CBS Analyst Deletes Tweet Claiming Right To Bear Arms 'Not In Our Constitution'

On Sunday and Monday former ESPN analyst Doug Gottlieb took to Twitter for an anti-gun tirade.

The CBS basketball analyst has since deleted a December 20 tweet in which he claimed the right to bear arms “is not in our Constitution.” But Twitchy.com captured a screenshot of the tweet before its deletion. Gottlieb’s exact words were: “Not sure how many people understand, our ‘right to bear arms’ is not in our Constitution — it is an Amendment to the document.”

Two things: 1. Amendments are part of the Constitution. They represent a literal addition to it or–in cases such as the repeal of prohibition–a subtraction from it. The Second Amendment was added to the constitution and ratified in 1791 because the Founding Fathers realized gun rights would be in jeopardy unless they were specifically and clearly hedged in via constitutional protections. 2. To claim that protection of the right to keep and bear arms is not in the Constitution is tantamount to claiming the right for blacks to vote is not in the Constitution, that the right for women to vote is not in the Constitution, and that a ban on slavery is not in the constitution. The right for blacks to vote appears in the 15th Amendment, the right for women to vote by the 19th Amendment, and slavery was abolished via the 13th Amendment.

Besides claiming that protections on gun rights are not in the constitution, Gottlieb argued that “assault weapons” should be banned and contended that nations which have “eliminated guns don’t have our issues w/guns.” Perhaps he overlooked France. The University of Sydney reports that strict gun controls include a ban on “weapons of war” and numerous other controls that make it very difficult to acquire a gun, even for self-defense. Yet these controls were powerless to prevent the November 13 Paris attack in which at least 130 persons were killed by men armed with “weapons of war.” Defenseless, unarmed citizens were sitting ducks.

Gottlieb also contended that the failure of expanded background checks, which Americans have witnessed first hand in California and Colorado, is no reason to oppose their implementation nationally.

Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.