CNN’s Piers Morgan uncorked a special “townhall” event titled Guns in America on Wednesday evening that was at once replete with misinformation and filled with useless bromides. Worse, British citizen Morgan perpetrated a constant hectoring attack on anyone who exhibited the slightest disagreement with his cherished disdain for the U.S. Constitution.
Morgan began his program with wild hyperbole saying that guns were “the single most important issue in this country today” and saying it was a “national crises.” More important than the spiraling debt President Obama is getting us in? More important than any other issue? Apparently so.
However, since violent crime is on the decrease for the fifth straight year all across the country, it would hardly seem likely that guns are “the single most important issue,” would it?
But, coming from a man who Tweeted agreeing that he was gleeful that the deaths in Connecticut occurred so that he could push his anti-Constitution message with the greatest force, I suppose this would seem to be the most important issue.
Morgan’s on-stage panel was a bit quixotic for its lack of bona fides to talk guns and gun violence. He had on with him Democrat Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Corey Booker and CNN globe hopper Christiane Amanpour. Booker has at least dealt with the law enforcement side of the issue, but Amanour? What was her relevance to such a panel? Speaking of utter irrelevance to the issue, Morgan also had the bromide-speaking Deepak Chopra who’s contribution was utterly useless.
On the pro-gun side, Morgan had well-known pro-gun advocate and researcher John Lott. He also had Steve Dulan, the Attorney for the Michigan Coalition of Responsible Gun Owners, and Doctor Xavier Amador who has from time to time also spoken in favor of our right to self-protection. Additionally, Will Cain, analyst for TheBlaze.com and a contributor to CNN, got a few seconds to participate.
Morgan, however, did not allow any of the pro-gun spokesmen to answer him when he asked them questions. Like a bully, he asked a question then powered through their answer to pose a second, even a third question refusing to give them any opportunity to answer his first question.
Morgan even screamed out that John Lott was a liar and then refused to allow him to reply to the charge or relay any information without interruption. (video and transcript at link)
On the other hand, Morgan did give his anti-gun guests all the time they wanted to talk up their anti-Second Amendment points. Mayor Booker, for instance, said that terrorists can easily buy guns in America but can’t get on a plane. Christiane Amanpour said that all “semi-Automatic weapons” should be banned even though it didn’t seem she knew what one was. And in a rambling reply, Deepak Chopra claimed that anyone that wants firearms is mentally unstable.
Even the purported Republican, former Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge, said that no American who isn’t a fully trained member of the military should be allowed to have weapons of the type under discussion.
Speaking of Tom Ridge, the former Governor did note that one of the major problems that has helped cause these mass shootings is the failure of our mental health system to help these people before they go out and kill. “There are multiple risk factors and if we’re serious about having a national conversation” Ridge said, “we better entertain” all the solutions, not just one.
Showing his single minded desire to push his agenda, though, as soon as Ridge was done speaking, Morgan utterly ignored Ridge’s points and went on saying it’s all about the guns.
“Christiane Amanpour, in the end, it’s about the guns because without the guns you don’t have the shooting,” Morgan said.
For her part, Amanpour claimed that it “isn’t about taking your guns away,” but then brought up the gun banning laws in other countries to which Morgan chimed in saying that handgun bans in Britain and Australia were very effective.
Interesting, that. On one hand Amanpour and Morgan both want to ban “semi-automatic weapons” and all handguns, but then both say that this isn’t about taking anyone’s guns away. Huh? How can you have it both ways? And how is it that Morgan says he wants to ban “assault weapons” but then praises handgun bans, too? Sure sounds like a lot of gun taking to me!
A little later, Morgan showed some bullet holes in a car that was outside the school in Newton, Connecticut. “Look at the power” he said with disgust about the bullet holes. This was little but an exercise to mislead, of course. On most cars, one can punch through the sheet metal with a butter knife. Car bodies are not that strong! The bullet holes really did not relay any meaningful information to viewers. The photos of the car were just an attempt to shock people into agreeing with Morgan.
Throughout the show, Morgan and his anti-gun guests indulged incorrect terminology nearly every time they opened their mouths. Several times Morgan and his guests said things like “high capacity clips” or “30-round clips,” for instance. Of course, there is no such thing as a 30-round clip. Clips only hold a few rounds. It is magazines that hold more.
Both Morgan and the absurd Chopra also incorrectly said that a muzzle loading musket takes “20 minutes to load.” This is nowhere near the truth. Even during the Civil War it was an accepted fact that a soldier could load and fire three aimed shots a minute with a muzzle-loading rifle.
Morgan also said that a semi-automatic AR-15 could fire six rounds a second. This is also not exactly true. The fire rate is not quite that quick as the operator needs to actually pull the trigger for each shot on such a weapon. Semi-automatic guns are not like fully automatic guns.
The anti-gun advocates on the panel also kept saying that no one needs a “military-styled gun.” But this is essentially a meaningless distinction. First, nearly every firearm was created for the military in its beginning. Further, as Will Cain pointed out, nearly every rifle can be made to look like a military gun just by changing stocks. What exactly is a “military-styled weapon”? Remembering that fully automatic machine guns are already outlawed, what are the real differences? Neither Morgan nor his anti-Constitution guests seemed to really know.
And this is not to even mention that the term “assault weapons” is meaningless nor that the 1994 Assault Weapon ban was a pretty useless piece of legislation.
Naturally the red herring that the founders didn’t have “assault weapons” in mind when they made the Second Amendment was also disgorged. This is an empty argument. The founders also did not have computers, TV or radio in mind when they wrote the First Amendment, either. So, do we cancel freedom of speech because the founders are purportedly too stupid to understand that technology could change?
Absurdly, in one of his last comments, after calling his opponents liars and like a bully screamed over them to drown them out, Morgan tried to make himself out to be the reasonable one in the room by claiming he “respected” everyone’s opinion.
Here’s the thing. I love America and I love Americans. I really do. I’ve been very lucky here, what for seven years I’ve lived her. And I respect the Second Amendment.
During the show he also said, “I’m not going to pretend that I’m right about it all. I respect everyone’s opinion.” But, clearly these are all outright lies. Piers Morgan does not respect anyone whose opinion differs from his and he has many times said that the Second Amendment needs to be eliminated.
Any logical review of Morgan’s Guns In America would report that this show was nothing but a chance for Piers Morgan to push his own personal anti-Constitution agenda, not any attempt at a dispassionate and informative discussion about guns in America.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.