Two Window Washers Trapped On Broken Scaffolding 46 Stories Above Ground; The Precision Of A $27,500 Rifle
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: If you're just joining us, we're following this breaking news, a pretty precarious situation for these two workers. Look at this, as the cameraman zooming out. You see this beautiful tall glass building. You have seen it if you have been anywhere near Columbus Circle in Manhattan. This is the Hearst Tower. This is global headquarters for Hearst. And as this cameraman on this helicopter with WABC begins to pan, you get a better perspective as far as how high up these two workers are. According to New York Fire, these two workers are trapped on this scaffolding. There has been some sort of scaffolding accident. What exactly happened, we don't yet know. We're making phone calls. But, basically, you see this one person on the left, one person on the right, this scaffolding sort of forming this V-formation. And they are sitting there some 46 stories above. So if you know the neighborhood, this is right around West 57th and Eighth Avenue, as I mentioned, near Columbus Circle. They are stuck. They are stranded. We're watching it. And, hopefully, they're able to get out of there as soon as possible. I'm looking at you, Chad Myers. Do you know anything more?</s>CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: No, but I would assume at this point in time some traffic has also been rerouted down below them because they don't want anything to happen down here. It almost seems like these two guys were either washing windows or something on the scaffold and all because this isn't a building under construction. It's been here for a very long time. And so something happened to the two support mechanisms holding it, and they don't look like they're in any panic mode, either, so they're certainly strapped in.</s>BALDWIN: Do you think it would have been perpendicular to the ground and now that's the "V" because we just don't know?</s>MYERS: I think it was horizontal to the ground. And now it's the "V" kind of coming down at that point in time, right? I mean, there's the top of the ...</s>BALDWIN: So there we go. This is a better perspective.</s>MYERS: They must be hooked up to safety harnesses. And at this point in time they're hooked up even up above. And I don't believe this is a life and death situation for these guys. Certainly scary for us to watch.</s>BALDWIN: It's scary. Look at this firefighter. Guys, drop the banner and you can see, two firefighters on their bellies over the edge of a 46-story tower in Manhattan. I have butterflies, and I'm not anywhere near this. But to think they have -- you see the ropes, and somehow are communicating with these guys. At least they're not too far down, right, just a couple stories.</s>MYERS: Right. They're going to get hauled back up. It's just going to take some time. As we see it, it's a helicopter shot and we have -- our connotation, our whole mindset, oh, my gosh, look at these guys straight up there. That's what these guys do for a living. They're up 48 feet -- 48 stories all the time. So here's this. One guy is hooked up. You can see he has the orange harness on, walking to a little bit of a higher ground. And, you know, they're going to get him out of there.</s>BALDWIN: You see there's a glass. If you can squint, there are these two guys with ties through the glass standing there, staring at them. I'm just looking at a much larger monitor here in studio, so you can see. See the guys in ties through the dark glass of this Heart Tower? They're standing there. They're watching this whole thing. And so perhaps -- we haven't been watching every single second, but perhaps this bright yellow rope is what was dropped down. I don't know. You would think, if you were a window washer, whatever it was they were doing, you would be secured, right? You would have some kind of rope holding you in. Even though you're standing on this trusty scaffolding, accidents happen.</s>MYERS: And you stay here. You do the news. I will go in my office and I will watch this live, and then I'll come back out here and I'll tell you what I see.</s>BALDWIN: OK. OK. Stand by. We'll come back to it. Fingers crossed, these guys will get up to the top of the building momentarily. We're going to pull away for the pictures. We promise we'll come back as soon as we see any activity. Chad Myers, go see what you can find. Meantime, next week, Vice President Joe Biden is expected to hold a gun control event that will likely reignite the national debate on guns, and this next story could definitely add fuel to that fire. This is about this high-tech gun that turns any beginner into an expert sniper. And it's not just on the horizon. It's on the market.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good form. Really good form.</s>BALDWIN: You just heard. This is a precision rifle made by a Texas company called Tracking Point. The firearm costs a pretty penny, $27,500. It allows a person to hit a target 10 football fields away. And just to prove it can be done, Aaron Smith from our CNNMoney unit pulled the trigger himself. Watch this.</s>AARON SMITH, CNNMONEY: So how easy is it, really? The guys at Tracking Point say they've got a smart scope that does most of the work. We're at a shooting range in Liberty Hill, Texas. And I'm going to try to hit a target that's 1,000 yards away.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's 10 football fields. It's a long way down there. We're streaming now. You can see. If I lift the gun up, you can see what we're seeing right there. Want you to find the 250 yard mark.</s>SMITH: My hands aren't nearly as steady as I thought they would be. Is that 1,000?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's 1,000. I want you to shoot the target there on the far left. Good tag. Solid tag. All right, let her rip. Squeeze and hold. Move it into the ...</s>SMITH: Three hits. The Tracking Point guys judged the wind for me. The technology to call wind speeds isn't there just yet, but the scope did the rest. I had never shot at anything that far away. I don't think it would be possible without using a scope like this. But it made us think. If I could hit the target so easily, who else might want to use a technology like this? It basically turns your average Joe into a sniper, and some people might want to do more than shoot wildlife. The Department of Homeland Security would not comment on concerns about this technology falling into the wrong hands. Neither would the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives because they don't regulate scopes, just guns. While anybody buying this gun new would have to clear a background check, after the initial sale, under federal law, the gun owner can legally sell this technology to anybody without regulation or record.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice.</s>SMITH: Aaron Smith, CNNMoney, Austin, Texas.</s>BALDWIN: Joining me now, the CEO of Tracking Point, Jason Schauble. Also with us, Josh Horwitz, executive director of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence. Gentlemen, welcome. Jason, I want to just begin with you first. I've read all about this gun. I understand your company is on track to sell 500 of these guns this year. Tell me who's buying them.</s>JASON SCHAUBLE, CEO, TRACKING POINT: Well, normally, we have sportsmen and long-range target shooters who are buying them, guys who want to go on safari, guys who have ranches and have coyote or feral hog issues. So we've seen a wide diversity in our initial user-base for sporting purposes.</s>BALDWIN: Josh, you hear that? It's for sporting purposes. Does it still make you nervous?</s>JOSH HORWITZ, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COALITION TO STOP GUN VIOLENCE: Yeah, well, look, I want to commend Jason on the great use of technology. I just think the industry has been completely innovated for lethality, and this is one more example. And I wish they would innovate for safety a little more. We just saw recently a 4-year-old shoot his father who was in the law enforcement by accident. I'd love to see some of this technology used to make safer, smarter, more protective firearms.</s>BALDWIN: What is the safety, Jason? I read about a password- protected scope. Tell me about that.</s>SCHAUBLE: So, you know, from a proliferation perspective, every owner when they store their firearm has the option to enter into a four- digit pass-code much like they would do on their phone if they don't want their phone to be used by someone else. So what it does is it locks out the advanced functionality. It's an option we give the user when he stores the firearm to make sure that that advanced technology, if a gun is stolen or somehow taken out of safe storage, cannot be used for purposes for which it was not intended.</s>BALDWIN: Here's one question. This is an argument we've heard pop up before, and as a -- you know, the issue of why should rifles like these end up somewhere beyond the battlefield. You are a former Marine captain. I read that your right hand is partially paralyzed because you were hit by an AK-47 in Iraq. You've lost friends. What are your concerns? Do you have concerns about this rifle?</s>SCHAUBLE: I mean, I don't. This rifle has a wide market. I mean, between a third and a half of Americans own close to 300 million firearms. We have done nothing different to this firearm other than enhance its ability to be more effective and to change the shooting experience through streaming video, through allowing a guy to download his recorded videos. And we have been talking with different government agencies and law enforcement agencies, but I mean, under the second amendment this is a -- this is no different than any other bold action hunting rifle that someone else owns for hunting or sporting purposes or that a police department would own for its own purposes. All we've done is use technology to make it more effective and to increase -- basically enhance the shooter's experience when using that firing system.</s>BALDWIN: Josh, 30 seconds. I want you to get the final word in, final question if you have one.</s>HORWITZ: When you say more effective, that means more lethal. That means more killing ability. That means taking the average criminal and making him into a trained sniper. If there's innovation to be done, let's use that innovation to make firearms safer and protect users in the general public.</s>BALDWIN: Jason Schauble and Josh Horwitz, thank you both. Meantime, let's go back to the live pictures here as we're watching these two workers who are still standing there, who are still stuck high, high above midtown Manhattan here. We're watching, getting some new information. We'll bring it to you after this quick break.