CBS "Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer" - Transcript

Interview

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SCHIEFFER: Joining us is Connecticut's Governor Dan Malloy. He is in Newtown this morning. Governor, thank you so much for finding time for us. Is there anything new this morning on what motivated this person to commit this awful crime?

MALLOY: I have not heard anything this morning that would explain what transpired on Friday morning. The investigation continues, as it will until we, you know, turn over every page and every piece of evidence to understand what possibly might have motivated this. But this is -- this is mental illness. This is, you know, dressed in evil, I suppose. And it just -- you know, it just overwhelms a community, overwhelms a state. And, obviously, as we sit here Sunday morning, it overwhelms a nation.

SCHIEFFER: We -- we understand that these guns that he took to the school were actually his mother's guns. Do we know any more about her? I mean, why would she have a collection of guns? What was that about?

MALLOY: Well, apparently, she -- she collected guns. There have been stories of her friends in the gun collecting arena. We have the permits. We know when they were sold, each one of these weapons. We certainly know -- we certainly know the impact of those weapons. But, you know, she came from a -- New Hampshire and apparently had owned guns most of her life. That's what we're -- that's what we're reading in the paper. But that all will be looked into as well. I mean, there is a reality here that we have 32,000, 33,000 deaths as a result of gun violence in the United States. Eighteen thousand of those are suicides. If you have a gun in your home, it's -- there's a good chance it's going to be used against you or a family member, 32,000 a year is what we're talking about.

SCHIEFFER: You have some very tough gun laws in Connecticut. Is there anything else that needs to be done here, either at the local or at the national level?

MALLOY: Well, you know when someone can walk -- when someone can use an assault weapon to enter a building, actually shoot out that which was preventing him from getting in the building, have clips of up to 30 rounds on a weapon that can almost instantaneously fire those, you have to start to question whether assault weapons should be allowed to be distributed the way they are in the United States. You're right, Connecticut has pretty tough regulations, but, obviously, they didn't prevent this woman from acquiring that weapon, and, obviously, allowed the son to come into possession of those and use them in a most disastrous way, a most vicious way.

SCHIEFFER: What do you want now from your legislature and from Congress? What would you like to see happen? Have you had time to think about that?

MALLOY: You know, I haven't had a whole lot of time to think about the national implications. I'm trying to help my state and this small community recover. You know, it was just Friday afternoon that I had to break it to 40 families that their loved one -- excuse me, 20 families that their loved one would not be returning to them that day or in the future. We're in the process of grieving, of attempting to recover. We have a church here that's going to have eight funerals over the coming days. We're lending every asset we can to this community, whether it's our troopers who are handling the investigation, or our troopers who are directing traffic, every community in the surrounding area wants to do everything they can to help Newtown and its citizens.

SCHIEFFER: I understand, Governor, that the children are going back to school, what, Wednesday, is it? Will they be ready to go back to school?

MALLOY: Well, you know, I think that that's a decision for parents to make. It's our obligation to open a school, and that's what we'll do. And, obviously, I think a lot of people would get back to -- would like to get back to whatever normal will look like as quickly as possible. The school system itself, the broader school system, I think, will start classes on Tuesday, is what I've heard. A replacement building for the building in this tragedy is being worked on, and should be open by Wednesday.

SCHIEFFER: Well, Governor, it goes without saying our hearts go out to you and your community. Thank you so much.

MALLOY: Thank you.

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