Original subtitles

[soft music]

It was a normal Friday to start with.

You know get the kids up give them their breakfast.

Dylan went to the Sandy Hook School.

That day I put my boys on the bus and

then my friend was calling and she said,

"Nicole, it's a shooting and it's at our school."

It was the day after Thanksgiving.

I was at my family's home in Chicago.

My son was with his father in Florida.

I picked up the phone and there was just this,

this dead silence.

And I said, "Where's Jordan, what happened to Jordan?"

And that's when Jordan's dad said Jordan's been shot.

[gun shoots]

You're 25 times more likely to die by gun violence

in the United States of America

than any other developed nation in the world.

What does this say about us as Americans

if we're just willing to let people die?

Because we're afraid of the NRA?

There's no other single issue lobby in the United States

that has had as much success advancing its agenda

against the wishes of the majority of the country.

- Gun violence is taking lives at a historic rate.

It's only getting worse and worse,

and yet we're focused on the right to bear arms

and not the right to live.

[gunshots]

- The NRA has managed to convince millions of Americans

that when people get killed in gun violence,

that is the price of freedom.

Why has that happened?

We have to start unpacking their myths.

[Man] David Keene.

[Slate Claps]

I'm Dave Keene.

I was president of the National Rifle Association

from 2011 to 2013.

I continue to serve on the NRA board,

as I have since 2000.

I've been in politics in Washington and nationally

for more than 40 years.

I've been involved in one way or another

with every major battle over gun rights in this country.

At the NRA, what you have to do is try to every day

advance and protect the rights of gun owners.

- No, you shall not take the freedoms

bequeathed to us from us.

We will go to the ballot box.

We will demonstrate, we will organize.

We will do everything it is necessary to do

to protect those rights.

[audience applauds]

- Americans came to this country, survived on the frontier,

protected their families.

They knew that if they got into trouble,

help was probably not gonna come.

And so they developed this self-reliance.

Gun control is not simply about guns.

It's about an assault on values and an image of America

that believers in the Second Amendment hold dear.

It's an attack, not just on the guns.

It's an attack on them.

It's an attack on their lifestyle.

It's an attack on the country

and the values that the founders cared about.

It was George Washington who said,

"Every citizen should be armed."

- [Man] The NRA wants you to believe a fantasy

about our founding in which our founding fathers believed

that there should be no regulation of firearms.

That couldn't be further from the truth.

[gun shoots]

It is absolutely clear that our founding fathers

loved gun control.

They in fact had loads of it.

- From our very earliest days in the 1600s

through the 20th century,

there were literally thousands of gun laws,

and they were gun laws of every imaginable variety.

[Sen. Murphy] We had rules on who can own a weapon

and who couldn't.

You had to register your weapon,

you had to register your gunpowder.

You couldn't bring your weapons certain places.

[Spitzer] When we think about the American West,

you think of it as a lawless period

where everybody carried a gun

and that it was guns that won the West.

And that's really not the story of the West at all.

The norm was strict regulation

and prohibition of gun carrying.

That's why in recent years even Justice Antonin Scalia,

a very conservative member of the Supreme Court,

made very clear that the Second Amendment

wasn't an unlimited right.

- How far does that constitutional right go?

- Limitations upon the right to keep and bear arms

are permissible because there were some

that were acknowledged at the time.

[Spitzer] We think today of this great battle

between those who support gun rights

versus those who want stronger gun laws,

but in the first 300 years of our history,

that was not how it was.

[Smyth] When the NRA was founded in 1871

they took no position on gun control whatsoever

because they saw no need.

I started covering the National Rifle Association in 1994.

The National Rifle Association was founded

in order to deal with future possible threats

involving European military forces.

They organized shooting competitions

to improve the skills on the range,

which could then be applied to the battlefield.

[Man] The fact that the high level of marksmanship

is maintained and that a continuous program of training

and education is carried forward

is the result of the work of the National Rifle Association.

[Smyth] And that remained their main focus,

riflery and later hunting to expand the shooting sports

for over a century before the NRA changed.

[Reporter] The President's car

is now turning onto Elm Street.

And it will be only a matter of minutes

before he arrives at the Trademark.

[gunshots]

It appears as though something has happened

in the motorcade route.

[Reporter 2] President Kennedy has been assassinated.

It's official now.

- The 1960s is a decade in which the gun

comes to symbolize the chaos and disunity

that the nation is experiencing as a whole.

- For the first time, you get signs

that there's going to be a push for racial equality.

♪ Black is beautiful

You get signs that there's going to be a push

to say women have equal rights.

And you also see at the same time

this incredible upsurge of dramatic gun violence.

- From the assassination of John F. Kennedy,

to the assassination of Malcolm X

Martin Luther King, Medgar Evers.

[gunshot]

There's also the mass shooting

at the University of Texas, Austin in 1966

that begins the age of mass shootings.

It's a decade that's awash in police violence.

Most of the urban unrest is tied in some way

to firearms and to shootings.

My first true understanding of what gun violence does

was when Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated.

I distinctly remember watching my father be so distraught

and my mother sobbing.

Because he represented freedom.

[Franks] It's not a coincidence

that the assassinations of the 1960s

are against people who are representing progress.

Every time it seems that there is some group

that is going to rise up and say, "We are Americans too.

And we deserve the same rights as everyone else."

That's the point at which violence breaks out.

[Spitzer] The upsurge in violence shocks the country

and spurs calls for new, stronger gun laws.

[Pres. Johnson] I call upon the Congress

in the name of sanity

to give America the gun control law America needs.

[rifle shots]

- NRA members and gun rights activists arose in the 1960s,

not just in response to the rising tide

of support for gun control,

but also in response to the political

and social movements of that time.

Those movements threatened the status of a lot of white men.

[Keene] It wasn't until what we now call the culture wars

broke out back then that gun ownership

and the Second Amendment became a matter of controversy.

[Shop Owner] Restrictive legislation at the present time

is the initial step to the takeover of this country.

[Keene] At that point

a fight took place within the National Rifle Association.

[Smyth] You had one element focused on the shooting sports

and they were not interested in politics.

You had another element of the NRA

starting to raise the alarm about gun rights.

[Keene] Some NRA members believed the goal

was to abolish firearms in the United States.

They realized unless you do something

you're not gonna have the right to have a firearm.

- We stand in the forefront of millions

of those people in America who like to shoot.

[Igor Volsky] These new voices in the NRA

are led by a man by the name of Harlon Carter.

- We believe that the right to keep and bear arms

is a salient part of the American tradition.

[Volsky] Carter believed that every gun control measure

violated true American identity

and principles of individualism and freedom

and began organizing NRA members.

[Reporter] The NRA has been campaigning

against the gun laws,

fearing it might curtail their members' activities.

[NRA Rep] We have sent a letter to our entire membership.

[Reporter] By sending instructions

on how members were to write their congressmen

the NRA had clearly launched

a very effective lobbying campaign.

- Harlon Carter wanted to take the activities

that the NRA had been supporting

for over a century in the shooting sports

and co-opt all of that activity

into their gun rights agenda.

[Robert Kennedy] The nation and sportsmen

have been subjected to a

massive publicity campaign against this bill.

This campaign has misled thousands of our citizens.

It is a responsibility to think

not only of our own convenience,

but of the tragedy of sudden death.

[gunshot]

[crowd chattering]

[Reporter] Senator Kennedy has been shot.

[Reporter] The National Rifle Association of America

is under siege today.

[Matthew Lacombe] After the high-profile

political assassinations, a lot of Americans began

to see the NRA as this organization

that is responsible for preventing

the passage of strong regulations on guns.

[Smyth] Under pressure, the NRA came around

to support the Gun Control Act of 1968.

[audience applauds]

We've come here to the cabinet room today

to sign the most comprehensive gun control law

ever signed in this nation's history.

[Volsky] The Gun Control Act of 1968 was a measure

that for the first time

created categories of prohibited purchasers.

[crowd applauds]

[Volsky] There were leaders within the NRA

who didn't have a significant problem with that law

and thought the organization

had strayed too far from its original intent

of marksmanship and sports shooting.

They gutted its lobbying shop, fired about 60 individuals.

[Smyth] This was the Old Guard

and they were interested in moving the NRA out of Washington

to shift the focus of the NRA away from politics completely.

[intense music]

Harlon Carter ended up leaving the NRA

and accusing the NRA of betrayal.

He truly believed that gun rights

was the most important issue facing America.

[Williams] There's a deeper history with Harlon

that goes back to a murder he committed

when he was just 17 years old.

He had killed a young Mexican named Ramon Casiano

in an act of vigilantism

for which he will ultimately be convicted of murder

but have that sentence vacated by a judge who felt

the jury had not been properly advised about self-defense.

[Smyth] Harlon Carter changed the vowel in his first name

from "Harlan" to "Harlon" and in doing so

managed to keep his murder conviction quiet for 50 years.

In the 1950s he had been a border patrol officer

and the border patrol chief using truly draconian measures.

[Man] You're talking Harlon about

being able to carry a handgun around in your belt.

And you're saying that is a liberty

that I demand at the expense of 25,000 lives per year.

[Carter] The price of those lives I put up against my right

to the presumption of innocence,

my right against self-incrimination

under the Fifth Amendment,

the right of due process under the Fifth Amendment

that the government can't seize my property

without due process.

Those things are worth all the lives you will ever pay for.

So this man, this former convicted murderer,

this man who advocated extreme positions

as a border patrol chief, this man believed that gun rights

are more important than the toll of gun violence.

- And I respectfully submit to you,

that if we can ever embark upon the principle

that because a liberty might be abused

the government can restrict it, restrain it, or abolish it,

ladies and gentlemen you have lost everything.

[audience Applauds]

[ominous music]

[Anchor] The National Rifle Association convention

in Cincinnati went into overtime last night

a stormy all night session.

[Smyth] Harlon Carter plotted and organized

to take over the NRA.

Back then the NRA elections

were conducted in person at the annual meetings,

and he managed to get more than 500 of his supporters

to travel to Cincinnati for this meeting.

[Man] If you take my rifles,

my shotgun and my pistols away from me

then what are you going to do then after that?

Take the pocket knives, the hunting knives?

You know where's the stopping point?

[Smyth] You had a convention floor that was rowdy.

Carter had deployed his followers in the audience

equipped with walkie talkies

so that he could give his lieutenants the orders

about which way they needed to vote.

The old guard was caught completely unaware

and ill prepared,

and they ended up firing the old guard,

every one of them, one by one,

getting themselves elected as the new leaders of the NRA.

This is the founding of the modern NRA who believes that

almost any form of gun control must be opposed.

Any national gun law no matter how innocent in appearance

no matter how simple it might be

presupposes a still further growth in a centralized

computerized gun control bureaucracy in Washington, DC.

[ominous music]

[Smyth] The NRA in '77

implemented a practice of total control.

The entire organization was restructured

so that everything went up the chain of command.

Independent voices would not be allowed

because they had a political gun rights agenda,

and they wanted to make sure

that everything they did supported this agenda.

[gunshots]

[audience applauds]

[Volsky] NRA membership really exploded.

It grew by something over 300%.

[Reporter] This is headquarters in Washington,

plush, computerized, heavily staffed,

well-funded and geared for action.

[Volsky] The NRA began to use the Second Amendment

as the bedrock for arguing against gun control measures.

They're gonna wrap any argument in the American flag.

[Reporter] Here at the organization's convention

there are pamphlets citing the Second Amendment,

posters and booths.

It's all part of the NRA's lobbying effort

against gun control legislation.

[Smyth] The NRA started hiring paid scholars

to start writing articles in law journals to shift

the way the American system of jurisprudence

and the courts look at the Second Amendment.

[Keene] The Second Amendment is not about hunting rabbits.

It's about self-defense.

It's about self-reliance.

It's about all the things that the founders cared about.

Our job is to say, here is a threat to the Second Amendment.

Our members know when they hear that, they rise up.

[Williams] Harlon Carter recognized

the tremendous potential of the NRA

as an organization that can lobby,

an organization that can have political influence,

an organization that can amass a great deal of power.

[Keene] The main sponsor of the Gun Control Act of 1968

was Senator Joe Tydings.

He was supposed to be a slam-dunk candidate for reelection.

Then all of a sudden he found that he was being attacked

by all these gun owners.

Joe Tydings lost, and he lost because of the gun issue.

That was the first political scalp on the wall.

That served as a wakeup call to the political community,

because the difference between gun owners and others

is that gun owners actually vote.

My name is Matt Lacombe.

I'm currently unpacking

why the NRA's members are so politically active.

I collected about 80 years of the NRA's magazines.

The American Riflemen is the NRA's official journal.

It's the most widely circulated

firearms-related magazine in the United States.

I digitized those

and used a tool called structural topic modeling,

a fancy computer algorithm to take all the documents

and to group them together into topics.

There was a topic

that was clearly related to the Second Amendment.

Also a topic called Americanism and Guns.

There was also clearly a topic related to crime.

I was then able to plot the substantive ideas

that the NRA pushed over time.

The NRA has played a singular and important role

in cultivating an identity around gun ownership,

in which guns are not simply tools that a lot of folks use

but instead are symbols of who they are

what they value and how they view their place in the world.

The NRA has taken this identity around gun ownership

and politically weaponized it.

We see the NRA portraying gun control as threats

to who its members and supporters are.

When people's identities feel threatened

they're much more likely to take action.

This gun-centric ideology enabled the NRA

to align with the Republican Party when the time was right.

[Host] David Keene, southern coordinator for Reagan

last year, what do you think the Republican Party

needs to do to resuscitate itself?

[Keene] It should be based on an opposition

to government involvement

and interference with the family and individual life.

[Keene] Ronald Reagan emerged as a hero

to most people on the right

and certainly to most gun owners.

He was of course an outdoorsman himself and a gun owner

and recognized these things.

[Pres. Reagan] Tales of Wild West men and women

are woven into the dreams of our youth

and the standards we aim to live by in our adult lives.

You know what they are, words like self-reliance,

personal initiative, those bedrock values

that made America great.

[crowd noises]

[Volsky] It is not surprising that the first presidential

candidate that the NRA endorsed was Ronald Reagan,

who came from Hollywood, starred in many cowboy movies.

- You wanted law and order in this town.

You got it.

I'll shoot the first man that starts for those steps.

[gunshot]

[Volsky] He personified this myth that the NRA told

that the country is built on individualism,

on manifest destiny, and that those notions

were rooted in firearm ownership.

[Man] The NRA are the type of people

who stand for this country.

[Man 2] They are patriotic Americans

interested in preserving our heritage and our American way.

[Reporter] It was an appreciative crowd

that heard President Ronald Reagan today

reinforce their philosophy

and tell them what they wanted to hear.

[Reagan] We will never disarm any American

who seeks to protect his family from fear and harm.

[audience applause]

[Williams] The story of Reagan and the NRA

really it goes back to 1967.

Reagan had been governor of California

during the passage of the Mulford Act.

[Caroline Light] The Mulford Act criminalized the open carry

of firearms and was designed specifically to disenfranchise

and to disarm members of the Black Panther Party

for Self-Defense, because they were demonstrating in public

carrying firearms openly

to shed a spotlight on police violence

against black and brown people in California.

[Man] You have no right to take my gun away from me.

- There is absolutely no reason why out on the street today

a civilian should be carrying a loaded weapon.

[Williams] Throughout our history

the fear that African-Americans

could have access to firearms and use those firearms

to the detriment of whites is pervasive.

So what you see from the very beginning in American history

are very stringent laws to prevent the ownership of firearms

by people of color, like The Black Codes,

and this is gonna be a theme that will run

all the way up into the 1960s when we get The Mulford Act.

- The NRA helped draft the legislation itself

to make sure those new laws were passed.

- Ultimately the motivation behind their support

it really boils down to race.

Many argue that this isn't really an attempt

to deal with the issue of guns as much as it is an attempt

to scapegoat communities of color for the violence

that's overtaking the nation in that moment.

[Light] It's all part and parcel of a longer arc

of the NRA's support for the criminalization

of certain populations' access to firearms.

[Williams] In the 1980s this fear overtakes the nation,

and Reagan will campaign successfully

on this idea that Americans aren't safe,

that you need to reinvest in law and order.

- Guns don't make criminals.

Hardcore criminals use guns, and locking them up,

the hardcore criminals up, and throwing away the key

is the best gun control law we could ever have.

[audience applauds]

[Reporter] NRA spokesmen acknowledged

that part of their new membership comes not from sportsmen,

their traditional members,

but from people worried about crime.

- Crime is the important thing.

I think that's what the people are interested in.

[Williams] Gun rights activists concerned about crime

always decouple that conversation from the poverty

that accompanies the decline of American cities.

Industry is moving out of the inner city to the suburbs.

People have less space

and they're competing for fewer resources and fewer jobs.

Those pressures create a powder keg in American cities.

[Greg Jackson] Where you see gun violence

that's most rampant, root causes are most rampant.

The response in our country has been

to intensify our law and order approach.

[Woman] It cannot be that every black male

between 18 and 25 belongs to a gang.

And yet when you see an arrest invariably

that's what you see.

[Jackson] The '80s and '90s showed us that

you can't meet a public health crisis

with criminal law enforcement and carceral strategies

and expect it to work.

Even in current times we always start with

how do we manage a threat versus how do we save lives

of those who are most impacted.

Right now black youth are 14 times more likely to be shot

or killed by firearms than white youth in America.

And as a survivor of gun violence

I've seen that people in our communities

are the ones paying the price

for this quote unquote "freedom"

that advocates from the NRA are talking about.

[subway running]

[Anchor] It is Christmas Eve in New York

and the talk of the town is not peace on earth

but the violence among us.

This time in the subways, where a vigilante and his gun

brought terror this past weekend.

[Smyth] There are a number of cases that are instrumental

in the beliefs of the modern NRA.

One of them was the Bernard Goetz shooting.

[Reporter] A passenger on the New York City subway,

a white man, said four black teenagers

wielding screwdrivers pressed him for $5.

He shot all four then fled through the subway tunnel.

[Reporter] The shot severed Darrell Cabey's spinal cord

paralyzing him for life.

[Smyth] The NRA defended Mr. Goetz as a way of

putting their own stamp on gun rights through his case.

[Reporter] The National Rifle Association today

began running ads in New York City newspapers,

ads that say law-abiding citizens have the right

to protect themselves because the city no longer does.

- The greatest single deterrent to crime

is an armed citizen.

[Williams] Bernie Goetz is hailed as a hero

and lost in that conversation was the fact

that Bernie Goetz was carrying that gun illegally.

- Four young blacks wounded by a white gunman

and the cheering hasn't stopped.

- We're tired of being pushed around.

[Woman] Three cheers for him. Three cheers.

[Williams] People see him as a vigilante,

who's had enough and is going to fight back,

guns down these four teenagers

including famously saying to one of them after he shot him,

"You don't look like you're hurt too bad,

here's another one."

I remember how I felt going into the city after that

and it felt like it was open season.

You had to think differently

about the way that you showed up in public places.

It was clear in the way that people

talked about that case what the line of demarcation was.

And it was the fact that Bernie Goetz

who was white, shot four black teenagers.

Society bought the narrative that was promoted by the NRA

that armed white men could solve the problems of America

in going out and killing the bad guys.

In that moment, Wayne LaPierre rises to national attention

when he petitions to vacate Bernie Goetz's conviction,

because he argues that Bernie Goetz

had acted in self-defense.

[Wayne LaPierre] Any firearm has a legitimate self-defense

purpose when a criminal is trying to rape, rob,

or injure the victim.

[Rob Pincus] Wayne LaPierre was hired by Harlon

Carter as a lobbyist. He wasn't a diehard gun rights guy.

He wasn't the guy that wore the NRA patch on his sleeve.

He was a mild-mannered, educated guy

who could walk into a room and present an argument

for gun rights issues without being intimidating

without being bombastic, without being flamboyant.

[LaPierre] If you really want to get at gun crime,

you've got to narrow the focus

put in some tough mandatory sentences

and go after the bad guys.

[Pincus] I'm a gun rights advocate

and I'm the executive vice president

of Second Amendment Organization

and I've been in the firearms industry

for a little over 20 years.

[gunshots]

In the gun community when we talk about gaining ground,

one of the things that Wayne LaPierre has done

for us very, very effectively was to make it much easier

to get a concealed carry permit.

[Anchor] Tomorrow sweeping new state laws take effect

that will make it significantly easier for many people

in Florida to obtain permits to carry concealed weapons.

[Keene] The first state

that allowed concealed carry was Florida.

Then Wayne LaPierre said,

"Let's get concealed carry across the country."

[Reporter] The new law to allow citizens

to carry concealed handguns.

[Reporter 2] Texans were given the right

to carry concealed handguns.

[Reporter 3] Thousands of concealed handgun applications.

[Reporter 4] 700,000 applications for permits

will come in to sheriff's offices.

[Cassandra Crifasi] Over the last several decades,

we've seen a shift from most states

not issuing a license to carry a concealed firearm,

now to every state doing so.

- Right to carry is sweeping across the land.

[Pincus] It became a concealed carry revolution.

[gunshot]

To get a concealed carry license

requires some training that you have to undergo.

[gunshots]

You have to pass a test.

But now we have 21 states

that don't require any form of license to carry a firearm.

[Anchor] Tomorrow anybody in Kansas

can carry a concealed weapon and won't need

a permit or the training to buy the gun.

[Keene] It's called Constitutional Carry.

[Franks] It's a great piece of branding by the NRA

to take a concept like permitless carry

and to say we're going to call that Constitutional Carry.

[Anchor] Texas Senators have just passed permitless,

or what's known as constitutional carry.

You wouldn't have to get a license, no training required,

and there would no longer be a test.

- We're going to take the notion of no regulation whatsoever

and we're gonna call that constitutional.

[applause]

[Crifasi] One of the most rigorous recent studies

that investigated what happened when these laws changed,

found that violent crime increased between 13 and 15%.

- If you suggested to Harlon Carter that by 2020

carry laws of one form or another would be in effect

in all 50 states, he would've said you're crazy.

But they are.

[Pincus] Because of the work that the NRA has done

we have this huge number of people

who now have guns in their everyday life.

It's not just Saturday afternoon at the competition.

It's not just hunting season.

You're literally carrying a gun around on earth every day.

To work, to the store, dropping your kids off at school,

with the idea that you're gonna be able to use it

to defend yourself or other people in an emergency.

[Light] The NRA has managed to promote this ideal

of guns everywhere,

that more guns are going to provide more safety.

[Williams] The NRA then begins pushing for legislation

that would encourage people

not only to be able to carry it but to be able to use

guns to defend their lives without fear of being prosecuted.

[Light] If you look at Stand-Your-Ground Laws, any person

who feels themselves under threat can use lethal violence.

[gunshots]

Stand-Your-Ground Laws have proliferated across 33 states.

The National Rifle Association

was a key element in the passage of those laws.

[Jackson] In all states where Stand-Your-Ground Laws

have been passed we've seen gun-related deaths

and homicides increase.

This violence continues to rage forward

and we're watching individuals in our community being slain.

Jordan was very compassionate and very, very sensitive.

He had a lot of wisdom, a great deal of understanding

and trying to figure out the world around him.

The man who murdered my son

was claiming that he feared for his life,

that my son had a gun or stick

and he needed to defend himself.

And the Stand-Your-Ground Law

gave him the ability to be able to do that.

[Woman] Oh my god somebody's shooting.

[Reporter] Jordan Davis was shot and killed here

at Baymeadows in Southside

during an argument over loud music.

[Reporter 2] Dunn admitted to firing his weapon

but said he did it in self-defense

after he says he was threatened by the teens.

[Reporter 3] No gun was found in the teens' SUV.

[Rep. McBath] That man was using his implicit bias

and his racism as a means to act out

his violent tendencies towards my son and his friends.

Because you can shoot to kill and ask questions later

based upon a perception of threat under Stand-Your-Ground.

Having just watched the same scenario with Trayvon Martin

I even had discussions with Jordan about Trayvon's murder.

And Jordan said, "Mom why did that man,

why did he kill Trayvon?

Trayvon wasn't doing anything wrong?"

And I remember saying to him

"Baby, you've got to be careful."

As a young black man

somebody will take out a gun and shoot you.

And there the very discussion I had with my child

became his own reality.

Every single moment that we ignore

what is happening in our streets with our laws, people die.

- I, William Jefferson Clinton, do solemnly swear

that I will faithfully execute

the office of President of the United States.

[Lacombe] In the early 1990s the Democrats have control

of Congress and they decide to pursue gun regulations.

[Pres. Clinton] What's the point of being President

if you can't help improve the lives and futures of people?

[audience applauds]

[Clinton] Laws can help. That's why I wanna take

these assault weapons off the street.

To regulate how we deal with this craziness of violence.

[Keene] The '90s were a time of turmoil because of

the Clinton administration's assault on firearms rights.

[Clinton] I thought we weren't asking for that much.

[Melzer] Clinton introduced a couple pieces of legislation.

One was the 1993 Brady Bill, which established

background checks, named after Reagan's press secretary

Jim Brady, who was shot along with Ronald Reagan.

[Reporter] The new Brady Law could be a turning point

in the fight against gun violence in America.

- 87% of gun owners support this legislation.

And you begin to wonder, "Well who then does

the National Rifle Association represent?"

[Melzer] Next Bill Clinton introduced

the Federal Assault Weapons Act.

[Man] Weapons designed exclusively

for the purpose of killing people

should be banned except for military personnel.

[Clinton] When I was growing up all we had was

hunting and fishing. This is our culture.

And part of my political base

when I was elected President was working class whites.

I thought, we can fix this without interfering

with hunting and self-protection.

- We have taken this important part of the life

of millions of Americans and turned it into an instrument

of maintaining madness.

[Reporter] Public support for an assault weapon ban

is overwhelming, as much as 70% in some polls.

The trick is translating that into votes on the House floor.

[Smyth] LaPierre was elected to take over the NRA

as the highest-paid executive and try to defeat

any efforts to pass gun reform.

[LaPierre] This is a campaign

for eliminating the Second Amendment entirely.

Unless we fight it, that's America's future.

And it starts with a simple step like a simple gun ban

that too many are too cowardly to fight.

[Smyth] LaPierre started talking about something

called "the slippery slope".

That even the most seemingly benign form of gun control

would eventually lead toward greater gun control

and ultimately disarmament.

[Pincus] The Assault Weapons Ban of 1994

is the indicator that, Oh if we don't stand up

and really assert ourselves,

if we don't really do something about this

we're gonna potentially lose everything.

[Volsky] Wayne LaPierre began penning

incredibly incendiary communications to NRA members.

[Man] Mr. LaPierre talks about this administration -

They'll stop at nothing, even murder

federal agents wearing Nazi helmets

that attack law-abiding citizens.

[Smyth] The NRA's absolutist unyielding positions

was too much for many people then in the GOP

including even Ronald Reagan.

I support the Brady Bill and I urge Congress to enact it.

[Melzer] Former President George Bush Sr. resigned his NRA

membership in response to LaPierre's rhetoric.

[Reporter] Former Presidents Reagan, Carter, and Ford

all signed a letter urging House Members

to vote for the Assault Weapons Ban.

[Clinton] No good member of the House or Senate

no Republican or Democrat, no rural legislator

should ever fear losing their seat for voting for this bill.

[House Speaker] Recorded vote.

The Yeas are 216 the Nays are 214, and the bill is passed.

[applause]

[Lacombe] They passed the Brady Law of 1993,

and then they passed as part of a broader crime package

the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994.

[crowd applause]

[Keene] It was an assault on an entire part

of the population on their vision of what America is.

And that's why the NRA's job is to ring the bell.

[Man] We need to make sure that come November

these traitors are defeated, humiliated at the polls

and never serve in public office again.

[Volsky] In this election cycle the NRA perfected their

well-oiled lobbying machine and powerful grassroots army.

[Lacombe] The NRA had developed scorecards that rate

political candidates making it very easy for its members

to find who it was endorsing and to act on that.

[Keene] Your congressmen is A-rated or F-rated.

They go out and they vote.

They turned out in huge numbers in the '94 election.

That was the year that guns made a difference.

[Anchor] Welcome again to CNN's

continuous coverage of Election '94.

[Man] This is an earthquake. This is a tidal wave.

[Anchor 2] It's happening in the House. It's happening

in the Senate. The sands are shifting

right out from under the Democrats' feet.

[Reporter] Republicans take over the Senate.

[Anchor 3] CNN estimating that the Republicans will take

more than enough seats to take control of

the House of Representatives for the first time in 40 years.

[Reporter 2] Day breaks in Washington, D.C. as voters

across the country wake to the scale of the beating they've

given President Bill Clinton and his Democratic Party.

God they took it out on us. The NRA claimed to have

defeated 19 members of the House when we lost the House.

And we lost 54.

I woke up in a cold sweat thinking about

how I'd let the country down.

I'm sorry I mean we got -

the NRA beat the Speaker of the House.

[Reporter] Tom Foley, 30 years in Congress

is the first Speaker of the House

voted out of office since Abraham Lincoln's time.

[Clinton] What does that tell you?

There's a difference between having popular support

and voting support.

We can't just depend on an opinion poll.

The NRA made guns a voting issue.

[audience applause]

[LaPierre] You launched a political revolution

that changed the face of Congress

and rewrote Bill Clinton's idea of American history.

[applause and cheers]

- Not only was the NRA very successful

in flipping party control in the '94 election,

it also put a 10-year limit on the Assault Weapons Ban

so that it automatically lapsed after 10 years,

and that was the price that they paid

in order to get that bill through Congress.

[Anchor] Now the Assault Weapons Ban,

The ten-year-old law expires at midnight tonight.

Is there any question in your mind

that the lifting of the ban will in fact

cause more of these weapons going on the streets?

- Oh, there's no question

that there'll be more weapons on the streets.

Right now the companies are taking orders.

[Franks] The NRA profit from this idea that the

assault weapon is something that was banned by those

liberals that were coming to take your guns.

Thank goodness that ban is no longer in effect.

You never know when it's gonna come back.

So everybody come out and get a gun like this.

- And I remember Christmas advertisements,

discount prices on AR-15s.

Buy your bargain assault weapons for Christmas.

[Spitzer] The NRA and gun companies really begin to market

assault weapons specifically their military features.

You can accessorize different stocks, different grips,

threaded barrels, removable magazines,

and that means much more profitability for the gun industry.

[Smyth] These weapons proliferated.

The AR-15 became as the NRA dubbed it, "America's rifle".

[Spitzer] But then you begin to see

these weapons used in mass shootings.

[Man] A gunman appeared at the front of one of the theaters

and then he opened fire.

At least 50 people were hit.

- If you look at high-fatality mass shootings

there are studies that show yes, they have increased

since the Assault Weapons Ban lapsed.

- In the face of these tragedies, the arms industry

is uniquely protected no matter how negligent

or reckless their practices might be.

[Keene] We did, I think in one of our great victories

save the firearms industry.

There was a move to hold firearms companies

liable in court for the misuse of a firearm.

We got Congress to pass an act that would prevent that.

[Franks] Because of this law you don't get products

that are designed for safety.

You don't get products that are designed

to stop people from using them for improper means.

You get a blank check to an industry

to advertise in the most irresponsible ways,

to market themselves to kids.

[Keene] If those frivolous lawsuits had not been stopped

gun companies would have gone out of business.

The NRA was key

to the survival of American firearms manufacturers,

more than the other way around.

So they ought to be grateful,

but we don't get our money from them, primarily.

[Men chanting] This is my rifle.

[Man] It's been tested in every theater of war

for the last 50 years.

[Men chanting] My rifle is my best friend.

[Man] Through the dust, the rain and the snow

it's battle tested.

And it's in a class all by itself.

[Men chanting] This is my rifle.

[Man] This is Colt.

[Rep. Jason Crow] I believe in the right to have

self-defense, but you don't need an assault weapon

or 1000 rounds or armor-piercing bullets to do that.

My name is Jason Crow.

I'm the Congressman from Colorado's

sixth congressional district and I represent

many of the families of the Aurora theater shooting,

the Columbine tragedy.

I served overseas in three combat tours

in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There is a big reason why I didn't carry an assault weapon

in the woods when I was deer hunting.

And there's also a really good reason

why I didn't have my deer hunting rifle

or my duck hunting shotgun

when I was in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Because the weapons that I carried in Iraq and Afghanistan

were weapons of war.

[gunshots]

They were designed to inflict terrible damage on humans

and to take human lives

and to do that with remarkable efficiency.

From every little element, from the magazine capacity

to the muzzle velocity to the type of round that's used

everything is designed with that singular purpose in mind.

The specifications and the technical aspects of weapons

mean a lot. So nobody's ever gonna tell me that

there's no such thing as an assault weapon

because there's no basis in truth for that.

[sirens]

Whether it's in El Paso with an AK-47 or in Aurora

we know what has occurred.

And it's not gonna stop unless we do something to stop it.

[Nicole Hockley] December 2012 everything changed.

Dylan was six so he loved school

and didn't want to go at the same time.

We had this routine that every day we would do a countdown.

So Monday was five days school, two days no school.

Tuesday was four days school, two days no school.

And as the bus was coming around the corner

and the kids were all lining up

Dylan just looked at me

and he said, "Last day school, Mommy."

And I said, "That's right, D.

One day school, two days no school."

And he just kind of nodded at me

and said, "Last day school."

And literally across the driveway

where I was standing with my boys,

the shooter had probably already killed his mother

in the house directly across the driveway from mine.

And I've thought, if I'd looked up at a window

would I have seen him looking down?

Is there something I could have done

to stop him from then driving to the school?

Only a few minutes later probably.

[Woman] Sandy Hook school,

I think there's somebody shooting in here.

[Reporter] 154 bullets fired in less than five minutes

from the Bushmaster assault rifle.

[Reporter 2] The gunman killed 26 people,

20 of them children as young as five.

- The majority of those who died today were children,

beautiful little kids

between the ages of 5 and 10 years old.

As a country we have been through this too many times.

[Sen. Murphy] In the days following the shooting

we thought the world had changed.

We thought everyone had woken up to the idea that we had

to get serious about preventing another slaughter like this.

And we thought that the silence from the gun lobby

and from the NRA meant that they were contemplating

how far they were willing to go to compromise.

[Smyth] The NRA didn't say anything, which has been their

practice after almost every mass shooting in the modern era.

[Crowd chanting] Shame on the NRA.

[Reporter] For four days after the killings in Newtown,

it had nothing to say,

nothing on its website, on Facebook or on Twitter.

[Reporter 2] The White House says that President Obama

is supporting new legislation banning assault weapons,

closing the gun show loophole for buying guns,

as well as a ban on high capacity ammunition clips.

- And then they announced

they were having a press conference.

- For the first time, the National Rifle Association

is responding to the Newtown attack.

[Keene] It was our assumption

that we were up against a very big fight.

So we had to be able to rally our people.

- Like all Americans

we've been discussing all of the various options

that are available to protect our children.

And at this point we would like

to share our thinking with you.

Good morning.

Some have tried to exploit tragedy for political gain.

We have remained respectively silent.

Now we must speak.

[Smyth] I wondered what he was going to say,

and if he was going to say something

to attempt to validate the emotions

that were swirling around the nation

about this heartbreaking tragedy.

- The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun

is a good guy with a gun.

- And to me that's like, come on.

[Woman] Reckless behavior coming from the NRA.

- For people to stand there and say,

"No we need more guns."

It was extremely disheartening.

[Man] NRA, stop killing our children.

It is the NRA and assault weapons

that are killing our children.

[Smyth] He essentially blamed the victims,

that the teachers themselves of this elementary school

should have been better prepared.

And the vision that LaPierre put out was one that's

consistent with everything I knew about the modern NRA,

but they had never before said it so clearly and so plainly

out loud because they were afraid it would be too unpopular.

[LaPierre] We need to have every single school in America

immediately deploy a protection program proven to work.

And by that I mean armed security.

[bagpipes play "Amazing Grace"]

[Nicole] After the service we did our first interviews

with media. One of the first questions was,

"What is your response to Wayne LaPierre

saying this morning that the only thing

to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun?"

And I said, "Who's Wayne LaPierre?"

And all I could think was, whoever he is

that is one of the most absurd statements I've ever heard.

We can't just arm everyone and expect a safer society.

[ominous music]

That was my introduction to the NRA in this battle.

- All of us need to demand a Congress

brave enough to stand up to the gun lobby's lies.

[Reporter] Victims of gun violence

and their families demonstrated on Capitol Hill.

[Man] We're here from Tucson, from Aurora, from Columbine -

names that have become iconic in America's bizarre

and shameful epidemic of gun violence.

[Reporter] In Congress the leader of Senate Republicans

joined the chorus of politicians

who are suggesting that something needs to be done.

- As we continue to learn the facts,

Congress will examine whether there is an appropriate

and constitutional response

that would better protect our citizens.

[Peter Ambler] Americans watched Congress,

they watched the Senate. Surely Democrats and Republicans

would come together to put something in place.

- We thought we could get a restriction

on assault weapons passed. That became unachievable

and we were left with this expansion of background checks.

Joe Manchin, coming from a pretty conservative state,

and Pat Toomey, a Republican

coming from a pretty conservative state,

got together at considerable political risk to themselves

and wrote a compromise that would save lives.

- Truly the events at Newtown changed us all.

Nobody here with a good conscience could sit by

and not try to prevent a day like that from happening again.

- I don't consider criminal background checks

to be gun control. I think it's just common sense.

[Ambler] The NRA during that period had an ironclad grip

on our political system when it came to the question

of guns and gun violence in America.

[Reporter] How are you, Congresswoman?

- [Ambler] It takes the courage and resilience

of somebody like Gabby Giffords to take them on.

I started in her office January 3 of 2011.

Five days later she was shot in the head

from three feet away.

[Reporter] Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been shot.

[Reporter 2] Five victims are dead at the scene.

- Eventually made a miraculous recovery

and went on not only to fight for her life

but to contribute to public service once again.

- I've known days of pain and uncertain recovery,

but confronted by despair, paralysis and aphasia,

I put one foot in front of the other.

[Ambler] In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting,

on the two year anniversary of Gabby being shot,

we threw ourselves into working to pass

the Manchin-Toomey expanded background checks bill.

- Violence is a big problem.

Too many children are dying.

Too many children.

We must do something.

Today I struggle to speak,

but I have not lost my voice.

[Nicole] We never thought

background checks were going to be easy to pass,

but there was the will of the people

and the polls and the way people were speaking out.

- We hear all the time that no one agrees on anything

and why even bother? But it's really a false narrative.

I'm a gun owner, I regularly go to the range

and try to keep my skills up.

I believe that people should be able to own guns,

but we need to do a hell of a lot better job

to make sure that people who shouldn't have them

don't get them.

[Crowd] ♪ Shame, shame, shame, shame ♪

- The NRA just does not represent gun owners anymore.

My passion is hunting,

and half of all NRA members are hunters.

Why is an organization that claims to represent gun owners

working against any effective safety measure

capable of keeping American children safe?

We all want to see kids not get killed in schools.

We all want to see crime be lower.

We all want to live in a better, more perfect union.

By making guns so partisan and saying

politicians are trying to steal our guns,

the NRA is preventing a larger conversation from happening.

- More than 80 percent of US adults

support requiring background checks for all gun sales.

And there is no difference

between gun owners and non-gun owners

or by political affiliation.

[Sen. Leahy] Every American abhors the recent tragedies.

[Keene] I remember talking to Joe Manchin.

He bragged that he'd gotten a new shotgun and I said,

"Well, what happens if the guy on the neighboring farm

wants to buy the old one? You don't need it anymore.

How's he going to like it when you say,

'We got to get in the car and drive 25 miles

to a federal firearms dealer.

And then we got to do a background check on you.'

Is that going to make him happy?

And is he going to be any happier when he finds out

the reason he has to do it is because of you?'

[Nicole] It was bizarre to get to the actual vote

and feel that that was a victory.

And then to start hearing that

we might not have the numbers.

[Sen. Biden] The question is on the amendment,

the clerk will call the roll.

[Clerk] Mr. Alexander, Ms. Ayotte, Ms. Baldwin.

[Nicole] Sitting up in the gallery

you knew where your no votes were cause they wouldn't even -

They obviously couldn't look at themselves in the mirror.

They couldn't look at us.

We had senators who cried in front of us

and then voted against us.

[Clerk] Ms. Heitkamp, no.

Mr. McCain, aye.

Mr. Chambliss, no.

- A few minutes ago, a minority in the United States Senate

decided it wasn't worth it.

They blocked common sense gun reforms

even while these families looked on from the Senate gallery.

[Nicole] I felt that we'd failed.

I had failed Dylan. I couldn't even do this for him.

I couldn't save him and I couldn't even get

one measly little policy passed

that might help someone else.

- Everybody talked about how we were gonna change something.

- To see nothing happen was just a blow.

- So all in all

this was a pretty shameful day for Washington.

- If this, if the death of 20 children

can't motivate people to take action, what will?

[Sen. Murphy] We thought that we were gonna get all of these

changes in gun laws to make our communities safer.

But what we found out is that that's not how politics works.

The NRA had been organizing for 40 years

to get ready for that moment in 2013.

They were ready for those parents who came to Washington,

and they beat them.

[Nicole] When we started I knew nothing about the NRA

and I had no idea what a powerful lobbying group they were

and how insidious they can be.

You know, hearing the lies that they would tell.

You're not just up against smart political thinking,

you're up against people that are just gonna say

whatever they need to say in order to get what they want.

- We've all been under attack since the Connecticut tragedy,

by those who would exploit the victims of a madman

to advance their own anti-Second Amendment agenda.

But the United States Senators

realized that their constituents actually do count.

[Ambler] The NRA was not interested in compromise.

They were not interested in solutions.

They were interested

in a dark cynical vision for this country.

- By the time it was over,

we had a million new members and we had turned the tide.

[audience applause]

[Man] Please welcome our executive vice president

Wayne LaPierre.

- The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun,

is a good guy with a gun.

[audience applause]

[Spitzer] When Wayne LaPierre spoke in the aftermath of the

Sandy Hook shooting, his comments were very much aimed

at the more extremist gun rights community

that is the base of support for the NRA.

There's an old axiom in politics that

a small but a highly motivated minority can often win

the day over a large but fairly apathetic majority.

And that's pretty much the tale of the NRA.

[LaPierre] By almost every measure we are less free today

than we were a decade ago, in ways our forefathers

could never have conjured in their worst nightmares.

[Melzer] Attacking gun safety groups as folks who

fundamentally pose a threat to the future of the country.

This is the culture war that the NRA has been fighting for

decades now and that Donald Trump took up.

[crowd applause]

[Anchor] Some big guns backing Donald Trump.

This afternoon the National Rifle Association

endorsed him for President.

[LaPierre] Oh my gosh I mean here's somebody

that really understands. Let's go after the bad guys

and leave all the good people alone.

- The Second Amendment is under a threat like never before.

[Volsky] When Donald Trump ran for President,

the NRA believed that they were looking into a mirror

because Donald Trump personifies the playbook

that the NRA has successfully been using for decades.

- Hillary Clinton wants to abolish the Second Amendment,

just remember that.

- Our right to gather, our right to speak,

our financial freedom.

All of it in decline.

[Keene] In 2016 from the Trump and the NRA standpoint,

you're talking about the same people.

The people that came out in those small towns

were our people.

[Smyth] Trump represented something

they had never seen before.

Mitt Romney, McCain, H.W. Bush, even George W. Bush

didn't speak that kind of language.

- The National Rifle Association endorsed me

and they endorsed me early, long time ago.

[audience applause]

[Spitzer] They contributed $31 million to his campaign,

poured around $70 million into the 2016 elections overall.

[Keene] We decided that if he was gonna have any chance

in the fall that it was the one bet that had to be placed

and we placed it.

So we all worked together to create a tsunami of rural

small town votes that might not otherwise have occurred.

- And lo and behold, the gamble paid off.

[audience applause]

- Thank you.

[LaPierre] It wouldn't have happened without us.

Without us, we wouldn't have had President Trump.

I mean there's not another organization in the country

that is directly responsible because of the influence

we all have as American citizens

that stand for the Second Amendment.

[Rep. Crow] You see the gun lobby try to wrap this issue

in the rhetoric of patriotism and freedom.

That language is incredibly troubling to me.

I especially take it personally when I see militia groups

dressed up like commandos,

carrying assault weapons on our streets.

[Smyth] Not only is the United States one of the only

advanced nations that allows for civilian ownership of guns

without licensing or registration,

but it's even permissible to walk around

during a political protest with loaded AR-15s.

[Crifasi] We're seeing more and more firearms openly

at demonstrations or rallies as a way to intimidate.

[Man] And we may be scary to some people

but that's because we don't know what's gonna happen

and it's our right in this country to do this.

[Crifasi] The NRA has shifted the pendulum so far

that there's a group of folks at the extreme

that think that the right to own guns as an individual

gives them the right

to do whatever they want with those guns.

[LaPierre] We stand and we fight like hell for freedom.

The revolution to take America back starts here.

[crowd yelling]

[Franks] Now you have a version of the Second Amendment

that says, I can stop you from speaking. I can stop you from

participating in democracy. I can stop democracy itself.

And I am honoring the constitution by doing so.

- I want you to fight back.

I want you to raise hell.

[Trump] We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell,

you're not gonna have a country anymore.

[mob yelling]

[Lacombe] It's hard to imagine the support that Trump got

for his efforts to overturn the election

being there without the foundation

laid by the NRA as an organization.

[Spitzer] Whether it's the NRA or Donald Trump,

when you build and feed your organization members

such a steady diet of that kind of messaging,

it could explode into disorder and violence.

[gunshots]

- In Kenosha, an armed citizen sent out a Facebook message

saying, we need all the armed citizens to come out

and resist this Black Lives Matter demonstration in response

to the recent police shooting of Jacob Blake,

a 29 year old Black man.

[Man] ♪ Black lives matter

[Crowd] ♪ Black lives matter

[Franks] So Kyle Rittenhouse hears that there are

protests going on and thinks, "I should take up weapons

to defend this other place and their property,"

that that would be a patriotic thing to do.

And does in fact do that.

[Reporter] 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse

killed two protesters and left one injured.

[Lt. Gov. Barnes] What do you think is going to happen

if you have an agitated man with a long gun walking down the

streets thinking that he's some sort of peacekeeper?

[Williams] Why is there no attempt to deal with this person

who's obviously carrying a gun? It's because that narrative

that the NRA has been so effective at promoting

has really taken root in American society and culture.

[Clinton] The NRA believes the deaths of innocent people

is just a necessary price to pay

for people to exercise their freedom.

And you see what the logical conclusion of that is,

that we don't really have

mutual responsibilities to each other.

It's a very high price.

[Williams] The NRA talks about being fundamentally concerned

about American Liberty. Is it the liberty to own a gun

and to pass laws that give people really the opportunity

to treat neighborhoods like hunting grounds?

Or is it this idea that we ultimately want to protect life

and create a standard of living for everyone in this nation?

- The American Dream of wanting to live peacefully

and wanting to enjoy life and wanting to go to school

and become educated and raise your children

and have a healthy safe life,

and not be attacked.

[Fred Guttenberg] My girl, my 14-year-old baby,

I sent her to school. She was supposed to be safe.

My job is to protect my children

and I sent my kid to school.

[Reporter] A heartbreaking day in Florida and sadly

an all-too-familiar one. 17 people are now confirmed dead.

[Guttenberg] In the morning sometimes things get so crazy

and I don't always get to say, "I love you".

I don't remember if I said that to Jamie yesterday morning.

Jamie loved to dance

and I loved to watch my daughter dance.

She would have been an amazing person to watch grow up.

I won't get to do that now.

- Don't tell me there's no such thing as gun violence.

It happened in Parkland.

[Rep. McBath] It's with the Parkland shooting

that I absolutely lost it

because those children were the same age as Jordan.

As I watched them running

out of their high school for their lives.

[Anchor] President Trump is now publicly demanding stricter

gun control in a break with the NRA and fellow Republicans.

- I watched on television,

President Trump was at a round table discussion.

- It doesn't make sense that I have to wait till

I'm 21 to get a handgun but I can get this weapon at 18.

I don't know.

- You underestimate the power of the gun lobby.

- They have great power over you people.

They have less power over me.

[Rep. McBath] And I remember distinctly when President Trump

said, "You don't need to be afraid of the NRA."

And they're all sitting there shaking their heads

like yes, yes and I thought,

okay maybe something's gonna be done.

- Don't worry about the NRA, they're on our side.

You guys, half of you are so afraid of the NRA.

There's nothing to be afraid of.

[Reporter] President Trump held a late night meeting

with the National Rifle Association then tweeted,

"It was a good, great meeting in the oval office."

[Anchor] President Trump dialed back an earlier and

and stronger call he had made

to raise the age limit for buying some guns.

[Keene] In President Trump's case

he obviously empathized on some of these things

as do all of us, but then upon reflection

he realized that maybe what he said

wasn't what he really wanted to do.

He knew what we did in that 2016 cycle.

He was grateful for it and remains grateful for what we did.

He had our support and he had our back.

- The NRA had a seat at the table in the White House.

So at this point, nothing was going to be done.

- It all hit me.

My daughter didn't need to die.

These shootings are predictable and they're preventable.

The NRA knows it, but they're okay with it.

It's a cost of doing business. It's an opportunity for

the NRA to turn around and say, the only way is more guns.

And I just said to my friends and my family,

"I'm gonna break the fucking gun lobby."

Every single person up here today, all these people

should be at home grieving, but instead we are up here

standing together because if all our government and

President can do is send thoughts and prayers, then it's

time for victims to be the change that we need to see.

[crowd applause]

- Anybody can make a positive change,

and I mean, we were kids.

I am Emma González, I now go by X González.

Young people took control of the narrative

and told our stories honestly.

- Politicians funded by the NRA telling us nothing

could have ever been done to prevent this.

We call BS.

[crowd cheers]

As a kid, being able to look at the politicians

and tell them you made a mistake and it hurt people.

That was something that a lot of people really understood.

[Crowd chanting] ♪ We want change and we want it now ♪

♪ We want change and we want it now ♪

♪ This is what democracy looks like ♪

- Young people became the new messengers

for gun control in America.

- They say a good guy with a gun stops a bad guy with a gun.

We call BS.

- When I gave that speech and it exploded

we all realized we actually had the eyes of the nation

on our social media. And I started reaching out to people.

We're gonna start this. Let's look into how we can

make March For Our Lives a non-profit.

Let's get a board.

Let's have the kids be in charge.

[Reporter] Thousands of students are expected

to walk out of their schools against gun violence.

[kids chanting]

[González] All of a sudden we went from

this organization that was barely existing

to seeing marches happening all over the world.

[Reporter 2] Here they are flooding the streets

of Boston, Massachusetts, in Philadelphia

and in Los Angeles.

[Crowd chanting] ♪ You are responsible ♪

♪ You are responsible

[Nicole] My kid couldn't do this, but these kids,

this happened to them and they were able to stand up

in that moment and say, "No way, this is not right."

And they don't have to control what they're saying

or be likable or moderate.

They're just gonna say exactly what they think.

- This is our opportunity to talk to President Trump,

Senator Marco Rubio, and all other members of the

United States government that are being funded by the NRA.

Now is the time to get on the right side of this.

- The NRA is so good at threatening people because they

have so much money and power. Interviewers would be like,

"And you're not scared to take on the NRA?"

No, because we have no money from them.

We were experiencing a problem and vocalizing solutions.

- Senator Rubio can you tell me right now

that you will not accept a single donation from the NRA?

[audience applause]

- They were afraid of us.

[Jackson] What was encouraging about March For Our Lives

is that they opened the door for folks

who were impacted by violence of all walks of life,

to take the mic and start to tell their stories.

- Everyday shootings.

[Crowd] Everyday shootings.

- Are an everyday problem.

[Crowd] Are an everyday problem.

- It's time to care about all communities equally.

It's time to stop judging youth that look like me

or my brother and that come from impoverished communities

any different than anyone else.

[González] We are trying to stop gun violence

in all of its forms. You have to address the system

on the whole, and gun violence is an epidemic.

It should be treated like an epidemic.

- What are you asking for here in Washington?

- An assault weapons ban,

prohibition of sales of high capacity magazines.

- You're not saying no guns, right?

- We're not saying no guns. We are saying we want

to regulate semi-automatic weapons

and accessories that make them fully automatic.

[crowd cheers]

- We need to focus on changing the conditions that foster

violence and trauma. That's how we will

transform our communities and uplift our voices.

[crowd cheers]

- The young leaders were instrumental in

breathing new life into the gun reform movement.

When there's limited opportunity to tighten gun laws,

we have to ask ourselves what power do

non-legislative actors have to help us solve this problem?

- Dick's Sporting Goods says thoughts and prayers

are not enough. The chain will stop selling

assault style rifles at its 600 nationwide stores.

It's also ending the sale of firearms to buyers under the

age of 21 and will no longer sell high capacity magazines.

[Ed Stack] If these kids are brave enough to organize

and do what they're doing,

then we should be brave enough to take this stand.

- No chance you're gonna reverse this?

- Never.

[Reporter] First it was Dick's Sporting Goods

and now Walmart. Walmart said they will no longer

sell guns or ammunition to anyone under 21 years old.

[Reporter 2] At least 16 companies

now say they cut ties with the NRA.

- When you saw the rhetoric that the NRA had

we could not have our brand attached.

[Chip Bergh] It was the Parkland shooting

that really got to the tipping point.

We needed to take a position.

[Melzer] The general public cried out for change

and that led to tremendous progress at the state level.

- In Florida, its Republican governor Rick Scott

broke with the President and with the NRA.

[Reporter] The so-called Marjory Stoneman Douglas

High School Public Safety Act

raises the minimum age to buy a rifle from 18 to 21.

- The School Safety Act put in place red flag laws,

extreme risk protection orders.

It started spreading gun legislation all over the country.

[Reporter 2] Despite being the newest target of the NRA

Vermont's gun-owning Republican governor

says he's not backing down.

[Reporter 3] Getting a gun in Illinois

just got a little harder.

Governor Bruce Rauner signed two gun measures.

[Reporter 4] The governor says she is proud

that Oregon passed gun control legislation

since Florida's mass shooting.

[crowd cheers]

- And then we started pushing the importance

of midterm elections.

[crowd cheers]

- Register, speak out, vote. Because what if

checking a box could save a life?

[González] Elected officials are not in charge.

We can vote them out whenever we want to.

We had candidates running primarily

on gun violence prevention, like Lucy McBath.

- I was afraid.

- I will always just be a mother on a mission.

[audience applause]

I'd never run for a federal office before

but I felt it was more of a tragedy

not to even try to save people's lives.

And that even if I didn't win, making sure that people

know this has to be an issue that you go to the polls on.

This has to be an issue that you stand righteously on.

This has to be an issue that is not going away.

[Rep. Crow] I'm a first time candidate.

I've made this a part of my campaign

because I'm frankly not willing to sit back

and let this become a new normal.

- When you know that something is right and you know

that there needs to be change.

Sometimes you just have to jump in.

[Guttenberg] Americans for the first time

were given the chance to respond to candidates

with clear plans and messages, being given the chance

to say, yeah, we want this done.

[Ambler] We ran campaigns from coast to coast.

We endorsed in dozens and dozens of races,

spent millions of dollars.

We elevated gun safety as a primary voting issue

for the American electorate.

[González] We saw on election night

all of the counties and all the states

flipping from the NRA owned.

It was wonderful to watch those returns

come back around the country.

[Anchor] This morning, Lucy McBath

was declared the official winner.

- We managed to help beat 40 NRA-backed

Republican incumbents and elect in their place a

gun safety majority to the House of Representatives.

- This is your night. Your democracy.

- Tonight we begin a new era that puts people first

and recognizes our shared destiny.

[applause]

[Rep. McBath] There is a sea change that's happening

with all the young people that are marching forward.

They're going to the polls as a one issue voter,

and that's guns.

- When I say guns, you say laws. Guns.

[Crowd] Laws.

- Guns. [Crowd] Laws.

[Crowd] Vote them out.

[Clinton] There is a critical mass now of people

who at least know they won't get beat

for doing the right thing, unlike what happened in 1994.

And they know we've got a chance

to have a civilized conversation about it.

That's a big plus and we owe it to them. They did that.

I couldn't do it in my time, but I tried.

[Keene] Anybody that thinks the NRA is gonna disappear

has got another thing coming,

because every time they've thought

that was about to happen, it didn't.

And it's not going to now.

The Second Amendment believer, whether he's an

NRA member or not will rise up once that bell's

been rung and do whatever's necessary

to guarantee the continuation of those rights.

- Think about what would have happened

if the revolution at the NRA didn't take place.

What if they had become an important community organization

and a place for people who cared about the skills

associated with firearms?

Would we have the division that we have right now?

The politicization of the NRA

did signal the end of rational conversation about guns.

[Siler] Any organization that will not bend or compromise

is going to break and that's what we have in the NRA.

Children are dying in our schools as we speak

and nobody is representing gun owners

in the conversation about how to make that better.

[gentle music]

[Crifasi] I want us as gun owners to be

part of the solution, part of the conversation

so we can co-create strategies that are respectful

of the culture of gun ownership in this country

but also have an evidence base

so that we can reduce the burden of gun deaths in the US.

[Jackson] By letting an organization like the NRA

have such a big role in the debate,

they're dominating the discussion.

When in reality, this is a public health crisis

and requires community leaders and survivors

to be leading the discussion.

[Crowd] ♪ Hey hey, ho ho

♪ The NRA has got to go

♪ Hey hey, ho ho

♪ The NRA has got to go

[Rep. McBath] We the activists, we're the Davids

to the Goliath of the NRA gun lobby leadership.

And just as David took down Goliath

we too will take down the gun lobby.

[Giffords] These are scary times.

It will be a long hard haul.

Now is the time to come together.

Be courageous.

- What I want people to do is care, learn,

be angry, and then use that rage to become courage

to take action and do something,

to say, this is not okay and I'm not just gonna be apathetic

and let it continue happening and saying,

it's never gonna touch me. Because it will.

And you have the power to do something about that.

[González] One of the most basic ways

that we are capable of making an impact is voting.

Let the politicians in your area know

that you are paying attention to what's going on

and a lot of people working together on that

can make a huge difference.

[soft music]

- My strength comes from Jamie.

I've lost this capacity for fear and anxiety.

We can't be afraid of the NRA anymore.

Too many people have died, and now it is time to fix this.

[Giffords] We are at a crossroads.

We can let the shooting continue, or we can act.

We can protect our families, our future.

We can vote.

We can be on the right side of history.

Please join us in this fight.