Pletka: Nobody Wants to Talk About What It Take to Solve Shootings Because It’s ‘Unpalatable’ in the U.S.
HELENE COOPER: We have a data point that's coming up on March 24th with this. You know, people are already talking about this national march on Washington. I'm very curious to see whether we are going to see thousands upon thousands of people coming up. But we're talking about it too. When we're talking about a tipping point, you, at some point, you know, you have to ask whether the voices of these kids, these kids who are going to the capitals, who are going, standing before Congress, who are standing before the White House, who--
(OVERTALK)
CHUCK TODD: Look, we have a change. Brian Mast, a Republican member of Congress, not far from where the shooting took place, he came up with the assault weapons ban.
DANIELLE PLETKA: But shockingly enough in Washington, it is reasonable to ask one question. The march is great, I agree with you, I think we have reached a tipping point. We all agree about these issues. Is this going to solve this problem? We have a debate about what we can all do politically to make the kids go away and to make the lobbyists go away. But what is going to solve this problem? And the answer is nobody wants to talk about that. Because it's unpalatable in the United States.
DAVID BRODY: Well, and it's also cultural. And just real quick, mental health I think is going to be where this debate is going to go.
CHUCK TODD: There's no doubt. But you can't do one without the other. And I think we all know that.
HELENE COOPER: But that's where we get back to the whole middling around the edges thing again.
JOSH EARNEST: You know, President Obama wrote an op-ed in January of 2016 basically suggesting that Democrats, if they care about this issue, need to be single-issue voters in the same way that N.R.A. supporters are. And I think that that really is going to be the question in this Conor Lamb race, right?
CHUCK TODD: Is it real.
JOSH EARNEST: Are we willing to give up a golden opportunity to enhance our chances in the midterm elections by voting against somebody who says they don't support an assault weapons ban? That's a question that Pennsylvania voters are going to have to ask themselves.
