The tragedy in Newtown has sparked a heated national discussion about guns and gun violence. According to the centers for disease control, over 100,000 people were shot or killed with a firearm last year. Democratic Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee is a Senior Member of the House Homeland Security and Judiciary Committees. She is working on a new bill calling for an immediate ban on all assault weapons among other gun control measures that she says can prevent more horrific mass murders. She joins “Early Start” live from Houston this morning regarding the gun control debate and the Newtown School Shooting.
“The whole nation mourns,” Rep. Jackson Lee says, “and I think this is a significant moment in history, bar none, that surpasses any of the other horrific tragedies that we’ve faced and the call is for action.” Rep. Lee says she hopes to collabborate with members of Congress to create legislation dealing with a ban on assault weapons as well as closing the gun show loop hole.
Rep. Jackson Lee also stresses the need to start a national dialogue on gun legislation along both sides of the aisle and with both houses together. "We've got to stop this divide between, 'you want to take my guns,'" she says. "This is a national dialogue not about the Second Amendment," Rep. Jackson Lee says. "But it is a dialogue about saving lives, and that's what this gun regulation legislation would be, not gun control."