At the top of his Tuesday broadcast, Fox News Channel’s “The O’Reilly Factor” host Bill O’Reilly reacted to President Barack Obama’s executive order announcement regarding firearms and the added restrictions Obama wants to put in place in the name of “gun safety.”
According to O’Reilly, Obama has it wrong by focusing on gun control and not stricter laws regarding gun crime.
Transcript as follows:
Mr. Obama is sincere in his quest for more safety but he is missing the big picture. According to the latest FBI stats, slightly more than 8,000 people were victims of firearm murders in 2014. There were 118,000 robberies involving a firearm. And almost 150,000 aggravated assaults involving guns.
The population of the USA is approaching 330 million, so you can see there is not a gun-crime epidemic and the vast majority of these heinous crimes are committed by hardcore criminals, not civilian shooters. Right now there are more than 300-million firearms currently on the streets of America so there will be a thriving black market for guns no matter what kind of registration laws are passed. As far as terrorist-related firearm killings in the USA, there have been 88 in the past 10 years. Again, not an epidemic.
Now Talking Points understands public safety and reasonable gun registration laws should be on the books. But perspective is important and restricting law-abiding Americans from acquiring guns is obviously unconstitutional. Again, the gun-violence problem primarily lies with criminals, so where is the federal law that mandates strict prison time for anyone using a gun in the commission of a crime?
Where is that law, Mr. President?
You cannot leave sentencing to local judges if you want to control gun violence on a national level. Talking Points has said it before – anyone convicted of a gun-related crime should get 10 years in prison on top of what they get for the crime whether it’s assault, murder or robbery. That would send a meaningful message.
The truth is terrorists are not going to submit themselves to background checks. Neither are dangerous felons or insane people. They’ll buy the guns on the black market and no registration law will prevent that. On the other side, the NRA and gun owners should be reasonable.
The FBI should background check anyone buying a firearm in the USA – that just makes sense. If you are paranoid and believe the government is stockpiling information so they can come to your house and take your guns, that’s your problem. But the government has an obligation to enhance public safety.
And that brings us back to harshly punishing people who violate the law with guns. Registration – not going to solve much. Zero tolerance toward gun-crime – things might change quickly.
Think about it, Mr. President.
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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