VIDEO: Sen. Toomey, Manchin Talk Gun Control on CBS THIS MORNING

Apr. 11, 2013
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Sen. Pat Toomey (R-PA) and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) discussed their gun control bill and expectations they'll reach a 60-vote threshold to move the bill to the next step in an interview broadcast today, April 11, 2013, on "CBS THIS MORNING" on the CBS Television Network (7:00 AM – 9:00 AM).

During the interview, Manchin told co-hosts Norah O'Donnell and Anthony Mason that the bill will "do a tremendous amount of good to keep guns out of the hands of people that shouldn't have them, and I think people recognize that."

"What we need to do is try to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerously mentally ill people," Toomey said. "That's the problem and that's what our bill will make some progress on." Watch the interview in full below!

Excerpts from the transcript follow:

O'DONNELL: With us now from Capitol Hill, the senators who drafted the bipartisan compromise on background checks. West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin and Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey. Sen. Manchin, let me begin with you. I saw how emotional you got, even cried, with the families of those Newtown victims yesterday. What did you tell them, and were they satisfied with your bill, your compromise, even though it may not have prevented a tragedy like what happened at Newtown?

MANCHIN: I've never met any people so strong. I can only imagine, and I did get emotional at the end when I was asked, what do you think can be done? Do you think this does enough? And you start thinking, I have children, I have grandchildren, and I know that Pat and I come from strong families, and it was just overwhelming how they can endure and be so strong and come up there and not ask for things that they have assumed that can't be done here. They are rational, they're reasonable, they're practical and they've said, "listen, this is a great step, we closed down loopholes on gun shows, we've stopped any so-called loopholes on Internet sales, we've really gotten a hold of what we've done and we've done it right." My good friend Pat and I have worked on this and I'm very proud to be standing here with him. It was a very emotional day yesterday. But if you don't grow from their strength, I don't know what you can grow from.

O'DONNELL: Let me ask you both then to address the criticism. They say that your compromise will do next to nothing. That it includes no assault weapons ban, there's no curb on giant ammo clips, no background checks on individual sales. That it really is a weak compromise. Your response?

TOOMEY: I'll take the first shot on that, if you don't mind. I would strongly disagree. Look, the problems that we have are not law-abiding gun owners like Joe and myself. And we don't need, in my view, to put restrictions on what law-abiding people can do. What we need to do is try to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and dangerously mentally ill people. That's the problem, and that's what our bill will make some progress on. There's no panacea here, and I'm sure Joe's experienced separately meeting with the families and was amazed at their strength, that they understand that there is no panacea. But a measure that makes it harder for violent criminals and the dangerously mentally ill to get guns, that's just common sense.


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