Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Hurricane Nate will hit land fall tonight possibly as a category two hurricane; Vice President Mike Pence gave speech in Las Vegas; Investigators are digging through every dimension the Las Vegas shooter's life; The hurricane is speeding toward the gulf coast of the United States; Aired 4-5p ET

Aired October 7, 2017 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:00:26] ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: She is a power house athlete, a single mother and amputee. This week's CNN heroes was 17 when a drunk driver slammed into her. But in losing her leg, she gain a power to lift others up. With her transformational support group and fitness program, she is now giving hope to a community often over looked. Meet Mona Patel.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MONA PATEL, CNN HERO: Once you lose a part of our body, there is just so many questions. Will I ever be able to work again? How will I take care of my children?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your strength of learning how to walk. It is a new world.

PATEL: Part of my job is to remind people that we are so much more than just a body part. We can either laydown and let our circumstances over take us or we can stand up and take charge.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: To see Mona and the team of amputees taking charge and take on the world, go to CNNheroes.com right now.

At the top of the hour, you are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I am Ana Cabrera in New York. Thank you for being here.

Hurricane warning right now for the people on the gulf coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. Hurricane Nate will hit land fall tonight possibly as a category two hurricane. Officials are telling everyone on the coast, especially east of New Orleans to get to safety.

CNN Kaylee Hartung is in downtown, New Orleans. Our meteorologist Tom Sater is at the CNN severe weather center.

Kaylee, to you in just a moment. But Tom, firs to you, give us the time line when will landfall happen

and what kind of condition are we talking about?

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: WELL, Ana, in the next hour we will have an update from the national hurricane center. The previous update had at about 190 miles still offshore. But of course that was a couple of hours ago.

This is moving at incredible speed right now which is good news and bad news. The good news is storms that are moving at 25 miles per hour. These kinds of hurricanes, they cannot rapidly intensify. They don't like to move this fast. They need that slow movement over that warm water to intensify. However, 90 miles per hour sustained winds, we are only of six miles per hour away from a category two. So most likely, that is going to happen. And it looks like it is going to be east of New Orleans and that's where most of the damage will be. Still we could have maybe a possible land fall and Plaquemines Parish.

The ring bands now making their way through New Orleans, getting up to Baton Rouge as well. Notice the brighter colors here. This outer band I think is going to have a good potential of giving us the possibility of some tornados.

We have already have water spouts that have been reported. Gulf shore earlier had tornado warnings. But again, as you look at these bands that moving into the region, it is interesting to note that this is a precursor things to come because most of the rainfalls seems to be on the northern end of the center core. With that is threat for possible tornadoes.

Now, let me show you quickly, a visual image, this is a ghost 16 visual imagery, visual satellite. And what you are going to see here, and I am going to point out to you, notice the high ridge here, maybe hard to see on this. But here is your tornado threat on the northern band and now we are starting to see a little bit of an eye form. Hard to see on the satellite imagery but it is better to see on radar.

What we are going to be watching in the hours ahead is got to be a big surge of water. An upwelling of water underneath the core of that center. And as it slides into our region where, of course, that slow slopes of the ocean through the shoreline will create very dangerous storm surge.

I don't want anyone to underestimate this because now we are talking about the possibility of seven or eight or nine, ten, even 11 feet of storm surge.

Here, the warnings are in place. But tropical storm warnings that strand through Alabama even a watch as far north as north Georgia where when Irma through, a million-and-a-half people lost power in Georgia. So I think that is going to be a big concern as well. Wide power outages because when you take the sustained winds at 90 miles per hour which will only get stronger and then you couple that with its forward momentum from the core eastward, that north and north eastern quadrant of the storm system is going to produce some tremendous rain gusts well over 115, 120 miles per hour. We are going to have possible down trees to the Tennessee valley.

Anywhere from the center of the track eastward. Flight delays are going to be a big concern all the way up to New York City and maybe even around Logan up to the Boston area. But seven to 11-foot storm surge from around Plaquemines Parish, big concern in Plaquemines Parish because of the storm moving east of New Orleans, Ana. That will be north winds in toward Plaquemines Parish. Therefore, we are going to have some flooding. And that's why we have already some evacuations in Saint Bernard and (INAUDIBLE). But because it is a fast move, the rain totals should stay a little lower.

CABRERA: All right. But the storm surge sounds like would be a very serious.

SATER: Yes.

[16:05:00] CABRERA: Thank you, Tom Sater for staying top of it.

Kaylee, I know you have been driving around New Orleans, what are you seeing there? Are a lot of people remain ng tin the city and what preparations are you seeing people take?

KAYLEE HARTUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, outside the floodgates that have been built to protect the city of New Orleans, those were the areas where mandatory evacuations were ordered. People there are heeding the warnings and getting out, getting to a safe space. But here in downtown New Orleans, I mean, it is another day where rain happens to be falling.

Here, Molly is on the market. This bar is not slowing down. There is a bachelorette party here. These girls visiting from San Francisco, they are not worried about this storm in this bar. In fact, Anan, it is only close one day since it opened in the 1970s. And that was the say that hurricane Katrina hit. Even though there is a curfew in place tonight, they say they are not going close.

This restaurant as well. We met a family visiting from Chicago. I want to ask you guys again, what kinds of concerns do you have, you made these plans a while ago to come to New Orleans, but you are going to ride out the storms here. Any concerns?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're not worried. We are not worried. We will have fun, keep drinking and eating and having fun.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes!

HARTUNG: You guys told me earlier because the folks here in New Orleans don't seem concerned. Does that surprise you, ma'am?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, it does. It really does because I thought they would be locking up and everything, you know. But it is good. It is good. Good time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are here for vacation and we are going to enjoy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing is going to stop us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing is going to stop us.

HARTUNG: And Michelle over here, he has lived in the city all his life. Michelle, what's your perspective on a 7:00 p.m. curfew in effect and folks like these saying they are going to continue and enjoy your establishment and everything else that New Orleans had to offer?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we are projected to close at 7:00. But there is not going to be a bar on (INAUDIBLE) or in the city or Harris Casino close at 7:00 tonight. It is going to be a lot of fun here tonight. Don't even believe it. It is just, I don't know which I want to call it.

HARTUNG: Now, I will go ahead and say heed the warning of the 7:00 p.m. curfew, Ana. But so many people in the city of New Orleans are feeling very safe despite those warnings.

CABRERA: Yes. Interesting to see them preparing the party versus hankering down or getting out of there and heeding the warnings from officials.

Kaylee Hartung, thank you for that report.

On the phone with us now from Baton Rouge, Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards.

Governor, thank you for spending time with us. You have really made no combs (ph) about telling people they cannot underestimate this storm as we spoke about 24 hours ago. In fact, now you are telling people to prepare for a category three hurricane and you hear those folks Kaylee was talking to say they are not worried at all.

GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARD, BATON ROGUE, LOUISIANA (on the phone): Well, Ana, you know, you are always are going to have some of that and that is unfortunate. We have been told the official forecast is a category two at landfall. And that is going to happen at about 7:00 p.m. at the map of the Mississippi river Plaquemines Parish. But because there is some intensification ongoing, but the brilliant thing is to plan for plus one which means we are planning for category three.

However, at this point in time, that we have been aided most by just forward speed of the storm, 26 miles per hour, and so that's not going to allow a lot of time to drop rain. But that increase wind speed is going to increase the storm surge. So Tom was contact exactly right about. This is going to be a wind event and a storm event not a rain event. And it remain a very, very powerful storm that people cannot take too lightly.

CABRERA: So what should people be doing?

BEL EDWARDS: Well, first of all, beginning to go to the place where they want to ride the storm out. We got a number of places in south Louisiana, southeast Louisiana that is under an evacuation orders where there is mandatory or voluntary. But they need to get where they are going to be within the next hour or so because this thing is going to come ashore at 7:00 p.m. It should be out of the storm and should be the mouth of the Mississippi river. And because it is a nighttime land fall, a night time event, it just makes things much harder, people cannot see where the stand and motor is on roads, for example. It is just behooves everyone to take the storm extremely seriously and to follow directives given by local authorizes including right there in New Orleans with respect to the curfew.

CABRERA: I saw your tweet this morning, governor, about speaking with the president ahead of the storm, what did he have to say?

BEL EDWARDS: Well, he called this morning to make sure that I knew that he and the federal government were not just paying attention but leaning forward with whatever asset that we may need. And I appreciate the phone call. He did sign a free landfall declaration last night that we had asked for 17 south Louisiana parishes and I appreciate the phone call. Appreciate the assistance very much.

And we feel very good about the level of coordination of communications that we had. And some people were worry that with Harvey hitting Texas so recently that FEMA would not be ready. But I had enough conversations with them that they are back in the posture that they would normally be in after Harvey. So we feel good about that.

We just need people to not expose themselves unreasonably to the risk of harm tonight and when they do that, they also make sure that what they call first responders to have to risk their safety so we just need to do better.

[16:10:39] CABRERA: What is the plan then for the hours after the storm passes? What plans are in place to assess the damage and help people who may need it?

BEL EDWARDS: Well, the good news is with the storm moving quickly, very early tomorrow, we are going to be able to get out. The wind will not be a threat so we are going to be able to get out both on the air and on the ground. And we have certain areas where we know we have to go check on first. And that's where the title surges are going to be, the biggest.

And Tom, he hit the number exactly right. We are expecting up of 11- feet of storm surge out near (INAUDIBLE) and around Lake Parish and seven feet. And that's all aboveground level. So we will be going to those areas first. And of course, responding to any calls that we have from homeowner and surge rescue done. And we got high water vehicles station around Louisiana boat who got 1300 National Guard men who were deployed.

So we feel like we are in a pretty good place right now. But you just never know exactly what you are going to get and so we are praying for the best, not just for ourselves but for our neighbors in Mississippi and Alabama and Florida as well. CABRERA: And we join you in the as well. Governor John, Bel Edwards

from Louisiana, thank you for that. Our best wishes to the people of your state and the entire gulf coast. Good luck in the hours ahead.

BEL EDWARDS: Ana, thank you so much.

CABRERA: Thank you.

Moments ago, President Trump just tweeted. Another cryptic warning and this time is about North Korea. Stay with us. We will bring it to you when we are back.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:16:15] CABRERA: Welcome back. The vice president right now is speaking in Las Vegas. Let's listen in.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We find hope in the medical professionals in this community, the doctors and surgeons and nurses and EMTs across Las Vegas who has swift professionalism, compassion and expert care prevented an even wider tragedy.

(APPLAUSE)

PENCE: And we find hope in the everyday Americans whose heroic actions in the face of unspeakable evil inspired the nation. Among the heroes, known and unknown, a mom who shielded her 4-year-old daughter with her own body. A father who helped guide others to safety even though he been shot not once but twice. An off-duty firefighter who told his wife she had to run but he had to stay to help those in need. And an army veteran rushed to the scene to fiend his girlfriend and her mom and ended up carrying the wounded off the field.

These were everyday Americans. But every day, from this day forward, we will remember their selflessness and encourage whenever we remember the dark hour.

(APPLAUSE)

PENCE: On Sunday night, Las Vegas came face to face with pure evil, but no evil. No act of violence will ever diminish the strength and goodness of the American people. As president Trump said on Monday morning, our unity cannot be shattered by evil. Our bonds cannot be broken by violence. He said it is our love that divines us today and always will.

As I read in my devotions this morning, love binds all our virtues together in unity. And so, in the wake of this tragedy, we put on love. We find comfort in the knowledge that we are united as one nation, as one people with one voice. United in our grief and united in our support from those who suffered and united in our result ending such evil in our time.

(APPLAUSE)

CABRERA: Again, listening into the vice president. Those are live comments right now. This is an event. He is out in Las Vegas offering some healing thoughts to the community ahead of this unity prayer walk that's about to get under way remembering those lives loss and the community that's been in grieving now for almost a week.

We will keep listening. We will bring you more highlights as we continue here in the NEWSROOM.

Meantime, the President is back at the White House. He is getting ready for a trip to North Carolina. Earlier today, he was in Virginia and golf club. And just moments ago tweeted more cryptic comments this time about North Korea.

This is what he writes, Presidents and their administrations have been talking to North Korea for 25 years. Agreements made and massive amounts of money paid has not worked. Agreements violated before the ink was dry making fools of U.S. negotiators. Sorry but only one thing works.

I want to go global affairs correspondent Elise Labott.

Elise, do we know yet what the President means by only one thing will work?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, I think this is the President kind of doing what you saw him do the other day with this the calm before the storm comments, being very cryptic and kind of reality show type of stay tuned without, you know, necessarily meaning anything. I mean, clearly, what he is trying to say is, you know, trying to lean towards, you know, only military action will work with North Koreans.

And I think two things are going on. Look, he is sending a message I think to Kim Jong-un, you know, the U.S. is trying to put this pressure on North Korea. Although, you know, Kim Jong-un has been quiet for the last kind of week or so. I don't know why, you know, he is doing it all of a sudden. And I think he is also try to play with secretary of state Rex Tillerson a little bit.

You saw what happened this week with, you know, this NBC story about secretary Tillerson, calling President Trump a moron. A lot of that is, you know, playing it plays into what happened about a week ago when secretary Tillerson said that he was talking with the North Koreans and President Trump I think wanted to smack him down a little bit and say, you know, let's not waste our time. Nothing is going to work. So I don't think it really pertains any, you know, pending military action. But certainly, the President is trying to give off this madman theory.

[16:21:05] CABRERA: What are the possible consequences for a tweet like this?

LABOTT: Well, I mean, look. You know, there is obviously the, you know, the United States whose, you know, his base, it is speaking to his base, that kind of toughness that they like. But I think it is kind of signals, you know, a lack of seriousness on the President in terms of the message that he is sending not only to China who they are trying to get onboard to put more pressure but also to North Korea.

Look, Kim Jong-un, Ana, can see this in two ways. He can see this as the President declaring war against North Korea on twitter which, you know, we get his backup and perhaps get him to start firing missiles, firing on U.S. allies, maybe another nuclear test, who knows?

But the opposite which I think is actually as dangerous is that North Korea thinks that the President is bluffing because he kept on making these comments, they are not going anywhere. And if you remember a couple of weeks ago, Kim Jong-un was so incents with President Trump that he took this unusual act of making a statement in his own words. And he called the President a mentally deranged Dodder.

If you remember, everyone was kind of looking up that word.

CABRERA: What's a Dodder?

LABOTT: What is that word mean? What is a dodder? A dodder is a kind of senile and old person who, you know, it has a little bit of questions on mental fitness. And that is certainly not what you want to see have the leader of dangerous rogue country with a nuclear weapon such as North Korea seeing the U.S. President.

So whether he thinks he is declaring war or he thinks he is just bluffing and it is just a little cookie, I think equally was dangerous. And that's why I think these tweets are a little bit irresponsible.

CABRERA: And it also comes after we heard a comment earlier this week from Bob Corker who came out and said that it was Tillerson and Kelly and Mattis who are keeping things in order to some degree avoiding chaos in his words and find that the President was creating some kind of chaos.

LABOTT: That's right. And his spokesperson, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said well, it is the president that is, you know, keeping the United States away from the chaos. I think Senator Corker meant was that the President is in stilling a lot of chaos in the country, in the foreign policy.

Look, you have secretary Mattis and secretary Tillerson, General Kelly, his chief of staff who were seen as kind of the adults in the room. And they are seen, you know, having a sober, you know, more moderate foreign policy that tries to find a diplomatic solution.

There were some in the White House and you know we don't know where President Trump is because sometimes he says he supports diplomacy. Others times, you see tweets like this. You don't really know where he is. But certainly those three are trying to keep the United States on an even kill.

And the President is not controllable. He kind of says things, whether he means them or not. They send dangerous messages abroad. And I think, you know, that's why Senator Corker says everyone speaks very highly of these cabinet members that are going to give the president the, you know, best kind of advice that they could give. The question is whether President Trump is going to take it. And whether those kinds of tweets and comments that he makes make the world less or more dangerous on the United States in particular.

CABRERA: All right. Elise Labott, we always appreciate your reporting as wells as your perspective in all of this.

Up nest, new details on the investigation into the massacre in Las Vegas. What we are learning now about the hunt for the motive. We will take you live to Nevada, next.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:29:04] CABRERA: The Vice President Mike Pence is in Las Vegas today. He is honoring the victims of Sunday night mass shooting. And he spoke just moments ago. I want to play just a little bit of what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PENCE: In America, we mourn with those who mourn. We grieve with those who grieve. And I stand before you today on behalf of my family --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Looks like unfortunately.

Meanwhile, let's talk about the investigation as these investigators are digging through every dimension of the Las Vegas shooters' life. They are looking for anything that might explain why he opened fire on that crowd of 22,000 people killing 58, injuring hundreds.

Stephanie Elam is live in Las Vegas following every new lead in this investigation.

Stephanie, what evidence are police focusing on right now? And are they any closer to finding a motive?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Frustratingly, Ana, no, they are not. And you can hear the frustration as the sheriff was talking about this exact issue. Normally within the few days after something like this, authorities are able to pinpoint what the motive would have been. And that is just not the case here with this 64-year-old who they do know have been amassing weapons over several decades. But they are saying they are combing through his life, his entire footprints and social footprints from birth to when he died to see if they can figure out why he would want to do this.

What we did learn though is that there is some sort of note that was found in his room with numbers on it that they are trying to figure out what does that mean, what those numbers could potentially mean. We also know that his car was found with 1600 rounds of ammunition and 50 pounds of Tenerife, something that if it had been fired on could have exploded and could have seen another mass casualty event had that happen. Luckily, that was not the case when his car was located.

So all of this little details leading investigators, leading authorities to believe, Ana, that perhaps this individual thought he might be able to survive what he was doing in his hotel room and make it out to his car, Ana.

[16:31:10] CABRERA: I understand. You also have new details about that security guard who went up to the shooter's room apparently interrupted the attack. Why was he actually there, we are learning?

ELAM: Right, his name, this man who really is a hero here, is Jesus Campos. And he worked for the hotel. He went up there because they have received an open door alarm, not to the shooter's room but several doors down the hall. That is something that they get an alert through throughout the hotel. He was going up there to check up on that. But at the same time, the shooter saw on his camera that he had set up outside of the hotel room that this security officer was arriving, he shot through the door, shooting Campos in the leg. And what authorities believe based on their time line that the shooter did not actually shoot back out into the crowd after that encounter with Campos. So if you think about what that means, the chance of this alarm down the hall went off, the chance that Campos came up when he did may have saved so many other lives. It was also key for him to be able to pinpoint exactly where in this massive hotel behind me he was in that building so authorities were able to respond to so quickly.

CABRERA: Stephanie Elam in Las Vegas, thanks you.

I want to bring in someone who has led FBI investigation like the one going on right now. With me here in New York is CNN law enforcement analyst James Gagliano. He is a retired FBI supervisory special agent.

So James, it is hard to imagine that this guy could have a mass more than 40 guns and more than 50 pounds of explosive materials and nobody had an inkling of his plan.

JAMES GAGLIANO, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: And in the last year alone, since last October, 33 of the 47 weapons were purchased. And unfortunately, we do not have any registry when it comes to long weapons. And it didn't seems to be in anybody's radar.

He also scattered out where he purchased it from across four states and a number of gun stores. What's perplexing now are some of the things we are finding the aftermath of this horrific massacre such as the note which was left in the hotel room.

CABRERA: With just numbers on it.

GAGLIANO: Just numbers.

CABRERA: We know this guy was into numbers.

GAGLIANO: Yes, yes.

Maybe it is (INAUDIBLE) codes. It is in the hands right now of FBI cryptologist. I am sure they are going to do their due diligence to try to get it crack or it could be somebody who was playing sport with the cops after the fact. And he was the car set up as a decoy filled with Tenerife, filled with all the extra rounds to give police other things to look at and focused on. Was the note something to give, you know, give him the idea that he was going to go ahead and play the cat and mouse game even after he taken his own life.

CABRERA: If these details that are trickling out, do we have some significance, what stands out the most to you?

GAGLIANO: You know, I guess what stands out most to me right now is every lead that they get and I think the investigators and the sheriff has mentioned that there were thousands leads. Every one of those leads is going to spite a web into additional (INAUDIBLE). Every trip that he took and his girlfriend took, every cruise that he took, every quarter called that they went through.

CABRERA: Twenty cruises we have learned.

GAGLIANO: Absolutely. The FBI has 65 legal attaches in embassies around the world. Those folks right now are inundated with leads. And in the forensic piece, I mean, the cars being comb through right now. And then as you talked before about the motive, the fact that we haven't found a motive yet.

This is what is frustrating because typically these things with these mass shooters, going back as far as 1966 in the University of Texas (INAUDIBLE) shooting, there is a grievance against a person, a particular group some things so it could be a bad warning but a grievance and then it triggers it. In this instance, nothing seem to have led up to that. There were no squeeze on Facebook, you know, attacking different groups or racial epithet. There is nobody that came out and said yes, he had a hair, you know, hairpin trigger. It is just utterly baffling. I had refer to this guy as an enigma.

CABRERA: And it goes back to then what can you do and we here that now there is at least seems to be a unified call for these so-called bomb stalk to be remove. Are you surprise that there is this device that is legal that can essentially be attach to a gun and can simulate with an automatic weapon.

[16:35:14] GAGLIANO: And it was with the gun lab, he will say is there are other ways that you can make somehow automatic weapon automatic or act automatic without that device.

But here is the thing. Law enforcement in the military and I am a vet and I am former law enforcement. It is not a monolithic group. But we genuinely hue to the conservative side. We are fierce proponents of the second amendment. It has been around since 1791. It has utility. It is insanity that this device was add an aftermarket device, a gimmick, a work around, a circumvention of the law. I am going to put my hat on as a professor. I'm a St. John's professor and I teach American military history. Think about this, Ana, in ten minutes, this subject was able to kill 58 people and wound 500. That is roughly the equivalent of an American military battalion in the bloodiest battles in Iraq, in Iraq conflict in 2004. Spend November and December of 2004, the battle of Volusia, 82 men killed, 600 wounded.

Let that sink in just for a second that in ten minutes, this man was able to kill in men, almost the equivalent of the casualty loss in the battle of Volusia.

CABRERA: It was like a war felt literally.

GAGLIANO: Absolutely.

CABRERA: James Gagliano, thank you for your ongoing expertise in helping us to try to make sense of this horrific situation.

Let's talk more about the gun debate and the potential ban on bump stocks. Legal accessories for these semiautomatic rifles which the Las Vegas gunman used. They allowed the shooter to fire bullets so rapidly at a gun show that was scheduled for this weekend in Las Vegas was cancelled of light of last week's killing. But about seven hours drive, northwest of Vegas, a gun show in Reno, Nevada is going on as planned.

And CNN's Dan Simon is there. He is joining us from the cross roads gun show.

Dan, what are you hearing from attendees there in the wake of what happened in Vegas?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, first of all, there are some people in Reno who thought that this gun show should have been cancelled as well saying that the optics just are not looking good. But it is happening. A few thousand people are expected to attend over the weekend. And the one question we wanted to ask gun dealers is how they about bump stocks. Should regulations be put in place? Should bump stocks be banned? What we found is the majority of them say no, there were a couple of people who took the opposite position. You will hear both positions represented. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: Do you think bump stocks should be banned?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, absolutely not. What should be banned is bad people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It takes four or six minutes to put on and this is the way it works.

SIMON: If people that want them, they should be able to have it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. It is America. You need to get rid of the bad people. There is nothing wrong with any. Even the common people should have fully autos. You got to take these laws and make people responsible for their actions. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think that is kind of ridiculous to have those

things. If you are a military police, that's one thing. But why it is public really need that with the technology of weapons and semi autos as fast as you can pull the trigger. What more do you need?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think they should be banned. I think that they have a legitimate recreational use for people. The weapon and the person behind the weapon are, you know, really more of the issue.

SIMON: Let me stop you right there, though. Why would anyone need to have that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's like a lot of things, right? I mean, there is a lot of things that we don't haves to have a reason to own.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get your heads down right now.

SIMON: When you have a mass shooting like this, what happens to business?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It increases greatly. As soon as Democrats start talking about gun bans, that is when business increase.

KERRY PHILLIPS, GUN DEALER: We the people have the right to protect ourselves and our family even in to the shedding of blood.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SIMON: And Ana, we are hearing that bump stock sales are essentially going through the roof since folks started talking about regulations. We should point out that just this weekend alone, there are approximately 50 gun shows taken place across the country. That is pretty typical for a weekend in the United States as far as gun shows are concerned. And I would imagine that similar conversations are taken place off of these events -- Ana.

CABRERA: Dan Simon in Reno, Nevada, thank you for that.

Here we go again. At the peak of the hurricane season, all eyes are now on Nate. A dangerous storm taking aim at the gulf coast. The timing of when it will make land fall and how powerful it maybe and the kind of damage it could inflict, next.

You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

[16:44:16] CABRERA: Breaking news on CNN. The hurricane is speeding toward the gulf coast of the United States. When I say speeding, because this storm is moving very fast. That's hurricane go and will make landfall tonight. The outer band in fact of this storm are already being felt in Louisiana. And most models took the storm hitting somewhere southeast of New Orleans which means people who are choosing to stay on Mississippi and Alabama coastline will feel the brunt of hurricane Nate. We will keep you updated with the very latest right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

Let's turn to the immigration debate now. And this week was the deadline for DACA recipients to re-apply for that temporary legal status. Meantime, sources tell CNN demands by top White House policy adviser Steven Miller threatened to derail congressional efforts to replace DACA. The goal is to protect young, undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation.

Now, among other things, Miller and the White House are reportedly asking to make it more difficult for legal residents of the U.S. to bring in family members from their countries of origins. President Trump's repeal of the DACA program is also impacting many undocumented immigrants who had started businesses in this country. Now they might have to leave them behind.

Vanessa Yurkevich talk to entrepreneurs about how all of this uncertainty is affecting them.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[16:45:36] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are not taking jobs. We are just competing for it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can have my job if you could do it.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Mustafa Gonim and Daniella Velez, there in the U.S. through no fault of their own.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our backgrounds set us up to kind of have the fight within us.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The business needs me to help those bring growth, to help it bring diversity.

YURKEVICH: Brought to the U.S. illegally by their parents.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want to be able to pour back into our families, pour back into our communities.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you cannot do my job, then what job am I filling from?

YURKEVICH: Now, as the fate of DACA hangs in the balance, their futures do, too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was about 9-year-old and my parents decided to come to America and we get on the plane. And all I remember was me saying thank you to the hostess. That's all I know. We came to this apartment and I remember my mother was like we are not going back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was born in Egypt. And we migrated states when I was seven years old. And we came here really and pursue the American dream.

YURKEVICH: Research says more than five percent of DACA recipients have started their own businesses. That is almost doubles the overall U.S. rate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today's event is for Sophia Vergara. YURKEVICH: Mustafa started an event staffing company a little over a

year ago that employs nearly 30 people.

What do you say to the people who say that you as someone here with DACA are taking American's jobs?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I grew up playing baseball. And baseball for whatever you wanted, you were given the shot to earn whatever you won. The best man wins. So it is not that we are taking any jobs, we are competing. And we are creating jobs in the process.

Daniel works a 9:00 to 5:00 and has started her own business on the side. It is called innovated lab design. Unless students who cannot make it to classes at school, take it online.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Students will but the kit and take physics lab at home.

YURKEVICH: We don't know if Danielle is going to be here in two years. What would it mean if she had to one day leave?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: if you look around the country and other two years course or four years course, they are not doing this probably because they don't have a Danielle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The relationship with my father is very special to me. One day he had a massive heart attack and passed away.

YURKEVICH: Do you think of a lot of why you are pursuing the American dreams is for him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. And my mom. I guess through this business, I was influence high her your can say. I guess that I do things for me. It not so much for myself. My thing is being able to accomplish something and bring it back for my family and bring it back for my community.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Part of me says yes, I want to stay here. But then another part of me is like how can we go back to live in the shadows where we had a taste of what it is to be in the light?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Vanessa is joining us now.

Thank you for bringing ups the story. That was so enlightening. And right now, their future really is just up in the air if they would be allow to stay in this country. Are they making backup plans if Congress does not act in the next five months when DACA expires?

YURKEVICH: Right. Well the thing with dreamers is that they really had to make backup plans with their entire lives. They were brought here by their parents. And they don't necessarily want to go back to where they came from because the reason they were brought here is because most of the times they are claiming some un-resting their country and political strikes. So they are not making plans to go back but they are making plans to go to other country.

Daniella, for example, is looking to Europe. She has some family there. One gentleman I did speak to, he is from Mexico. And he has moved all his bank accounts into Mexican banks. Because like you said, the uncertainty of what is going to happen in the next five months is just so, we don't know. And so if you want to have a safety net to fall back on, if that time comes where he had to leave the country.

CABRERA: And it goes show they are thinking ahead. These are people who are responsible, for a lack of a better word on my part. I am curious of what happens this week because there was deadlines, October 5th for those who are eligible or who fall within that window of their DACA status expiring before March 5th. They had to apply or re-apply for those status by last Thursday of October 5th, about a quarter of them did not. A quarter who were eligible? Do we know why?

[16:50:15] CABRERA: Well, there some reasoning behind that. Those were the numbers that we were given by U.S. immigration services on Thursday just before that deadline, 36,000 people not applying. There is a couple of reasons. One maybe that they just did not know. It was not highly publicized that this renewal date was in fact on October 5th. Now, the reason maybe that people just, they don't want to stay anymore. They don't want to deal with the stress uncertainly of what it would mean to apply for DACA again and then have to leave.

And the third reason is the application fees. It is 500s dollars.

CABRERA: A lot of money.

YURKEVICH: Some people may not have been able to get that money together in time because that deadline of October 5th, was - just sent into place a month ago in September. That's a lot of money. That deadline is set into place a month ago in September. That's a really tight window for people to try to raise this money.

[16:50:58] CABRERA: Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much for that story and for that report.

YURKEVICH: Thank you.

CABRERA: Good to see you.

Coming up, President Trump tweeting yet another cryptic warning. And this time is about North Korea. Stay with us. You are live in the CNN's NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:56:39] CABRERA: Country singer Eric Church headline that route 91, hard accessible in Las Vegas, two nights before the tragedy struck, an emotional church took to the grand opera stage in Nashville Wednesday night to talk about the victim and to performed a song he wrote to honor them. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ERIC CHURCH, SINGER: Last night -- somebody sent me a video of a lady named Heather Milton (ph). And she was talking to Anderson Cooper on CNN. And she had on my church choir (INAUDIBLE). And he said what brought you to Vegas. And she goes we went there to see Eric Church and because he was Sunny's, her husband who died. It was his guy and we went there to see his guy. And then she said, we have tickets for the grand opry tomorrow night.

As I over hear (INAUDIBLE), if you are there, there is empty seats. And I will tell you something. The reason I am here, the reason I am here tonight is because of Heather Milton and her husband, Sunny, who died and every person that was there. Let me tell you something, I saw that crowd. I saw them with their hands in the air. I saw them with boots in the air. And when I saw that moment in time it was frozen, there is no amount of bullets that took away. None.

(APPLAUSE)

(ERIC CHURCH PERFORMING)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I am Ana Cabrera in New York. And we are watching closely a hurricane emergency this weekend. This time, people living on the coast of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are getting the impact of hurricane Nate.

Now, the outer band of the storm are already being felt in Louisiana. And this storm is moving very fast meaning conditions are getting worst by the minutes. The hurricane should make landfall in the next two to three hours possibly as a category two storm.

CNN has our reporter teams and meteorologist in place across the impact zone. And of course, we will be with you all night tonight with updates on the storm's location and where it is headed.