MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

Interview

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SCHULTZ: Do we need deterrence on the House floor? Joining me now is Virginia Congressman Jim Moran. Jim, good to have you with us tonight. I mean, if this isn"t Tea Party legislation on steroids, I don"t know what is. But the scary thing is I think that this actually might have a chance to pass in the House with that many Republicans. What do you think about this whole thing?

REP. JIM MORAN (D), VIRGINIA: I"m sure that President Obama would certainly not sign it if--if it was necessary.

SCHULTZ: But it would make a statement to the Tea Party.

MORAN: Well, I think that"s what they"re trying to do. This was the NRA"s reaction after a mentally imbalanced person with the same kind of gun killed 32 people on the Virginia Tech campus just a few years ago. They thought that more students should be armed and I suppose they think that that little 9-year-old girl should have been packing heat.

I can"t understand it, Ed. It seems to me we"re supposed to be an example to our constituents and I would think that--that most Americans understand there are too many guns in our society. We have over 270 million. You know you did a terrific job last night in explaining how you go hunting with your family in the Dakotas and you know that"s a sport and it"s a tradition but it has nothing to do, these guns, with that kind of hunting nor does it have to do with self-defense.

What we"re trying to do, which seems reasonable, is to limit the number of rounds in a magazine to two. Excuse me, to 10. That was in the Assault Weapons Ban, which we allowed to expire. At least 10 fewer people would had been shot had that been the case and I can"t understand any rational argument for not, at least restricting the size of the magazines to 10. But we"re up against, I think, a pretty extreme ideology. And the idea that they think that members of Congress should be packing heat when we go to discuss issues as though we--well--

SCHULTZ: It"s remarkable.

MORAN: It almost leaves you speechless.

SCHULTZ: It"s the most tone deaf legislative proposal I think I"ve ever heard.

MORAN: But unfortunately it"s not surprising.

SCHULTZ: Yeah.

MORAN: That has been the attitude of the NRA, Tom DeLay promoted that. Louie Gohmert was a judge in Texas before he got elected to the Congress. There are a lot of members of the Congress that feel that way. I can"t believe it"s a majority though, Ed.

SCHULTZ: Congressman Jim Moran, good to have you with us tonight.

Thanks so much.

MORAN: Always good to be with you.

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