CNN "Anderson Cooper 360" - TRANSCRIPT Seven Killed In Apparent "Workplace Violence" In Half Moon Bay As California Suffers Three Mass Shootings In 44 Hours; McCarthy Denies Reps. Adam Schiff & Eric Swalwell Seats On House Intelligence Committee; Double Murder Trial Of Alex Murdaugh Expected To Begin Tomorrow. Aired 9-10p ET

Interview

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COOPER: Joining us now, is Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, who's been where Governor Newsom is, tonight, in the wake of the mass murder, at Sandy Hook Elementary School, 10 years ago.

Senator Murphy, appreciate you joining us.

You hear the anger there, from Governor Newsom, understandably. And, as you know, California has some of the strongest gun laws, in the country. What more, in your opinion, can be, should be, done?

SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Well, the problem is guns don't pay much attention to state boundaries. California can have strong laws. Connecticut can have strong laws. But weapons cross state lines. And so, these assault-style weapons that are used in these mass

shootings, you can't buy them in California and Connecticut. But you can buy them in Texas, and Georgia, and easily transport them into our states.

Same things with the crime guns that get used in Hartford and Los Angeles, the illegal gun trade, those, guns move from states, with very loose background checks, where criminals and gun traffickers can easily buy guns, into states with more rigorous background checks.

So, until we have a federal law, banning these mass murder assault weapons, and requiring everybody, to go through a background check, before they buy a gun, the State laws are of limited efficacy. And I think that's the frustration, the deserved frustration, you're hearing, from Gavin, tonight.

COOPER: According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 40 mass shootings, to date, just in 2023, so far.

President Biden is, again, urging Congress pass an assault weapons ban. As you know, that wasn't realistic, even in the last Congress, never mind now with the Republican House majority.

Is it clear to you whether the President has a plan B?

MURPHY: Well, listen, there's certain Executive actions that the President can continue to take. He's implementing the law that we passed, last year.

But I also don't accept that we can't get this done. I understand that right now, it's hard to figure out, how an assault weapons ban passes the Senate, and the House.

But only a month before Uvalde, people would have never guessed that we would have been able to close the boyfriend loophole, fund red flag laws, put more rigorous background checks on younger buyers.

All of that was made possible because the people of this country rose up, and told the Republicans that they were going to be voted out of office, if they didn't do something. And so, I still have hope that the voters of this country are going to command Republicans, to step up, and do the right thing.

Now, I'd love to ban assault weapons. I know that during the 10 years that we didn't allow them, to be sold, commercially, in this country, we had a dramatic decrease, in the number of mass shootings. As soon as that ban expired, the mass shootings started going upward again.

But if we can't ban assault weapons, then let's look at raising the age to 21, before you can buy a weapon. Let's require background checks, at the very least, for these military-style rifles. There are things that we can do short of a ban that I hope Congress will look at, if we can't get the ban done.

COOPER: San Mateo County Sheriff, Christina Corpus, spoke to CNN, earlier today, and said that the shooting, in Half Moon Bay, yesterday, opened their eyes, to people snapping. She said, quote, "It's not just the guns," and urged a multi-pronged approach, to also deal with mental health.

What would that look like to you? Does that make sense to you?

MURPHY: Well, I mean, listen, people snap, all over the world, right? America isn't the only place with people, whose brains are breaking. We're not the country with more mental illness than other countries.

It's just in this country, we have a fetishization of weaponry, lethal weaponry, and ease of access to the tools of mass murders, such that people have these moments of mental crisis, and then they have easy access to weapons. Other countries just don't allow that.

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So, listen, I'm all for expending more on mental health. In fact, the gun bill, we passed, last year, put $15 billion additional dollars, into mental health. But I've never thought that we are going to solve our gun problem, our gun violence problem, without tightening up our gun laws, because America just doesn't have a bigger mental illness problem than other countries. We're just the only country that has all of these gun murders.

COOPER: When you look, I mean, at just a few of the shootings, from the past few days, a dance studio, in Monterey Park, a school, in Iowa, a workplace, in Half Moon Bay? I mean, the victims were going about their daily lives, collectively.

What do you think that does to us? I mean, what does that do to a nation's psyche? I mean, do people realize the toll, this takes, on a country?

MURPHY: No, I mean, listen, I think about my kids, right? I mean, we all think about our kids. I've got a middle-schooler, and an elementary school student, and they go through their active shooter drills. Our kids don't feel safe anywhere in this country. Obviously now, many workers are not going to feel safe.

I think we have to be smart about this. The way to approach this problem is to get these guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

I don't want our country turned into an armed encampment. I don't think the solution is for there to be armed police officers, outside of every single church, every single workplace, every single school. That's not the environment that is conducive to making us healthier individuals.

So, to me, yes, we got to invest in some level of new security, in public spaces. But we have to get these illegal guns, off the street. We have to get these dangerous weapons out of the hands of dangerous people. That's the solution to make our country safer.

COOPER: And just, finally, I want to ask you about CNN reporting, the former Vice President Pence lawyer found classified documents, at Mr. Pence's Indiana home. Clearly, it's a problem that affects both parties. Does there need to be some sort of overhaul, to how classified documents are handled?

MURPHY: I guess so. I mean, this is news, to a lot of us, in Congress. I didn't know that you could take classified documents, out of the United States Capitol. Perhaps, there were different rules, at the White House.

So obviously, we've got to have a better system to make sure that classified documents, at the White House, are handled, maybe in the same way that, they're handled in Congress, where you can't leave the building, with them, in your hand.

But it looks like Vice President Pence approached this, the same way that President Biden did, which was, once he found out that he had taken these documents, that they were in his house, he immediately alerted the authorities.

Very different than President Trump, who essentially was being pulled over for speeding, and led the cops, on a high-speed chase, for a couple weeks.

So, I'm glad that Vice (ph) President Pence is cooperating just like President Biden was. But yes, we got to take a broader look at why all these classified documents are getting out of safe spaces.

COOPER: Senator Chris Murphy, appreciate it. Thank you.

MURPHY: Thank you.

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