While the cable networks were surprisingly guarded in touting gun control late Thursday night and early Friday morning on the heinous murders of at least four Dallas, Texas police officers (as of this writing), CNN’s assembled team eventually couldn’t hold off any longer in the 1:00 a.m. hour and unleashed their gun control diatribes.
Up first was CNN political commentator Charles Blow, who demanded that such a story “totally dips over into the gun debate” because there is, in his mind, a necessity to stop the ability of citizens “to match fire power” with law enforcement in order for “police officers to be safe.”
Blow admitted that gun control “is a discussion for another day,” but he sprinted through his own stop sign to continue on with gun control and bemoaning the idea of citizens being able to participate in open carry:
I think we need to put a pin in it because we have to come back to this discussion about the idea that people that, you know, more and more people are in open carry states. They can carry these sorts of weapons around. Police don't know if the person who has the weapon out in the open is just a protester or not and that puts them in a very kind of awkward position of having to make guesses about it and that’s not what we want as a society.
Liberal activist and attorney Areva Martin picked up on Blow’s argument to tout the initial person of interest who was later seen by many to not be a shooter and their decision to openly carry a gun at the Black Lives Matter protest:
[H]e was a man walking around with a rifle and they didn't know if that was normal or not. That is scary to me as a parent. That’s scary to me as an American, as a woman, as an African-American woman that I could be in a city at a protest and someone is walking around with a high powered assault rifle and yet, I don't know if that is okay.
Martin added that the idea of open carry is “a really scary — I think proposition, an issue we have to deal with in this country and it goes right to that gun issue and it’s so divisive.”
The far-left New York Times columnist in Blow felt it pertinent to further opine about open carry, but was soon cut off by CNN Tonight host Don Lemon, who emphasized that, presumably, the media will “get into the gun debate later” but praised Blow’s comments in the meantime:
BLOW: And if I may say, open carry just started in January in Texas so this is a new phenomenon for all of the citizens there. As to whether or not you see somebody with a weapon do you say something or not because it’s an —
LEMON: And we'll get into the gun debate later. And as Charles so, you know, brightly and eloquently pointed out that is maybe a discussion for another day. Right now, our thoughts and prayers and our hearts go out to the victims this evening.
The relevant portion of CNN’s live coverage of the Dallas Police shootings in the early hours of July 8 can be found below.
CNN Tonight
July 8, 2016
1:16 a.m. Eastern
CHARLES BLOW: But this idea, I think, is really important, but it probably is a discussion for another day, but totally tips over into the gun debate. This idea of having to match fire power for whatever people could have on the street, because what we're seeing is that people that there are a lot more types of these weapons. And this is where I think a lot of minds can meet. We want our police officers to be safe. We want our communities to be safe and the more of these sorts of weapons out there, the more that police have to defend themselves against those types of weapons. I think, you know, again, we don't know about this. I think this is a discussion for another day but I think we need to put a pin in it because we have to come back to this discussion about the idea that people that, you know, more and more people are in open carry states. They can carry these sorts of weapons around. Police don't know if the person who has the weapon out in the open is just a protester or not and that puts them in a very kind of awkward position of having to make guesses about it and that’s not what we want as a society.
DON LEMON: And Areva Martin, where does it — how much more firepower, where does it end? Go ahead, Areva.
AREVA MARTIN: Yes, I wanted to say I think the point was illustrated by one of the witnesses on the phone that said they say we saw a man, who we know was a person of interest, probably not the shooter. But he was a man walking around with a rifle and they didn't know if that was normal or not. That is scary to me as a parent. That’s scary to me as an American, as a woman, as an African-American woman that I could be in a city at a protest and someone is walking around with a high powered assault rifle and yet, I don't know if that is okay. Because we're telling people if you see something, say something, if you see something, do something. But people are confused. They don't know if that was a legitimate place for him to be with that gun or not. So I wonder how many other people may have seen somebody at this protest with a gun and they didn't contact law enforcement because they didn't know if that person had the right in this open carry state to have that gun. That’s a really scary — I think proposition, an issue we have to deal with in this country and it goes right to that gun issue and it’s so divisive.
BLOW: And if I may say, open carry just started in January in Texas so this is a new phenomenon for all of the citizens there. As to whether or not you see somebody with a weapon do you say something or not because it’s an —
LEMON: And we'll get into the gun debate later. And as Charles so, you know, brightly and eloquently pointed out that is maybe a discussion for another day. Right now, our thoughts and prayers and our hearts go out to the victims this evening.
