MSNBC's Morning Joe Allows Ex- Playboy CEO to Peddle Climate Change Link To Gun Crime

Hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee held Newtown-inspired gun control hearings, MSNBC's Morning Joe program brought on former Playboy chairwoman and CEO Christie Hefner to warn that warmer weather in Chicago has been a contributing factor in the number of gun deaths in the Windy City.  "[W]e are having this climate change effect that is driving" young men in Chicago to commit 500 homicides in 2012 she insisted.

For his part, quasi-conservative host Joe Scarborough made no attempt to press Hefner on this outrageous claim, although he did mildly mock it. In doing so, however, he dismissed conservative bloggers with a lame stereotype:

CHRISTIE HEFNER: Well, to answer the question about is it higher? Yes. Last year we hit a record number of murders from guns. And this year we are already outpacing last year's numbers. Now, there are contributing factors that are not under anybody's control and may seem odd, but it is factually true. One of them is actually the weather. There is a dramatic increase in gun violence when it is warmer. And we are having this climate change effect that is driving that. But I do think -- and from people I talked to in Chicago--

JOE SCARBOROUGH: By the way, Chris – Christie, can I just stop you and say conservative bloggers across America, thank you for saying that climate change is responsible for the rising murder rates in Chicago. You have just made a lot of people in their basements of their mothers' homes very happy.

HEFNER: I don't believe that's exactly what I said. I said there are a number of contributing factors and a correlation between heat waves and gun violence.

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The funny thing is Christie contradicted herself.  She said climate change was affecting the epidemic violence gripping Chicago, but said that she only meant heat waves.  What have climate warmists talked about to support their claim?  They use the rising global temperatures, which have stalled for sixteen years, to back up their claim.  ABC News used did a segment on 2012 being the "hottest year" to promote climate change initiatives.   So, in this little exchange we see an unhinged theory that climate change causes us to kill people, news hosts failing to press Hefner on it, and the gun control debate taking a rather bizarre turn into climatology. 

(H/T Jeff Poor at The Daily Caller)