From Today's Show Rosie is very sad today, because of the shooting yesterday in Colorado. :( She says that she's going to cry as she's talking about it. She says that the mothers in the country are going to lead the movement to get guns out of the homes where there are children. She tells mothers who have a gun in their house to take the gun to the police station and to leave it there. She says that the only thing worse than being a parent of one of the boys who were killed is perhaps being the parent of one of the boys who apparently did the shooting. She says that the news media has portrayed the boys as monsters because of their "Trench Coach Mafia" group. She says that is sensationalism, and that just because they were a part of a group doesn't mean they are monsters. She and Jackie and Jeannie had a clique when they were in high school, but it didn't mean they were violent offenders. She says that the kids are just "our kids," just like any of the kids in the audience or watching at home. Then she shares some gun statistics with us. She has called Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy to be on the show to share. Her husband was killed and her son wounded on the Long Island Railroad in a massacre a few years ago. She is now speaking out against gun violence in Congress. Rosie says that as a society we are responsible for the images that we put out on television and the effects that they have on people. 2. CONGRESSWOMAN CAROLYN MCCARTHY Mrs. McCarthy is the primary sponsor of the Children's Gun Violence Protection Act of 1999. She was in a meeting on healthcare when she heard the news. She says that all of the memories of her own circumstances came back when she was told, so she knows what the families of the victims are going through. She says that we shouldn't put blame on any one person, that everyone in a child's life need to work on picking up signals and then working with them. While wearing the trenchcoats don't necessarily mean trouble, there were apparently other signals that no one picked up on. Mrs. McCarthy says that a lot more people have guns today, but don't take care of them properly (locking them up, etc.). If you own a gun, it's your responsibility to make sure that no one else can get those guns. Rosie wants to know if there is any way we can ban assault rifles. They were banned in 1994, but there was a "grandfather clause" that said that any guns that were already made could be sold. Therefore, there are a lot of automatic guns still out on the street. Mrs. McCarthy believes that one voice can make a difference. Mothers should talk to their kids about guns. They should also (fathers, too) should let their voices be heard in the halls of Congress and the Senate. Rosie thinks that the only people who should have guns are police. She says that in 1997 5,840 children were killed in the United States. That's 16 children a day. Mrs. McCarthy says that we can e-mail out Congressmen and Senators that we want changes made. We should make a difference and have our voices heard. Mrs. McCarthy is sponsoring a bill that would stress education and responsibility for gun users. Part of the bill would also entail that through technology that exists only owners of the guns would actually be able to use them. Rosie asks about the law that didn't pass about having child locks on guns. Mrs. McCarthy says that reason people were upset about that law was that people were concerned that people who had a gun in their home for protection wouldn't be able to get the gun ready for use fast enough. However, she says that she has a number of those locks in her office and can get them all unlocked in under 8 seconds. Mrs. McCarthy says that the NRA is one reason that bills such as that one don't pass, because they're very powerful. Rosie says she'd like to start the NGA (the No Gun Association) and get other celebrities to make public service announcements to rally around that cause. Mrs. McCarthy says that in the NRA's defense, there are a lot of their members who have broken off from the NRA leadership, because they don't agree with them. Mrs. McCarthy also said that when she travels around people don't understand why Americans are so crazy with their weapons. Rosie says that she spoke with Mike Myers (who is Canadian) yesterday and that he doesn't understand why American's allow this. Rosie says that this kind of thing does not happen in any other civilized nation in the world. Mrs. McCarthy says that the sad truth is that what happened in Colorado yesterday is likely to happen again. Rosie says that she wants everyone to remember that 16 kids a day are killed in the United States and wants us to write to the people in Congress to tell them that we want the gun violence to stop. The phone number for the Center to Prevent Hand Gun Violence is (202) 289-7319. The web address is http://www.cphv.org.
