Fox host Gretchen Carlson went off the Fox News reservation yesterday when she called for Congress to reinstate the assault-weapons ban
In her “My Take” commentary, Carlson said the following:
CARLSON: Time now for my take. Every time we have a mass shooting we talk about guns right? Yes, the Orlando massacre was terror, but there is no doubt that Omar Mateen was able to kill so many people because he was firing an AR-15, a military-style assault weapon. A weapon easier to buy in the state of Florida than buying a handgun. Florida sets a three-day waiting period for purchasing handguns but the state mandates no waiting period for any gun that requires two hands to hold. President Obama and gun-control advocates have repeatedly called for reinstating the federal ban on semi-automatic assault weapons that expired in 2004. Congress has said no.
So what do you think? A recent Quinnipiac poll shows 58% of you support banning the sale of assault-style weapons. So here’s my question today. Do we need AR-15s to hunt and kill deer? Do we need them to protect our families? Yes, I’m in favor of people being able to carry. I think some of these mass shootings would have been less deadly if that were the case. But I’m also with the majority today, taking a stand. Can’t we hold true the sanctity of the second amendment while still having common sense?
Sadly, Carlson’s viewers did not agree with her. Her “question of the day” was, “Should Congress reinstate the assault weapons ban?”
As I write this, shortly before midnight on June 14, the results were 73% No and 27% yes. But as Carlson spoke, the results were 89-11%.
It just goes to show how skewed right the Fox audience is.
Talking Points Memo points out that in 2013, Carlson had a different view. While she was still a Fox & Friends cohost, she offered up a suggestion as to how viewers could find "little tiny loopholes" around New York’s assault weapon ban.
Watch Carlson’s latest take below, from the June 14 The Real Story with Gretchen Carlson.
CBS’s “This Morning” picked my Wild West home state of Virginia to send a reporter to buy an AR-15. It’s easier and quicker here to buy an assault weapon here than order a hoagie at Wawa. ;^)
David…. I’m just going by what an expert on the news said.
Don’t get fooled by the smallness of the round. It doesn’t make it less lethal. The reason it’s small isn’t weight so much, it’s velocity. Also, at distance, the round tends to tumble end over end. The combination causes massive wounds. As I said before, it’s inappropriate for hunting not because you can’t bring down a deer with one but because one would assume hunters want the venison (though I suspect many get a massive, manly boner killing things). AR-15s tend to damage too much meat.
Like I said before, the couple of people I know who have one all own massive arsenals. None of them are hunters. One has over 40 weapons. They’re rabid, Rush Limbaugh addict right-wingers who are beyond paranoid. They talk about killing any government ‘gun grabber’ who comes for their cache of weapons.
Another co-worker – naturally a rabid Trump supporter and I suspect a FOX fan (he cringes when I mock them) – is growing extremely paranoid over Muslims and post-Orlando has started pricing AR-15s locally because he’s prepping for the Great Muslim Apocalypse here. No, I’m not joking.
BTW, I’m not pimping ‘gun grabbing’ or even banning. However, living in a state like Virginia where the NRA crazies successfully rolled back straw purchase laws limiting gun buying to 10/month, I expect the publicity over the lethality of AR-15s to send a massive wave of them to D.C. to criminals. So I do support reasonable laws. Unfortunately, NRA whores like FOX News don’t.
Maybe that’s the trouble with the AR-15, it’s like shooting a toy gun compared to the bigger stuff. Still plenty lethal, especially at close range. Like the poor souls who get caught inside the wrong gay nightclub, the wrong school, the wrong church, the wrong theatre, the wrong McDonald’s, the wrong…
PBS “NewsHour” had an expert on describing the characteristics of an AR-15. NRA propaganda to the contrary, the AR-15 isn’t an appropriate weapon for hunting anything but humans. The high velocity round is designed to destroy as much tissue on impact as possible, leaving hideous wounds.
It also isn’t a good choice for home defense since the weapon has great penetration which means there’s a good chance of a round flying through your neighbor’s house and killing an innocent.
The few people I know who own one are far-right loons literally waiting for some far fetched Hollywood “Red Dawn” or “Road Warrior” scenario.
Unfortunately, there are like more guns in circulation than we have population. So how does one put the horse back into the barn without becoming the liberal ‘gun grabbers’ we’re always accused of for common sense regulations like keeping people on the terrorist watch list from buying them?
( I wonder what the punishment is for farting in the elevator in the Faux building.)
