MARTHA MACCALLUM (HOST): What do you think about what Marco Rubio had to say there?
MARK KELLY: Well, I'm curious if Senator Rubio actually read the executive orders that are being announced today. Because when you look at them, they are pretty commonsense things that most Americans support. I mean, the concept of having the people there 24 hours a day to conduct the background checks, $500 million more to mental health treatment, the requirement that if people have their guns stolen that gets reported. And then expanding background checks. You know, we've got this huge loophole where people conduct numerous transactions every year over the Internet and at gun shows and are allowed to sell guns to felons and domestic abusers without first checking their background. These are things that 90 percent of Americans support.
MACCALLUM: Yeah. You know, I think that the concern on the part of a number of the candidates is the slippery slope issue. That they feel that freedoms are being taken away. And I heard you talking about this in an interview yesterday, I believe. That people don't want to feel like they are losing of any of their rights. And we're in an environment in this country now where I think people do feel that they're losing power to the federal government and they're not happy about it.
KELLY: Yeah, I understand that, you know, that's why I mentioned it the other day on another show, is that people in the middle part of the country, they feel they're losing things You know, I lived in Texas for 17 years, I now live in Arizona. I've lived in rural parts of the country. I'm a gun owner. I understand how gun ownership is important not only to a lot of these folks in rural America, but to myself as well. And it's important to my wife. But at the same time, you know, we have a high rate of gun violence. And I think most people don't like to know that they live in a country, you know, where we have 33,000 people murdered or die from gun violence every year. I mean these are really high numbers. And there's some simple steps we can take to do something about it. So I think we can have it both ways. I mean, the Second Amendment can be strong and vibrant, and responsible gun owners like myself and like my wife can own how many guns we want. At the same time we can keep them out of the hands of criminals.
