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S.C. Governor: Flooding a 'Thousand-Year Event'; Philadelphia Universities on High Alert after Online Threat; Oregon Massacre Survivor Speaks Out; North Korea Releases Detained NYU Student; Clinton Plan Would Let Victims Sue Gun Manufacturers. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired October 05, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, they just made a mistake. There he goes.

[05:58:17] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We haven't seen this level of rain in 1,000 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Every ambulance in the city is out attending to emergencies.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have lost everything. What I got on my body is what we have.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And he shot the professor, and then he just started shooting everybody.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She played dead so that she could live.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't know how I survived. But I was probably one of the lucky ones.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you know he had 13 guns?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I had no idea he had any guns.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm killing the governor and senator from Florida. I mean, it's been amazing.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump? Isn't he the one that's like, "Uh, you're all losers!"

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota, Chris Cuomo and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: We'll discuss more ahead.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We sure will.

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Monday, October 5, 6 a.m. in the East, and we do have breaking news this morning. A 1,000-year flood in South Carolina. First responders resuming search-and-rescue operations this morning. Over the weekend, there have already been hundreds of saves in deadly rushing water. At last count, five people killed on the state's roadways. That number almost certain to rise.

CAMEROTA: Governor Nikki Haley calling it the worst flooding in the state's history, quote, "a 1,000-year event," and it's not over yet. Thousands are without power this morning, and most highways in Charleston remain closed.

Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Nick Valencia. He's live in Columbia, South Carolina. How is it there, Nick?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

This storm has been lingering over the state of South Carolina for several days. Here at this hydroelectricity plant in Columbia, South Carolina, they were prepared. They put out sandbags, but it simply was not enough. You see this river behind me swollen. The difference between today and a normal day, about 19 feet.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA (voice-over): A state of emergency underway in multiple states along the East Coast this morning, flood watches in effect from Georgia to Delaware as a deadly and historic amount of rain bears down on parts of South Carolina.

GOV. NIKKI HALEY (R), SOUTH CAROLINA; We haven't seen this level of rain in the low country in a thousand years.

VALENCIA: Search-and-rescue operations will continue this morning in Columbia, the capital pummeled by its wettest day on record. Parts of the coast receiving up to 24 inches of rain in 24 hours, forcing more than 750 motorists to call for help Sunday, trapped by the raging waters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our concentration right now obviously is emergency and rescue.

VALENCIA: Officials deploying more than 600 National Guard members. As local authorities say, they've carried out 140 water rescues in one county alone. By air, the Coast Guard rescuing a mother and her 15-month-old child from their flooded home. By boat, officials rescuing this man after he was found clinging to a tree after driving through a road barricade.

MACK REED, GEORGETOWN COUNTY EMS CHIEF: This guy could have lost his life. Luckily, we were able to get manpower down here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he just made a mistake.

VALENCIA: Another motorist doing exactly what officials say not to do: try and drive through the deluge. Moments later, the truck's bed is the only thing above water as a tree stops the vehicle from continuing to drift downstream.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have lost everything.

VALENCIA: For many, their cars left submerged.

MAYOR STEVE BENJAMIN, COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA: We continue to go through this. it's unlike anything any of us has ever seen.

VALENCIA: Officials closing all highways across the city as roadways collapse and dams were breached. The historic rain overflowing lakes and rivers across Georgetown.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The lake is all the way past the tree line.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: Forecasters are predicting another 10 inches of rain across the state. And Michaela, just in the last several minutes, the rain has starred to pick up again -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Nick, sobering images you're showing us there. Thank you so much for that. And we can hear the rain starting to fall there.

As you mentioned, torrential rain continues to fall this morning across South Carolina. Some of the hardest hit areas have already gotten as much as 2 feet of rain. So the question becomes how much more is going to come? And how long is it going to last?

We turn to our meteorologist Chad Myers live from the CNN Center with the forecast. Any relief in sight, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Sure, Michaela. It's going to stop today, but the rain is already on the ground, and it's already running down the rivers.

And if you're talking flooding in Columbia, well, that's kind of the middle part of the state. That all has to eventually hit the ocean. So there will be towns and cities that get hit hard, even though the rain has stopped. This will happen for days and days and days.

Flash-flood warnings from Charleston to Myrtle Beach, farther north than that. I've heard this event called the 1,000-year flood. And that's not saying that sometime back in the year 1015 there was a bunch of rain. That's not what that means.

That means, on average, if you take where these river levels should be for a one-year flood, 20-year flood, 50-year flood, these are the thresholds made by the Weather Service, and by the Hydroelectrical (ph) Center. This is what we would consider to be once in a thousand years. And there could be higher numbers than this. So we don't know what this was. But this was an event that we haven't seen ever before. Never before in the state's history. Because it only has been a state for a couple, 300 years. So there you go, Columbia -- this low pressure center just spun

for hours and hours and hours and pushed the same stream of rain over the same place. Look at -- this is 24-hour rainfall. It just keeps going and going and going.

And finally now, we're stopping or at least slowing down. But not before, when you look at numbers like this for 24, 25, 19 inches in Sumter, Columbia downtown 11, but south of Columbia, about 24 inches of rainfall in three days. And it all puddled and it all clumped into the rivers and the valleys and the water is still rising in some spots -- Chris.

[06:05:06] CUOMO: Chad, important distinction you make. The rain stops, trouble doesn't stop.

MYERS: You bet.

CUOMO: That's why we have to stay on the story. I will be back with you in a little bit.

Let's get the word from the ground right now. Derrec Becker, public information coordinator for South Carolina's Emergency Management Division. Mr. Becker, you hearing me OK?

DERREC BECKER, PUBLIC INFORMATION COORDINATOR, SOUTH CAROLINA EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIVISION (via phone): Good morning.

CUOMO: Wish it were a better morning for you and the people there in South Carolina. We've been hearing about the totals. We've been hearing about the ongoing nature of the chaos. Where are you in terms of what you need to help deal with what's ahead?

BECKER: Well, you're touching on one of our biggest fears, is that really we had a little bit of lull in the rain, particularly in the Columbia area, late yesterday and into last night. We don't want people to get a false sense of hope that this is over. We're expecting the flooding along our major rivers, possibly even some more rain happening over the next several days. So this is going to be a long-term event.

As I said before, it's exactly accurate. We have never seen an instance like this in South Carolina before. One of the things that I can tell you this morning is that now at least two counties are reporting over 200 swift water rescues since we reported last night.

So one of the things we're going to be looking at over the next couple of hours is strategy. It's still dark. Most of the roads in South Carolina are still closed due to flooding. Those are for driver, motorist safety. We want people to stay off the roads. If they're dry where they are, stay put.

CUOMO: Are you able to handle this situation? You know, knowing what you've already done, what you still have to do, do you have the equipment? Do you have the man power?

BECKER: You can never be truly prepared for whatever the future may hold. The old adage is true. One of the things that we have in place now is a system to request resources very quickly, either from our neighboring states or from FEMA and other federal agencies. Any quest for resources that are coming up from our county emergency managers and our local first responders, we're able to respond to those very quickly.

We originally had eight swift-water rescue teams on the ground. We requested an additional nine from neighboring states. Those are here, and they are going to be out on missions very soon.

CUOMO: Because they say you're looking at ten days of recovery here. I know these things are difficult to estimate. Do you think you were in the right position to start here? You know, you've got some blowback from a local representative there in South Carolina, saying the state wasn't ready. Is that fair criticism?

BECKER: Well, we started notifying people that once, as soon as the weather forecast said that we were going to get a lot of rain, coupled with the high tides along the low country, the super moon, king tides, that we were going to get a lot of water. We've had flooding in Charleston for the last two weeks. Trying to get the word out to people is always a difficult challenge when you -- the sun is out and the sky is blue. It's easy to stand by and look at rivers and say what could we have done differently?

That's one of the things that I'm sure we're going to be looking at that for several years to come. Right now we're focused on the emergency actions that are taking place, the life safety operations that we'll be engaging in throughout the day.

CUOMO: All right. And look, we are here standing by, ready to get out the word of what is needed.

Please let us know we're putting out the warnings that have come from you and the governor. Stay home. Don't go out into the water. Only takes 12 inches to move a car, only takes a foot and a half of water that's moving to move a truck like we're showing on the screen right now.

What else do you want people to know?

BECKER: Absolutely. You get in your head sometimes that I've got to get somewhere, this water isn't deep. You never know how stable the grounded is under moving floodwaters or even standing floodwaters.

We've seen multiple pictures, multiple videos coming in of washed-out roads, sinkholes being formed after the waters recede, if you will. Just don't risk it. If you have to ask, if you can go to this road, that's your clue. Stay home and stay safe.

CUOMO: All right. Last point for right now. I'm home. I'm stuck in my house. I have to get out. The water is scaring me. I have medical needs or others around me do. What do I do? What's the best course for a South Carolinian right now? BECKER: Call 911. If you have a life-threatening emergency,

call 911. This is no time to worry about clogging the phone lines or thinking that your threat or your emergency or what you're going through isn't that big of a deal to us. It is. So call 911 immediately.

CUOMO: Are you going to put up auxiliary lines?

BECKER: Yes. We are bolstering support to our counties, but it's all based on local first responder requests. As soon as those requests come in, we're fulfilling them.

CUOMO: All right. Mr. Becker, as you get information, please pass it along to us. Our producers will stay in touch. And we'll get any word out that you deem appropriate.

BECKER: Will do. Thank you.

CUOMO: All right. Good luck to you, sir -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, new this morning, another troubling story. Possible clues found in that search for the cargo ship El Faro, which disappeared last week as Hurricane Joaquin passed over the Bahamas. The Coast Guard finding a 225-square-mile debris field that includes pieces of Styrofoam, wood and cargo. There is no official confirmation that the pieces are from that ship. The fate of the 33 people on board, including 28 Americans, is still unknown.

[06:10:14] PEREIRA: New and concerning this morning, universities in the Philadelphia area are on high alert after being notified of an unspecified threat. They were notified by the FBI. Evan Perez is live in Washington with all the latest.

What do we know, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michaela, this morning, about potential violence today has about 20 universities in the Philadelphia area on alert. This is all because of social media postings that make reference to last week's community college massacre in Oregon.

Now one of the postings claims, quote, "The first of our kind has struck fear in the hearts of America. On October 5, 2015 at 1 p.m. Central Time, a fellow robot will take up arms against a university near Philadelphia."

The postings prompted the FBI and ATF to issue advisories to the colleges in the area. And law enforcement officials say there's no specific threat, but the FBI says it warned universities out of an abundance of caution, but, quote, "No specific college or university was identified in the posting."

This all comes on a weekend when authorities in Northern California announced they arrested four high-school boys who they believed planned a shooting attack on a gathering at their school. Now this, authorities tell me, you know, could end up being a

hoax. But for the colleges that received this warning include Temple, Drexel and the University of Pennsylvania. They say they plan to increase safety patrols today -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Evan. Thank you very much.

I know this goes to the big question. What's going to change after the Oregon mass shooting? We put out a request to answer that question to all presidential candidates, ideas to address the violence that surrounds us. Some declined. Others have yet to respond. We're going to give you a full accounting in the days to come.

Now Hillary Clinton is one who says she does have a plan that's going to be coming out soon. And it includes closing the gun show loophole that allows private sales without background checks. Also, allowing victims of gun violence to sue firearm manufacturers. And she promises to use executive action to force change.

CAMEROTA: Now to a bone-chilling account of the Oregon community college massacre. One of the students inside the classroom is breaking her silence, exclusively telling CNN the gunman entered her room calm and ready to kill.

We want to warn you, this account is graphic and deeply disturbing. CNN's Sara Sidner is live for us in Roseburg, Oregon, with more. What have you learned, Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, Tracy Heu is a mother of three children. She was in the front row of Classroom 15 when the gunman came in, and she thought she would never see her children again.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRACY HEU, MASSACRE SURVIVOR: I really don't know how I survived. I just -- I don't know. I was actually planning on just, you know, waiting to see the black light, you know, waiting not to see anything anymore.

SIDNER (voice-over): Tracy Heu live because she played dead.

HEU: I was sitting in the front of the classroom, facing the teacher when everything happened. He just came in and shot towards the back of the wall and told everybody to get in the center of the room.

SIDNER: It was one of her fellow students. He showed up on the fourth day of classes with guns, not books. He set his sights on Classroom 15 in Snyder Hall at Umpqua Community College.

HEU: He seemed happy about it. He didn't seem stressed. He didn't seem nervous. But when he came in, he told everybody to get on the ground. Everybody tried to huddle to the ground, and then the girl in the wheelchair tried to get -- she got off and tried to get on -- tried to get down on the ground. SIDNER: Wait. There was a woman in a wheelchair during all

this?

HEU: Yes. And she had a dog with her. The dog was just on the ground. When she got off the chair, she went on the ground, and then he told her to get back on the chair. And then she tried to climb back on the chair, and then he shot her.

SIDNER: Tracy didn't know it yet, but the girl in the wheelchair was dead. He turned his attention to Professor Larry Levine.

HEU: He told the professor to get down on the ground, as well. was trying to crawl down to the ground with us. And he shot the professor and he just started shooting everybody on the ground. Then that's when I knew that, you know, this is it. I'm probably going to die, you know? I probably won't see my kids anymore. I probably won't see anybody anymore.

SIDNER (voice-over): Face down on the ground, hit by a bullet in the hand, she thought about her three children and waited to die.

HEU: The warmth of the blood that was all over me, that's when I knew that it was real. And I remember whispering to one other person that was next to me, you know, he's only one person. All of us, we've just got to do something about it or, you know, we're all just going to die.

SIDNER: But then she heard the shooter make a promise. He would spare someone.

(on camera): What did he say exactly?

[06:15:03] HEU: He said that "You're the lucky one. I'm -- you know, I'm going to let you live, but I'm going to need you to go and tell the police everything that happened and give them this."

SIDNER (voice-over): He handed the man an envelope to give to police and then started asking his victims about their religion.

HEU: He just asked them, "Are you Christian? Do you believe in God?" And then they said yes, and he said, "Good, I'll send you -- you know, I'll send you to God. You'll be visiting God pretty soon." And then he shoots them.

Then he asked them about them being Catholic. And they said yes. And then he still shot them. I seriously don't know where he shot them or who he killed. But he shot them either way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: She said she could see that he was remorseless, that he seemed happy about what he was doing. He was smiling most of the time and that she felt like he had no mercy for anyone.

Four days after the shooting, she still carries around a sad memento. Her cell phone has blood inside of it. That blood, some of that blood ended up saving her life, because the shooter thought she was dead, because she was covered in it -- Alisyn.

PEREIRA: I'll take it here, Sara. I can't even get -- we're all just stunned into silence, listening to this brave young woman tell the story of what happened. What a chilling, chilling, horrifying account. All right. We'll talk with you more coming up in the morning.

But right now, we have some breaking news. North Korean officials have just released an NYU student detained for several months. That student entered the country illegally. He was a 21- year-old South Korean citizen. He was handed over at the border with the south in the last 90 minutes. This just happened. CNN's Kathy Novak joins us with the very latest.

Kathy, what do we know?

KATHY NOVAK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michaela, this is an NYU student who illegally crossed from China into North Korea back in April. He told CNN in May that he wanted to be arrested, that he thought that his actions would bring about some kind of great event.

And he was facing serious punishment, but instead, what seems to have happened is that North Korea has released him, handed him back over to South Korean authorities just in the past couple of hours.

Now, the ordeal may not quite be over. He is a U.S. permanent resident, but he's a South Korea citizen. And South Koreans cannot just simply cross into North Korea without special permission. So now the National Intelligence Service here is investigating whether he may have broken local laws-- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much for that.

Also breaking news overnight, another ancient treasure destroyed by ISIS, this time, the 1,800-year-old Arc de Triomphe in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra. The arc joins a growing list of cultural icons destroyed by ISIS since taking over the World Heritage site last May. UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organization, has condemned the destruction of Palmyra as, quote, "war crimes."

CUOMO: All right. So we all want less gun violence. Right? Or at least I hope you do. Hillary Clinton says she has a plan. We're going to take a look at it through this lens. People have studied gun violence. We know what works. Answers for you ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:22:14] TRUMP: The gun laws have nothing to do with this. This isn't guns. This is about, really, mental illness. And I feel very strongly about it. And again, politically correct, we're going to solve the problem, there will be no problem, et cetera, et cetera. You're always going to have difficulties, no matter how tight you run it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, that was GOP frontrunner Donald Trump saying stricter gun laws will not prevent mass shootings. You're always going to have problems.

This as Hillary Clinton is set to unveil her new plan to curb gun violence.

So let's talk about all of this with our CNN political commentator and political anchor for New York One News, Errol Lewis; and CNN congressional correspondent Brianna Keilar, who is in New Hampshire, covering Hillary Clinton. Great to have both of you.

Brianna, let me start with you. What is Hillary Clinton expected to unveil today?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A couple of key things here, Alisyn. One being a closure of a loophole when it comes to purchasing a weapon. That would be the gun show loophole, which would allow people to go to a gun show and sell a weapon in an owner-to-owner purchase that allows them to go around and not get a background check.

But the other key thing that we really need to zero in on is that she is proposing allowing gun violence victims to -- allowing gun violence victims to sue gun manufacturers. This is key, because Bernie Sanders is beating her in the polls here in New Hampshire.

And yet, while he's to the left of her on some issues, he's to the right on others. That includes guns. He's actually voted against legislation that would allow gun manufacturers to be sued. So this is something she's doing to really draw contrasts with Bernie Sanders, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: That's interesting. So she's drawing contrasts between herself as well as the whole GOP side, who have basically said, "We have enough gun laws."

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, that's right. This is the sweet spot for Hillary Clinton. Politically speaking, this hearkens back to the Brady Bill back in 1995, one of the crowning achievements of her husband's administration. It also does enable her to go after Bernie Sanders, or really contrast herself in a very important kind of a way.

CUOMO: What is the politics and then what is the policy? What is she proposing that actually matters? What laws actually matter here that we don't have already?

LOUIS: Some of the loopholes, I mean, early estimates are that it might affect 2,000, 3,000 odd sort of situations. You know, look, there is an important loophole that she is talking about closing, which is this so-called Charleston loophole, where an innocent clerical mistake prevented the FBI from completing a background check in 72 hours, three days. And that sort of allowed Dylann Roof to get weapons that he might not otherwise have been able to get to. CAMEROTA: If the background check is not completed within 72

hours, it's not that you don't get the gun. It's that you do get the gun without a background check.

LOUIS: Exactly. The default is ownership as opposed to further investigation. So in this case, some clerk put in the wrong arresting agency for some background during a background check. He had admitted that he had some drug problems and he had admitted to have committed some crimes. The FBI, however, couldn't track it down within those three days and, therefore, he got the weapon.

[06:25:09] CUOMO: The problem here is that we have -- is that the compromise on whether or not to have checks or not has come down to timing. And, you know, many gun owners will tell you, if you really need a gun today, you probably shouldn't be given a gun at all. But it has come down to timing. So this 72-hour thing sounds ludicrous. I mean, I see it in your face when you hear it. But that's what it's come down to, is timing. That's why my question is what laws will you change? You have the gun show loophole.

CAMEROTA: Should be closed.

CUOMO: What they're saying is right now only registered owners get banged with these laws. So when you -- if you go to get a gun, it's going to be really hard for you. You're going to get checked. But if you want to buy a gun from me, in New York state, you have laws. But in a lot of states you don't, Errol.

LOUIS: That's right.

CUOMO: And they don't want to mess with those. They've been somewhat of a holy grail for people, because they say it goes for freedom.

CAMEROTA: Person to person.

CUOMO: Freedom of exchange.

CAMEROTA: Right. But that's what she's talking about closing.

LOUIS: Well, she's talking about stepping in and sort of making it a little bit more difficult. But these end up being proxies for the big question. And that's really what all of this debate has been about for, say, the last ten years. Is that this is the proxy for are you going to make it easier or are you going to make it harder? And it's going to kind of be a yes/no thing. It's a very divisive issue.

Hillary Clinton is signaling here that in this divided, and the polls say 52/48 on most of these issues nationwide, or on more gun controls, as opposed to protecting gun rights, she's going to play those -- those politics. That's basically her style. That's basically her path to victory next year if she's going to have a victory.

CAMEROTA: Brianna, let's talk about how you think that's going to play in New Hampshire. Obviously, that's the Live Free, you know, or Die state. Let's look at the polls right now about how she is doing in New Hampshire.

Right now, she is behind Bernie Sanders. He's at 48 percent. She's at 39 percent.

KEILAR: That's right. Bernie Sanders from neighboring Vermont has been doing well here. Certainly, New Hampshire has this libertarian streak, but I think the Clinton campaign is comfortable in feeling that this is something that is going to play well here. That's a calculation that they're making.

What's interesting, I think, to people who are looking at this debate now happening is, is anything really going to happen when you look at what is a campaign policy proposal? We have seen -- and this has been frustrating to Democrats in recent years, following the Sandy Hook massacre the year afterwards, a compromise on background checks failed in the Senate.

So in a way, this is something that I do think, looking at Hillary Clinton's record, that she believes in. But at the same time, when you look at the political feasibility of this, it seems to be really up in the air. She is talking about using some executive action in order to, I think, appeal to Democrats on that.

CUOMO: It also goes to, Errol, the idea of these mass shootings. They are less than 1 percent of overall gun crime.

CAMEROTA: Still, they're so sickening and so troubling.

CUOMO: They absolutely...

CAMEROTA: They make you want to do something immediately.

CUOMO: They absolutely do. But you have to not be confused about why do we really have all this gun violence? It's big major urban areas, a lot of crime, some organized crime, gangs. You know it works in those areas, but nobody really cares about them. I mean, we always -- someone will always talk about Iraq. They call it, you know, Chiraq now, you know what I mean? Because of all the gun violence there. But people don't really care about that. It's these mass shootings that wind up making people feel like you have to do something. And in truth, these are the least worrisome of all the types of gun crime we have. We don't like to cover them.

CAMEROTA: I guess so. But school shootings in particular, school shootings...

CUOMO: I know, but...

CAMEROTA: ... strike a nerve with people around the country. And they should. I mean...

CUOMO: But they have easier solutions than the regular crime.

LOUIS: Sixty percent of gun deaths are suicides, right? So right off the top, you're not talking about a majority of these being -- you know, sort of being school-related. CUOMO: Except a lot of these mass shootings start off as

suicide. A lot of these guys wind up taking themselves out.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

LOUIS: Suicide, of course, is a very hostile act. But you know, after Sandy Hook -- I mean, Sandy Hook, if you wanted friction to create the situation where the nation will be stirred to action, that was it, the Toomey-Manchin Bill, a compromise bill in the Senate was supposed to sort of move the ball forward. And even that couldn't get passed.

CUOMO: We weren't a law away. You know, the shooter there, his mother had the guns legally. She, for whatever reasons, decided to introduce this, that this kid was clearly troubled. There's a way of helping him. So gun security, gun access, is a big issue for people. You almost never hear someone getting prosecuting for someone else getting their guns and committing a crime.

CAMEROTA: Sure. But I mean, herein lies the challenge.

CUOMO: But I'm saying that the emotional part of this...

CAMEROTA: ... be unstable.

CUOMO: The emotional part of this leads to disappointment. Because these mass shootings are not going to be a catalyst for change. You have to have somebody who thinks smartly about where the real pockets of necessity are when it comes to gun violence. Because they're there.

LOUIS: The liability factor that Clinton is expected to talk about today. That really gets to that point. If you can be sued -- if you can buy the gun and it passes out of your ownership, then that's the end of it. If that liability can come back to you at some point.

CUOMO: Well, what would be the basis for that? You know, you don't go after a car manufacturer, because they made the car.

CAMEROTA: Sometimes you do.

CUOMO: If the car is faulty. But the gun is not faulty. It's who's using it. I mean, this is going to be...

LOUIS: Liability in the background check, and whether or not some of these gun stores...

CUOMO: That's fine.

LOUIS: ... are actually doing what they're supposed to do.

CUOMO: That's fine. But I think just going after manufacturers sounds good to the lefties. I don't know that it's going to...

CAMEROTA: Errol, Brianna can you tell we have a lot to talk about in this program...