Obama to Speak on Gun Control; Interview with Dan Glickman
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Carol Costello, thank you so much for joining me today. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ashleigh Banfield.</s>ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks very much, Carol. Hi, everybody. It's nice to have you with us today. Exactly actually one month after President Obama vowed to use "whatever power his office holds to prevent more tragedies like Newtown," he is about to say exactly what that means. In a little less than an hour, he'll take the wraps off a series of proposals that go beyond gun control. He's expected to push for a new ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammo clips. He wants to close the so-called "gun show loophole," that involving the background checks. But he's also expected to talk about other things like mental health care health care and boosting school security. He's going to be joined by his vice president, Joe Biden, who compiled these ideas after talks with various stakeholders. And for good measure, they've also invited along some of the children who wrote them after the massacre at Sandy Hook. CNN's special live coverage begins at 45 minutes past the hour. And while we wait for the president to address us on these issues, I wanted to bring in our White House correspondent, Dan Lothian. Dan, is it all about the timing? Is it now or never? Is it capitalizing on the emotion of this country or is there something else afoot?</s>DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No, I do think it is now or never. You know, the White House really sees a sense of urgency here in pushing something forward. As you know, when you look back over the past several years, when you've had these massive shootings, whether it's in Connecticut, whether it's in Colorado or elsewhere, there's talk here in Washington about coming up with guidelines to prevent something like that from happening again. And then usually it gets lost in the noise of Washington. There are other pressing issues that come up. And, in fact, we probably would have been talking now about fiscal issues had that shooting not happened. And, so, they really see this as an opportunity to seize the moment. And they believe the president is putting forward a comprehensive plan, but, of course, it's controversial, a lot of pushback, not only from gun rights groups, but also some lawmakers up on Capitol Hill, Ashleigh.</s>BANFIELD: And then, Dan, if you wouldn't mind just reminding our viewers, there was a lot of talk about the 19 potential executive actions the president would have at his disposal. That rattled a lot of nerves across the country who don't want to see executive orders and certainly feel as though that could encroach on their rights to bear arms. Remind us what the president can do and what Congress can do instead.</s>LOTHIAN: OK. Well, let's first of all start with some of the things that the president, according to sources familiar with what he's putting together, wants Congress to do and to act. He wants to push for an assault weapons ban. That's something that lawmakers have been talking about shortly after the shootings and the president had expressed support for. He wants to push for a ban on those magazines with more than 10 rounds, thereby slowing down a gunman. Would not be able to set off as many rounds in a short period of time. He wants to push for universal background checks. That means anyone buying a weapon, whether at a gun show or whether in a private transaction, would have to get checked out for mental illness or for their criminal record. Wants to request funds be made available for mental health issues and also for schools to be able to protect themselves. So, those are some things that the president will be urging Congress to do. But, also, the president does plan to do some things on his own, much of it perhaps will be focused on some laws that are already on the books, enforcing those laws. We also expect the president to push for data-gathering, information on weapons that have been used in crimes. Those are some things that perhaps the president will push through in executive order.</s>BANFIELD: All right, Dan Lothian, standing by for us on the north lawn of the White House and keeping an eye on the president's movements, as well. We're on the countdown to seeing the president live. And we should also mention to you that New York is one step ahead of the president and, in fact, it looks like one step ahead of the entire nation in this particular movement, anyway. The governor, Andrew Cuomo, has signed into law a sweeping gun control law. It is the first such law enacted in response to the Newtown shooting massacre. That law expands the state's existing assault weapons ban. It also limits the size of gun magazines to seven rounds, just seven rounds. That's, in fact, smaller than some of the actual capacities of guns. This law also includes measures to better keep firearms away from mentally-ill people and it imposes tougher penalties on those who use guns while carrying out crimes. As to be expected, gun rights advocates denounced this law in New York. And with all the heated rhetoric over guns, it might be easy just to consider throwing in the towel and saying the effect of national laws to reduce gun violence are virtually impossible to achieve. But former Congressman Dan Glickman of Kansas does not agree with that. Rather than denouncing gun owners, he says instead there is a need to understand the nation's deeply-rooted gun culture, no matter how you feel about it. In an article in Politico, he writes this. Quote, "We need to recognize that large numbers of Americans view gun ownership as almost tantamount to their citizenship and their views have strong cultural foundations. "We should not demonize the gun-owner and recognize that the overwhelming majority are decent law-abiding people." Dan Glickman is now a senior fellow at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He joins us from Washington. And I should also mention you fought for the assault weapons ban in Congress and suffered dearly in your opinion for it back in '94. You lost your seat and you feel that was the reason why. I want you to characterize for me what it was like for you going door to door in your campaign after having supported that kind of gun control?</s>DAN GLICKMAN, SENIOR FELLOW, BIPARTISAN POLICY CENTER: Well, clearly, that '94 campaign, I thought I was in pretty good shape. I had just worked on legislation that really protected thousands of jobs in the aviation industry, which was big in my home town of Wichita. But in going door to door after I voted for the assault weapons ban and the crime bill, which I thought was the right vote and still do, I could see from talking to folks on the street that, in fact, in many cases, their guns, their gun ownership and their pride of ownership was even more important to them than jobs were. And that's why this is so difficult because the intensity of opposition to gun legislation puts these people into almost a one- issue voting situation. And most people who support reasonable gun regulations and gun legislation have many issues that they're interested in. So, for a congressman out there who comes from a, let's say, a tough district, if they're hearing this from the standpoint of those who will say they will vote against you if you vote for this, rather than those on the other side who will say there are many issues they're interested in, it becomes a very tough political battle for them.</s>BANFIELD: All right, let me ask you this and I am curious about just how tough a political battle it could be, given that there are many who say this culture has changed so rapidly, the exponential factor brought on by Newtown, but notwithstanding all the other horrific gun incidents that we have been forced to report on and the country has been forced to digest. It's a different climate than the '90s. We barely had school shootings back then. So, is it so tough now for a congressman or congresswoman to go out and campaign now, given that the polls seem to be shifting?</s>GLICKMAN: I think the polls have shifted to some degree and I think the environment may be better, but the intensity of this issue, which is a big thing in politics, how strongly do people feel about it, is still on the side of the gun-owner. And, so, what you have to do, the president and others will have legislation and regulations is, is that we have to build a climate -- a political climate in this country where it's safer for politicians to support this legislation. And that is not an easy thing to do, but I think it's important to try.</s>BANFIELD: And I just -- you know, I want to just outline some of the recent polls, Mr. Glickman, because they fascinated me. And I don't know if I'm just naive to this, but they do seem to have significantly shifted on a number of different levels. When it comes to just satisfaction with the current gun laws, a "USA Today"/Gallup poll recently suggested that 38 percent of those were dissatisfied and wanted stricter gun control, 43 percent were satisfied and only 5 percent wanted less strict guns. But then when you break it down into specifics and that's what the president is doing today -- he's outlining specific operations -- the nationwide ban on semiautomatic handguns, 51 percent support that. And a nationwide ban on high-capacity ammunition clips, that number is even higher. It's 65 percent now of those asked. And when it comes to assault weapons, 58 percent of those asked now support a nationwide ban on assault weapons. Look -- when it gets to nationwide background checks, universal background checks, that number skyrockets to 76 percent. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think those numbers were very, very different than when you were campaigning in '94, aren't they?</s>GLICKMAN: I think the numbers are different now, but, again, I go back to the point, the intensity is what is important. How strongly do people feel when they're in the respective categories that they're in? And this is going to be, obviously, a political battle. Some things like background checks are probably going to be easier to get done than banning assault weapons, but, you know, the president is showing leadership by proposing these ideas. Now, the Congress will have to deal with it, but, ultimately, the American people are going to influence their congressmen. And they've got to let their voices be heard and they've got to let their voices be heard in the context of how important this is for them.</s>BANFIELD: Former Congressman Dan Glickman, it's good of you to join us. And I really appreciate your perspective as it spans the decades. Thanks so much.</s>GLICKMAN: Thank you.</s>BANFIELD: As mentioned, President Obama is due to unveil his gun control plan a little later on this hour. We are on the countdown, about 35 minutes from now. Our special coverage beginning at 11:45 Eastern time.