Despite Obama’s passionate plea, gun legislation faces obstacles in Congress

>>> night, president obama 's emotional appeal, for congress to at least vote, at least have a vote on new gun laws did not impress marco rubio , as the florida senator made it abundant clear this morning on cbs.

>> first of all, our heart is broken for those people as i said last night. all of us would want to prevent that from happening again. and anything that would work to prevent that again we should want to vote on. the problem is, everything the president is proposing would do nothing to prevent what happened in newtown.

>> new york congresswoman carolyn mccarthy joins me now and of course a leader for new gun safety laws and was in the chamber last night. first of all, your response to marco rubio and as to whether the president's call for a vote on some of these proposals is go together make a difference?

>> well, thank you for having me here, i have to say, even know i was in the chamber and i had brought someone who suffered from gun violence from my hometown, i have to say i don't believe he was actually talking to us. he was talking to the american people . i also know he was talking to victims not only in the chamber but across the country. and i think that's what we need to do and i think he did that on purpose. we understand that the majority of american people do believe that we need to do and should do and can do something to reduce gun violence . you know, you met me during my first run for election, and i ran on the gun issue. and it's been certainly a very long, long journey to be to be very honest with you. but i do believe with my heart and soul that we can get something to do, to reduce gun violence in this country.

>> congresswoman, do you think that -- what do you think is actually going to get through? is it going to be the sort of lowest common denominator in terms of consensus, background checks perhaps that the nra once supported at least? or is it going to be something that the government gets to controlling handguns? and i know the assault rifle , a separate issue among many of the law enforcement . the handguns, we had the parents of the teenager of chicago, hadiya pendleton sitting with the first lady last night. nothing could have been more heartbreaking than seeing those people and seeing others. and your pain is of more distant years but no less raw to you. you lost your husband and your son was was grievously injured.

>> you know, i look at it with handguns. on some of the things we are going to be doing. closing the gun show loophole because most of those guns are illegal guns. they're not people that went through their background checks and bought these guns. the majority of them are buying them on the black market . they're going to the gun shows. they're getting them over the internet. so legislation that we're talking about can stop that. it's not going to stop immediately. but it's something we can do long term to save lives. you know when you're talking about over 11,000 homicides a year, i understand that people say, well, you're only going to be able maybe correct 8% to 12%. well, that 8% to 12% are quite a few number of people's lives. they don't even talk about the lives that we can possibly save from serious injury. i believe that we can actually do something. i'm hoping that my republican colleagues will certainly work with us to pass legislation. and i believe we can. we're waiting for the senate because it's going to be easier for us on the house side, for them to come over with a bill. we can adjust it if we can, but it will push the house side to take something up. and i think that's important.

>> congresswoman, briefly, isn't there also a big problem among democrats? this is a regional issue as well. you've got democrats from rural areas and other parts of the country, beyond the northeast, who are as fiercely opposing any kind of new gun laws as are republican members.

>> to be very honest with you, if you look on the democratic side, yes, we have members that come from areas that this is not going to be a great vote for them but you know what, let them vote no. but we have identified and certainly through polling and everything, we're only identifying eight democrats that would have a real problem for voting for anything. on the republican side , there are a lot more republicans that should be voting with us that will not hurt them. so, again, we're trying to make sure that republicans and democrats -- and by the way, andrea, i happen to think that here in congress, we are hired to make tough votes. and many of us, on both sides of the aisle over the years have made tough votes. i've always felt that i certainly want to continue working here. i enjoy working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. but if i have to make a vote that maybe my whole district will disapprove of me, but it's good for the whole country, and they fire me, then that's what i'm here for. there's so many subjects that come up besides the gun issue that certainly immigration issue. i was always for reform immigration. back on long island it was not a popular subject. but it was my job to teach people that. the same with the gun issue. try to understand a lot of things that we're hearing, the rhetoric that we're hearing are not true. all we're trying to do is have gun safety . cut down on the amount of people that die and then we have done our job.

>> carolyn mccarthy , always good to talk to you. thank you very much, congressman.

>> thank you for having me.