has the details.
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Noah Pozner loved wearing his brown winter jacket. He brought it to school at Sandy Hook Elementary on December 14th. The day he and 19 other children were killed.
VERONIQUE POZNER, NOAH'S MOTHER: It's the things you hold on to when you have nothing left.
SYLVESTER: Noah's parents share their family story in "People" magazine clutching that same brown jacket that a state trooper later tracked down and returned to them. Noah's twin sister is photographed holding his favorite toy.
Veronique Pozner sums up her grief saying it is agonizing to see your baby's name on a tombstone.
POZNER: Noah was definitely a very vivacious little boy. He loved his family. He loved his sisters. I mean, they were just an inseparable trio. He's left an unimaginable void. That just is not replaceable.
SYLVESTER: Never replaceable, never forgotten and always loved. That's the story of these families, and as hard as it is to contemplate, they wanted to share this. Out of this horrific tragedy is goodness and light.
Nicole Hockley, mother of Dylan, says she has seen the worst the world has to offer, and the best. Her son died in the arms of teacher aide Ann Marie Murphy.
NICOLE HOCKLEY, DYLAN'S MOTHER: To know that she was trying to protect him and was with him at the end has provided some comfort because to know that he wasn't alone, and that even in those last moments that he was with someone who truly loved him and cared for him, that -- and that she was still looking after him.
SYLVESTER: Daniel Barden was 7 years old. His sister holds his last letter to Santa. He didn't ask for toys, he just wanted to see Santa and the reindeer. His father Mark Barden says his son's legacy was his beautiful heart.
MARK BARDEN, DANIEL'S FATHER: He really did think of other people. He held doors for perfect strangers. He was kind and affectionate.
JACKIE BARDEN, DANIEL'S MOTHER: I think that's the thing. It's -- you don't need to know someone to be nice to them. He was nice to anyone he met. SYLVESTER: His family wants you to remember not what happened in the walls of Sandy Hook Elementary, but these words -- what would Daniel do. They have started a Facebook page to encourage people to adopt a practice of kindness.
Other Newtown families have found ways for their children to be remembered. Katherine Hubbard loved animals so much she made business cards that read, "Caretaker to the animals." Her family has started an animal shelter in her honor.
Single mother Scarlet Lewis still feels moments of profound grief, but also feels immense love.
SCARLETT LEWIS, JESSE'S MOTHER: I feel my purpose is to perpetuate the message that has been created basically by this tragedy, which is choosing love. You see signs all over the town, Newtown and Sandy Hook choose love.
SYLVESTER: She stayed with family immediately after learning of her son Jesse's death. But when she returned home, she found this message scribbled in her child's writing. Nurturing, healing, love.
SYLVESTER: And Scarlet Lewis has started an organization called JesseLewisChooseLove.org. And other families have formed similar groups. And we will have a link on THE SITUATION ROOM blog of all the various ways that you can help the families directly impacted by the shooting in Newtown and that is at CNN.com/situationroom.
But I've got to tell you, Wolf, it was a tough story to put together when you hear some of those emotional stories of those families. And just -- and it's not just the parents, but the families. Their siblings and everything else. But it was a very powerful piece that "People" magazine have -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Certainly it was. Thanks for bringing it to our viewers.
Larry Hackett, the editor of "People" magazine, is joining us now from New York.
Larry, how did you get all of these families to come together and speak to you?
LARRY HACKETT, PEOPLE MANAGING EDITOR: With an enormous amount of time and tenderness and care. We had reporters up there obviously in the hours after the shooting and spent a lot of time making acquaintances with them and learning more about them. And we went back two months later, we had about a half a dozen reporters up there who again, to toot my own horn or their horn, are extraordinarily. And slowly and surely convinced everyone to do this.
Not everyone as you see, not all the families did it. One family, in fact, turned up at the shooting, decided not to do it. But they all decided once they were there to share just moments of incredible intimacy. The details in this story, I think, are really extraordinary.
BLITZER: I want to play a little clip. This is Veronique Pozner. She's the mother of 6-year-old Noah Pozner who was killed in that school. I'll play the clip and then we'll talk.
POZNER: That's the jacket that I bought for him in the fall. I used to call him Jack London when he wore it because he just looked like an outdoorsy guy. That was one of the items that the state trooper who was assigned to us was so incredibly dedicated in tracking down. He was able to retrieve that for us. And that meant a huge amount. Still does. I'll always cherish that jacket. It's the things you hold on to when you have nothing left.
BLITZER: What a powerful statement. Why was it so important to "People" magazine to revisit it tragedy?
HACKETT: Well, I think as time has gone on, the debate has moved obviously to things that are important like gun control. But I think for us it is the power of the intimate detail. It's what is it like to have been these people. I think what we tried to achieve in the magazine and what we all try to do as journalists is to create that connection between people.
And for us, it is that intimate detail, that incredibly granular moment that people can share and understand. So when you read about a mother who says that she lies down in her daughter's bed, because it's the closest thing she can get to a hug, or about another mother who sleeps with her child's pajamas because she can smell them at night, anybody can relate to that. So it's that connection between what is it like to be who you are and despite all the debate, despite everyone knowing what Newtown is, these people have to deal with this on their own, by themselves, and this is an attempt to sort of share that feeling and share that understanding with the reader.
BLITZER: Larry, listen to this. This is Mark Barden, he's the father of 7-year-old Daniel. Listen to this.
M. BARDEN: You know, the grieving process, we're learning, is not -- it's not 24 hours a day of sobbing. It's cyclical.
M. BARDEN: Cycles of sadness and overwhelming despair and rage. When I'm really having a hard time, I find comfort in kind of immersing myself in James and Natalie. If I go to them and just kind of physically embrace them, or engage in conversation with them, it helps me. I just feel strength from that. And they sense it, too. They see us coming apart.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: The father of Daniel. Those are so powerful, so emotional. How are these people coping?
HACKETT: In various ways. It goes across the spectrum. As I said, there are people who -- who didn't want to do it. There are other people who openly say that they are -- they really don't know how they're going to go from day to day. So it ranges. Some people are more political, some people speak more explicitly about, for example, gun control. All of them believe that some kindness has to come out of this.
BLITZER: Larry Hackett is the editor of "People" magazine. The special edition of "People" by the way hits newsstands Friday.
Emily Watson is that friend whose kitchen is always spotless and whose elaborate homemade meals appear effortless.
"I've always cooked for family and friends," Watson, 30, of the city's Graduate Hospital section, said as she pulsed miso, cilantro, ginger, and garlic in a food processor. "I just haven't gotten paid for it ever."
Now, that's changed, thanks to an app called Homemade that arrived last month in Philadelphia.
It's among a number of so-called food-sharing apps and websites aiming to disrupt the restaurant industry much as Uber has for taxicabs and Airbnb has for lodging. They're connecting home cooks to paying customers for takeout, delivery, or dine-in meals, ranging from dinners for one to supper clubs for 24.
Homemade and a competitor, Local Stove, launched last week by three Wharton alumni, are hoping diners will be hungry enough to venture into the uncharted territory of strangers' kitchens - and that regulators will be too busy to cite the unlicensed and potentially illegal ventures.
City officials call it a public-health concern. But the developers say it's an answer to meager restaurant wages and an innovative way to bring healthy meals into food deserts.
Homemade chief executive Nick Devane said the concept might sound odd at first. But many users, like Watson, are already cooking for friends or neighbors.
"If they're already sharing food," he said, "we're just solving a pain point - of cash handoff and ordering."
But the app could expand sales beyond a person's own network and turn a sideline into a profitable cottage industry.
That's the idea for Julia Erlichman, 55, of Bella Vista, who for the last year has cooked weeknight dinners for four of her friends and their families.
"They're busy mothers who don't have time to cook, or don't like to cook, or aren't good cooks," she said, "but would like to provide their families with a nice, home-cooked meal."
She doesn't have formal culinary training. But, then, hers is adamantly not restaurant-style food. Think beef with broccoli over fried rice, or oven-crisp chicken with honey mustard sauce, roasted potatoes, and asparagus, for about $11 a plate.