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White House Petition for Gun Control; Boehner Agrees to Raising Taxes; Rep. Tom Scott Appointed to Succeed Jim DeMint; Helping Your Mentally Ill Child; News Conference on Newtown Murders

Aired December 17, 2012 - 12:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: More than 140,000 people have signed a petition urging the Obama administration to propose limits on gun ownership.

This is the petition. It's posted on the White House Web site's "We the People" section and it reads, "While a national dialogue is critical, laws are the only means in which we can reduce the number of people murdered in gun-related deaths. Powerful lobbying groups allow the ownership of guns to reach beyond the Constitution's intended purpose of the right to bear arms."

Well, the White House has to respond to petitions that receive more than 25,000 signatures.

So several Democratic lawmakers, they are proposing new restrictions on guns in the aftermath of the school shooting, the massacre in Connecticut. Independent Senator Joe Lieberman, he is proposing a commission to hold hearings on the issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE LIEBERMAN (I), CONNECTICUT: This is all about trying to limit access to guns by people who shouldn't have them based on their records and to keep military weapons off of the commercial market. That shouldn't inhibit anybody's right to hunt, target shoot or even defend themselves with a gun.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: I want to bring in Dana Bash from Capitol Hill.

And Dana, you know, a lot of people just get really frustrated when they hear something like "another commission," "a study," "hearings" on the issue. Give us some real meat-and-potatoes, if you will. What can lawmakers do?

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, Suzanne, I -- as soon as this happened, I went back and looked at some of the stories that I did on the question of whether gun control can happen after some of the shootings that we've had over the past several years. Unfortunately, as we've been talking about here, they've been happening about every six months -- the movie shooting; before that, the assassination attempt of former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords -- and the answer always was likely nothing and the reason was because of Democrats.

Democrats have politically shied away from this issue from the past decade or so just because it's been bad politics from them and they learned that the hard way, losing seats on the congressional level and even on the presidential level in key red or more rural states and districts.

This time does seem to be different because those Democrats who shied away are now talking about it. Chuck Schumer, for example, he said that he could put that on the table.

And maybe most importantly Joe Manchin. He is the senator from West Virginia, very pro-gun, even used himself with a rifle in some of his political ads. He says it's time to look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D), WEST VIRGINIA: I just came with my family from deer hunting. I've never had more than three shells in a clip. Sometimes you don't get more than one shot anyway at a deer. You know, just common sense. It's time to move beyond rhetoric. We need to sit down and have a common-sense discussion and move in a reasonable way.

And I ask all my friends in the NRA and I'm a proud NRA member and always have been, that we need to sit down and move this dialogue to a sensible, reasonable approach to fixing - that's part of it, not all of it, but everything has to be on the table and I think it will be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Now, Dianne Feinstein, the Democratic senator from California, has already said she's got an Assault Weapons Ban bill written that she'll put up on the first day of the new Congress. Of course, the Assault Weapons Ban lapsed in 2004 with nothing more than a shoulder shrug from most people up here. Whether or not that can actually get the votes despite this new talk is another question.

MALVEAUX: Dana, you bring up a really good point because you're absolutely right. I mean, people have just been sitting on this. Nothing has been done for years. We heard the president come out very strongly last night in that memorial and before saying that, you know, we have to do something. You can't let this just accept that this is the way this is in the country. But we also know that the last four years, the president has actually expanded gun rights, that he signed legislation that would allow folks to carry weapons on Amtrak trains and in national parks, those kinds of things.

What do we think he is serious about doing?

BASH: You know, that is really the big, open question because everybody here on Capitol Hill from Democrats to Republicans, no matter where they sit on this issue, say that it is -- if something is done, it's going to have to come from the bully pulpit, from the president.

And listening to him last night especially, he definitely did strike a different tone. I mean, Suzanne, you covered him. You saw. He campaigned on reinstating the Assault Weapons Ban in 2008, but didn't do much about it, didn't do anything about it, really, because, as I said, Democrats here on Capitol Hill, many of them just didn't want to touch it.

The open question still is the votes and, just even looking ahead, you've got to still talk about politics. The next election, 2014, you have a number of Democratic senators up for re-election in conservative states, whether it is Kay Hagan of North Carolina or Mark Begich of Alaska or Mark Pryor of Arkansas.

Those are people who we're trying to get in touch with their offices but may be reluctant, even in the case of this horrible tragedy, to do much because they're afraid of getting pummeled back home.

The one thing that maybe we're hearing more talk of is maybe not so far as the assault weapons ban, but something to curb those 30-shot magazines, things like that, which even Joe Manchin says, you don't need that for anything, not even hunting.

MALVEAUX: That's a very good point and we know the Justice Department was looking at a number of things, at least, to beef up the background process, the background check process.

They dropped that during the campaign, during the re-election campaign, so it'll be very interesting to see what comes out of the White House, what the president decides that he is going to stand behind and really push through Congress.

Dana, thank you very much. Really appreciate it.

There is another issue, of course, that the president is dealing with. We are only 15 days away from this fiscal cliff. So the president and House Speaker John Boehner met again today at the White House. What they're trying to do? Well, they're trying to reach this deficit reduction deal by January 1st, top of next year. If they don't do it, automatic spending cuts, they're going to go into effect. Practically everyone's taxes is going to go up as well.

Well, a source is telling CNN that Speaker Boehner has now agreed, in some form, to raising taxes on people making $1 million a year or more. The White House still wants a tax increase on households that are earning more than $250,000 or more.

South Carolina's governor announced her choice to replace Republican Senator Jim DeMint. Governor Nikki Haley is appointing GOP Congressman Tim Scott as DeMint's successor.

Now, Scott will become only the second African-American Republican senator since Reconstruction. DeMint is resigning from the senate to lead the Heritage Foundation, that, of course, a conservative think- tank in Washington. He made that announcement earlier in the month.

And we want to do a check on the markets. You see the Dow is up 83 points or so, signs of hope, perhaps, that the fiscal cliff talks in Washington and the prospect of an economic stimulus plan in Japan is going to have investors more optimistic today.

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MALVEAUX: In the hours after the rampage in Newtown, the mother of a 13-year-old boy in Idaho, she wrote an essay -- it is startling -- about her own life. It's getting a lot of attention online.

Most of the time, Liza Long's son is a sweet kid who loves Harry Potter and stuffed animals, but then this quote -- this is from the mother - "A few weeks ago, Michael pulled a knife and threatened to kill me and then himself after I asked him to return his overdue library books. That conflict ended with three burly police officers and a paramedic wrestling my son into a gurney and an expensive ambulance ride to the local emergency room."

Now, Liza says her son's I.Q. is off the charts, but that he could snap at any time. Anti-psychotic, mood-altering drugs have not helped because she says she thinks that there is the potential here of this chilling thought that this could happen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIZA LONG, MOM OF MENTALLY ILL SON: Every time I hear about a mass shooting, I think about my son. And I wonder if someday I'll be that mom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: I am joined by Jeff Gardere, licensed clinical psychologist.

Jeff, it is pretty frightening when you hear what this parent, this mother, says. She thinks that her own child in some way could commit the kind of crime that we saw from this young man, Adam Lanza, last week. What kind of help is there for her and for other parents who are afraid in some ways of their mentally ill children?

JEFF GARDERE, CLINCAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Well, it's a very tough terrain, Suzanne, for many of these parents. I work with them every single day. They have children who are on the onset of schizophrenia or a very serious personality disorder such as a schizo-type where we don't have the hallucinations, but we do have the magical thinking and the isolation and sometimes some naked aggression.

And what happens is, because at the time they may not be a danger to themselves or others, you can't get them involuntarily committed, especially if they are of age. And if you are able to get them into the emergency room and admitted by a psychiatrist because there isn't a lot of bed space, within two or three days, they are discharged, on medications. But the medications have such severe side effects that even older adults - but, in this case, younger adults -- don't want to take that medication and that's the conundrum.

MALVEAUX: And she writes here, she goes on to say, "I don't believe my son belongs in jail, but it seems like the United States is using prison as the solution of choice for mentally ill people." What kinds of options does she have?

GARDERE: Well, she certainly is speaking out of frustration. We don't want to use jails in that way. I was a chief psychologist for federal prison for many years, but I can tell you, because a lot of these folks couldn't get into psychiatric hospitals, sometimes the marshals, the police officers, would bring them to jail because they were so dangerous that you couldn't keep them on the streets, but yet it was crazy, no pun intended, but we couldn't keep them in the hospitals.

But what we really want to do at this point is to diagnose as early as possible, make sure that we try to keep the kids on these medications. There are 15 different anti-psychotic medications and more being made, so you do have to find the right medication. You have to manage the side effects, but you have to keep them in therapy. And parents just try -- have to try to be consistent in making sure that their kids get help.

MALVEAUX: And, Jeff, it certainly seems like you've got to deal with the stigma. Some people still feel like you can treat any other illness, but if it's a mental illness, they don't talk about it. People treat them badly. You really have to deal with that as a society and as a culture as well.

Jeff, thank you very much. Really appreciate your perspective.

GARDERE: Sure. Thank you.

MALVEAUX: Our special coverage of the Connecticut shooting continuing after a quick break.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Here's Lieutenant Paul Vance of the Connecticut State Police. He's briefing reporters, all of us, on the investigation.

LT. PAUL VANCE, CT STATE POLICE: And literally the word is "plea." Families are grieving. Many of the families have asked to please afford them their privacy as they go through this terrible, terrible tragedy they're dealing with. I've been asked, the lieutenant with me has been asked to pass that on to you as concisely and concisely as possible. That's the best way I can do it.

At this time, I can take a couple questions. We'll see if we can clear up anything. And then I'm going to speak a little bit about our future get-togethers.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE). VANCE: Correct.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE).

VANCE: And you're going to ask me a hard question, and I'm trying to recall. The -- there were two phone calls. The question was about the threats. There were two threats of violence, we can just simply say, that came in two separate phone calls against the same facility, which was the church, the Catholic church, in town. Two telephone calls received.

Again, as I stated before, those are criminal acts. Those are acts that are being thoroughly and completely investigated. And follow-up will be done by either state and/or federal authorities relative to any threats of that nature that someone will set forth. Those were -- what I mean by the two threats, OK.

Next, please.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) is there any indication where and how long (INAUDIBLE)?

VANCE: No, certainly -- you know, and I can't -- I can't even begin to speculate. We just simply don't have that information to provide to you. As I've stated numerous times, we definitely -- we definitely are peeling that onion back layer by layer, and we'll know all that information. And believe me when I tell you, there's a team that are working on just that, working with ATF and federal -- other federal authorities, state authorities and local authorities to make sure that no stone is left unturned regarding that specific training, sir.

Yes, sir.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) the hard drive (INAUDIBLE) that's making it difficult to recover (INAUDIBLE).

VANCE: Sir, I didn't indicate what evidence was -- that's been seized at any location. I don't know where that information came from. But we did seize significant evidence at the residence. We are analyzing and will analyze. And that's a very painstaking process in forensic science. It's going to take some time to do that. We don't discuss evidence, sir, I'm sorry. We do not discuss evidence, its content or detail what it is.

Yes, sir.

REPORTER: I'm hoping you can clarify just a couple of things you said earlier.

VANCE: Yes, sir.

REPORTER: There were two people who were shot and survived.

VANCE: That's correct, sir.

REPORTER: Two people who were shot and survived. Do you know where -- what location of the school?

VANCE: I can't. The question was, there were two people that were wounded in this and did survive, two adults, that is correct. There were wounded in the lower extremities. I do not know the location in the school. I cannot answer that question.

REPORTER: Were both women?

REPORTER: Also on numbers, do you know how many students were in each classroom, how many survivors were in each classroom?

VANCE: No.

REPORTER: Versus how many --

VANCE: No, I'm sorry, I don't. We don't have -- and he's asking about, do we have specific location of survivors and location of students and faculty and staff, and I don't have that, I'm sorry.

Yes, ma'am.

REPORTER: (INAUDIBLE) identified any of the injured adults yet?

VANCE: No, we have not. They're considered witnesses, and we do not identify witnesses.

Yes, ma'am.

REPORTER: In the case of some of the (INAUDIBLE) electronic evidence was destroyed or unavailable, would you be working with Internet companies like Google and Twitter, Facebook and others to get (INAUDIBLE) information?

VANCE: OK, again I -- good questions and a good way to ask it, but I can only tell you we've seized evidence if -- if there is computer evidence. And I strenuously say that, if, we do have a computer crimes team, and then our state forensic laboratory that are experts in retrieving any type of electronic evidence and data. So that's -- I'll leave that there, please, and --

REPORTER: Is there any update on the schools that were locked down earlier today?

VANCE: No, those will be handled by local authorities. Those two lockdowns in surrounding communities have been cleared.

Yes.

REPORTER: Can you tell us if the alleged Bushmaster assault rifle is legal under Connecticut's law to possess by anyone?

VANCE: I cannot tell you that because I do not know. That -- as I said this morning, that weapon, from the day it was built to the day we seized it, we will look at every aspect of it from stem to stern, where it's been, who's had it and all the clips, the ammunition, everything to do with all the weapons. REPORTER: And just a follow-up to that. You know, a lot of people watching at home say, you know, there's no mystery here anymore. But there's so much effort being put into the investigation. And they might say there will never be justice. So who are the answers for that you're getting?

VANCE: The answers are for the poor victims, the families, the people of Connecticut that need to know and see a clear picture as to exactly what happened here. As I said many times, there are many people, including first responders, including town residents, including people right in this audience that have broken hearts over this. And we're going to do everything that it takes to ensure that we uncover every bit of evidence, that we're examining every facet of it, that we conduct as many interviews with everyone that we need to do to paint a clear picture as to exactly how and why this tragedy occurred.

Yes, ma'am.

REPORTER: Can you clarify what the mother was shot with the .22 caliber rifle, and were other guns seized in the house?

VANCE: I can't answer that, again, ma'am. Anything that was seized in that house would be evidence. And as far as the wounds that the victim suffered, the medical examiner was very clear, it was multiple gunshot wounds, and that's as far as we went with that description, ma'am.

OK, one more question. Yes, sir.

REPORTER: Can you speak to any -- can you speak at all any more to the connection between the shooter and the school?

VANCE: There was no connection between the shooter and the school according to the school authorities here in Newtown.

REPORTER: Not at all?

VANCE: According to the school authorities in Newtown.

REPORTER: Can you answer a question about the mother, why she had so much weaponry and all the rumors about a lockdown of a school nearby today?

VANCE: Yes, we addressed that before and I'll just restate that. There was a -- in anything whatsoever to do with school security, anywhere within our state, we're obviously all on the edge, we're all on edge in anything that's suspicious, anything that even remotely appears to be a lack of security or a breach of security, any educational institution in Connecticut, and I'm sure in surrounding states and across the country. We treat it very, very serious.

There was report this morning where there was a suspicious individual in close proximity to one of the schools. A local police department responded, investigated and cleared the matter. It was not a threat. But in doing so, they did put nearby schools in lockdown simply as a precaution. I do know that across the state, the governor and the education commissioner and local authorities and local officials are putting a little bit of extra security. We're supporting the educational system throughout the state of Connecticut. We're certainly, as you well know, the teachers are well trained. The faculty are well trained. All the personnel in the school are well trained. They practice for fire drills, for emergencies. And, believe me, the blanket of security on public safety is going to be strict in the state of Connecticut.

What I'd like to tell you today, that this is going to be our last press gathering today. We've come to a point in this investigation, yes, we are still working, but I don't want to keep you here and I don't want to keep coming up and trying to give you information if we have no new information to give you.

What we're going to do is, I handed out a slip that gives you information. Anything new is going to be posted on our Web site. All press releases, all press announcements will be posted on our Web site. If there were anything that erupted or evolved during this investigation and we needed to hold a press conference, and it would have to be something significant, then we would give you ample time to gather at a central location and provide that between the lieutenant from Newtown and myself.

So, I, again, am imploring you to please give the families privacy as they go through this very devastating period of time in their life. We will stay in contact. If you have specific questions, we can address them via e-mail. That would be the smartest and the best way. And I'll be -- we'll be more than happy to address that.

REPORTER: Lieutenant, since this -- since it might be a long time still we get a chance to talk to you --

VANCE: Yes, sir.

REPORTER: I'm wondering, obviously, motive is the key question. We ask you all the time about it.

VANCE: Yes, sir.

REPORTER: You keep deferring it. Can you give people some guidance, people who might be impatient about how long it might take, why it takes so long and how long might we have to wait before you come up with a motive to tell us? Just so we have some idea.

VANCE: That's a long -- that's a long question, and the answer is very long, but I can simply tell you, as we've been alluding to between Newtown, state police, other law enforcement agencies, federal authorities, analysis of evidence, conducting hundreds of interviews, literally hundreds of interviews, putting that whole package together and following each piece of evidence on every trail that it goes, it's going to take a substantial amount of time.

I know -- we know, as investigators, that the people of Connecticut, the people of this town of Newtown want to know what happened. We're going to do that. We're going to provide them any information and all information. We'll paint a crystal-clear picture as much as we possibly can, OK.

But it is a slow process. It's not something that just is done in 60 minutes, as you see on TV. We will keep the public informed. We will make sure if there's anything that's emergent, that we get it out immediately and that it's through you folks. I want to thank you for everything that you've done. You folks have been very professional, and we do definitely appreciate that, all right? Thank you.

REPORTER: Lieutenant, can you confirm that he may have been wearing a bulletproof vest?

VANCE: No, sir, I cannot.

BLITZER: All right, there he is. He's been briefing us every single day. Sometimes two, three, four times a day, although he says this will be his last formal briefing of the day. The Lieutenant Paul Vance, the spokesman for the Connecticut State Police, telling us that, yes, there are developments, but he's reluctant to provide too many details right now out of respect to those who have suffered so much.

We'll take a quick break. Much more right after this.

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