MSNBC "Hardball with Chris Matthews" - Transcript
Interview
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REP. CAROLYN MCCARTHY (D), NEW YORK: Well, I"m hoping--today, we spent we spent the day in Congress basically saying--giving our prayers and our thoughts. And hopefully the nation will heal on what happened in Arizona.
And the good news is that Gabby is doing much better and off the
respirator. The problem is--and you know I have been fighting for this -
ever since I came to Congress. And I can"t believe it"s 17 years that I have been doing this.
So, there are a lot of guns out there. OK. We probably can"t get anything done as far as the guns itself. I"m talking about the large clips, the magazine clips that we used in the shooting, not only in Arizona, but certainly on the Long Island railroad train, when my husband was killed and my son was injured, but many, many other incidents through the years.
All I"m saying to gun owners, come on, work with me. I"m not trying to take away your gun. I"m trying to make this country safer. I"m trying to save lives. And I"m trying to make sure that there aren"t more injuries out there.
And what the answer I get is, well, I"m a sportsman. I want to use it for target practice.
You know, you got to have a balance here. And we need to stop this rhetoric and try to save lives. That"s what I"m here for.
MATTHEWS: Let me go to the sergeant at arms.
Mr. Gainer, thank you, Terrance Gainer, sergeant at arms of the Senate. I respect you. You have got a major post there to protect the United States Senate.
Let me ask you, what do you think of Congressman Peter King"s idea that we draw a line of 1,000 feet around every member of Congress and say you can"t knowingly bring a gun within their radius?
TERRANCE GAINER, U.S. SENATE SERGEANT AT ARMS: Well, Chris, I guess they all have to be explored.
Over the years, I have seen a lot of different laws like that, stay away from schools, stay away from this, stay away from that. Sometimes, I think it"s not an issue do we have enough laws to charge somebody. I think it"s a little bit more complicated than that.
MATTHEWS: Well, what about the proposal that Bob Brady--the congressman from Pennsylvania is coming on to talk about his, which would include Congress in the law you can"t threaten a president or a vice president. He would include both members of Congress and congressmen-elect from that. You couldn"t threaten them with violence and you couldn"t--and here"s a more tricky question. You can"t incite someone to commit violence against such people.
Are those laws practicable? Do you think they would ever get anywhere?
GAINER: Well, I think there should be some equity in what laws apply
to the members of Congress and the executive branch. So, I think it needs
to be explored
When you get into one end of the continuum where it gets a little sketchy, it sometimes gets a little harder for police officers, but I guess you can figure that out with a good prosecutor.
I think the other point for me is not one thing causes these homicides and murders, and not one thing will solve them.
MATTHEWS: Let me get back to Carolyn McCarthy about the general culture we live in.
We all grew up with cowboy and Indians as part of our culture, the idea of people who live out in the country want to have to protect themselves. I completely understand that. I don"t buy the idea you need guns to protect yourself from your government. That"s perhaps an ideological issue with some people.
But here we see in Arizona--did you see this, Congresswoman? In the last few day, the sales of the Glock 19, the model, the very model used in the shootings of last weekend, has jumped up 60 percent in Arizona.
Down in South Carolina, the Palmetto State Armory is now selling a Joe Wilson special. It"s an AR-15. And on the bottom of the stock or somewhere, it"s got the initials "You lie"--rather, the words "You lie": in honor of Joe Wilson saying the president lies.
What is this provocation, I guess could you call it, in terms of that, selling guns that mock a president as part of the hardware?
MCCARTHY: Well, Chris, when you think about it, we"re talking about two different things going on here.
One, I have never seen such disrespect towards a president, any president. I certainly have disagreed with presidents in the past, but I certainly wouldn"t say anything disrespectful toward them. They are my president. He was elected.
On the other, as far as the sale of Glocks, that"s because there"s a lot of misinformation out there that I"m trying to take away their guns. I"m not doing that. All I"m doing is saying the large-capacity clips that are being sold today, which were banned for 10 years--and we certainly know that those sales went down at that time--that we don"t need these kind of clips for the civilians.
Our police officers, our military, yes, they need it. And one other thing. With the Glock, you can still have, because we"re taking the language from the assault weapons ban, a clip with 10 bullets in it and one in the chamber. So, how many bullets do you need in a gun even if you"re going use it to protect yourself?
MATTHEWS: I don"t know what sport people engage in that needs 30 rounds. I know, in shooting pheasant, I hear from Ed Schultz that you use three. It"s under the law. You"ve got to have a pretty good aim. You should not be out there shooting if you don"t.
Let me go back to the sergeant at arms. Are you worried about the security of the United States Senate, sir, right now?
GAINER: I"m not. I think the Capitol Police up here, our cooperation with the other agencies, we have it firmly under control.
MATTHEWS: Well, as a former member of the Capitol Police, I"m confident you"re right, sir.
Thank you, U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy.
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