Cheney worried about gun safety proposals

>>> president obama is charging ahead on one of the big promises of his second term. gun control . already this year he signed 23 executive actions on gun safety . and he's keeping up the pressure on congress to pass new gun laws . today a big shift from senate majority leader harry reid who famously has been lukewarm on gun control . reid now says he will make sure lawmakers get a chance to vote on reform.

>> within my power to bring legislation dealing with gun and violence generally to the floor.

>> but of course the right wing doesn't think we need any new gun legislation. just look who's on fox news offering up his wisdom on gun safety .

>> i'm worried that in effect what happens here in this situation is that we may end up in a situation where you get a proposal or a proposition that does, in fact, threaten the rights of law-abiding americans.

>> former vice president dick cheney 's worried about gun safety proposal. do he think we forgot about this?

>> a hunting accident involving vice president dick cheney . bird shot fired from the vice president's weapon apparently wounded a fellow hunter during a shooting outing on a private ranch in texas.

>> mr. cheney sprayed him with shot gun pellets while trying to hit a quail.

>> apparently the vice president then took a shot at a bird from a second kcoffey of quail.

>> the man who shot his friend in the face is now the gop's expert on gun safety . that friend recovered. cheney's reputation never did.

>> 78-year-old harry whittington , the first person shot by a sitting veep since alexander hamilton . hamilton, of course, was shot in a duel with aaron burr over issues of honor, sbeg rety and political maneuvering. whittington was mistaken for a bird.

>> this country needs real solutions on guns. now. joining me now is dana milbank . dana, did fox news just miss the irony of dick cheney talking about gun safety proposals?

>> well, irony has never been the strong point of the former vice president, but we can say that he has retained his ability to shoot from the hip . but he -- he's -- he is a remarkable spokesman on this issue. we can be pleased that he did not as harry whittington is happy he did not have an assault gun that day in the woods. but i suspect that the republicans will not bring him out as their main spokesman on the gun issue henceforth.

>> but, you know, what has really caught my attention, in just three weeks democrats in the house and of course in the senate have already proposed several laws to combat gun violence from child gun access prevention to senator feinstein's assault weapons ban proposal. democrats have introduced 12 bills dedicated to gun safety . but then you see the extreme right, the ugliness on the other side. example, yesterday nia helsin who's the father of a 6-year-old killed in sandy hook testified at a hearing on gun violence . this is the father. lost a 6-year-old kid in the school in newtown. as he was talking, he was actually heckled by a gun activist. listen to this.

>> why? anybody in this room needs to have one of these assault style weapons or military weapons or high-capacity clips. and not one person can answer that question. forgive me.

>> second amendment shall not be infringed.

>> all right.

>> please, please, no comments while mr. heslin is speaking. or we'll clear the room.

>> i get it we can disagree on the bills. we can disagree on the interpretation of the second amendment, but we are not even 60 days since this man lost his 6-year-old child for going to school with 19 others and we're going to just had heckle and disrespect him. to me it is amazingly insensitive how the pro-gun extremists are on the issue.

>> it seems to be a new level of depravity that a man who had gone through that grieving so recently needs to be heckled by second amendment activists. i think it's instructive because it shows why the odds are so stacked against gun control right now. and what harry reid said today is important because the senate is going to have to move on this. you can be sure the house isn't going to do anything if they don't have to. so they have to see what gets through the senate first. and what you see from the outrageousness of a dozen folks heckling the father of the slain child is that side, the program has an intensity that has been generally lacking on the other side. the president, the democrats are trying to maintain that this is why the longer this goes on, the more difficulty they'll have getting this through. but it seems they have momentum on items like the background check . nobody's expecting the assault gun ban gets reinstated.

>> wait a minute. you say momentum. tell me why you feel momentum and tell me how much momentum. is it enough to really carry some things?

>> to carry some things. certainly if the president is investing a lot of political capital in this, he can make this happen. it depends on what he wants to take that political capital away from. is that a jobs bill? is that immigration? can he keep this laser focus on. because you know the nra and its allies are going to be rallying their forces at every turn here. they are going to keep up their intensity. going to be another absurd situation of the nra fresh from making an ad going after the president's children is now going to -- wayne lapierre is going to appear on the hill and come out against simple background checks .

>> against simple background checks . it doesn't get any crazier than that. dana milbank , thanks for your time tonight.

>> thanks, reverend.

>>> coming up, threats to the president's second term agenda. and what can -- what you can do. that can be helpful.

>>> plus hillary clinton dancing right