The View, ABC’s morning talk program that elevated Raven-Symone to political punditry, engaged in one of its more oafish rants Thursday on one of the many topics about which it knows very little: the Constitution.
In the wake of an agitated socialist attempting to engage in the mass murder of his political opponents, the panelists at The View changed the subject to berating the Second Amendment and the limits it places on gun control.
Whoopi Goldberg began the segment by pontificating about why Republicans having guns present would have been of no assistance, and made a vague allusion to herself having “been shot at” to justify her gun-policy acumen. This is false (at least about the impotence of hypothetical Republican armaments), because had House Majority Whip Steve Scalise’s security detail from the Capitol Police not been present, there would have been three to five minutes of unabated fire from shooter James Hodgkinson as the defenseless congressmen waited for police assistance.
Next, there is an interchange among the hosts about how it was possible for this man to have purchased a gun given his criminal history. Hodgkinson, despite a number of serious charges, had never been convicted of a felony.
Sunny Hostin, who later in the segment bemoaned that America isn’t more like Japan, expressed angst about the “very, very lax gun laws” in Virginia. This is a relative exaggeration; the Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun-control advocacy group, rates Virginia in the top half of its rankings of the states based in part on the restrictiveness of the state’s gun legislation.
Next, it was Joy Behar's turn for pontification, as she talked about how the gun laws in New York allowed her to feel safe on the “subway” or the “bus.” If she lived in a concealed-carry state, Behar described how she would live in fear of a gun attack; after all, she says, who knows how angry someone could get over “mansplaining?” Mansplaining, a word that most folks call ‘rude’, is a feminist portmanteau whereby a man speaks paternalistically to a woman, much like Joy Behar does to those who disagree with her on policy. If Behar was so unconcerned with violent outrage over mansplaining in areas with air-tight gun laws, one would assume she would delight in the prospect of roaming the streets of Chicago, one of the nation’s most gun restrictive cities, unarmed.
Sunny Hostin wondered with visible contempt why the US can’t be more like Japan. Behar responded dejectedly that they don’t have a radically inconvenient “second amendment” like America, which would, in turn, prevent the United States from implementing a socialist paradise because of those backward Republicans who cling to their silly guns and religion.
The conservative on the panel, Jedediah Bila, had the audacity to talk, but Whoopi talked over her and told her she “doesn’t believe” her claim that she knows people who own guns. Bila was prevented from interrupting the conjugal thought bubble. Crisis averted.
Not so fast. Bila interjected her way back into the conversation and stated that a society where “only police have guns” is a “police state”. Whoopi then deftly rebutted this claim with Shakespearean prose, saying that, no, “that is not a police state”.
For the remainder of the segment, the panel spewed reams of misinformation on the Second Amendment, claiming it was intended only for militias and that there is no individual right to bear arms under the Constitution. This, of course, is patently untrue. The Second Amendment was put into the Constitution in order for citizens to have the capacity to arm themselves against a potentially tyrannical state that threatened their freedoms and liberties guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, and by proxy stand as an additional check on the power of government. There is little historical ambiguity on this claim. In 1788 Massachusetts Ratifying Convention, Samuel Adams made it clear: "The Constitution shall never be construed to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms."
After the break, Whoopi and company returned to their typical itinerary of gossip, culture, and occasional lurches into the political woods.
Read the full June 15th transcript below:
WHOOPI: So we were having this discussion about civility and all this stuff, and you brought up this idea of gun control. So, of course, now people are talking about gun control laws. But some of the Republicans that were there yesterday say -- they are going to be carrying guns now because they think they could have prevented this. So let me -- as a person who owns guns and has been shot at --
What?
WHOOPI: Yes. You know -- listen. You hear shots. You're basically, and if you look at someone -- people run.
JEDEDIAH BILA: Yes.
WHOOPI: You run to get out of the way. You don't stop and go, hey! You know? And if you are playing softball, you are not wearing your gun. So what are you going to do? You going to run over to your bag while they are shooting? You going to root in your bag and get your gun and then try to figure out where it's coming from plus all the adrenaline? That's not the answer.
JOY BEHAR: Well the gun that this guy was using -- [ applause ] What's his name? Hodgkinson. He was using an SKS 7.62 rifle, whatever that-- it's a semi-automatic that can fire up to 40 rounds per minute.
WHOOPI: And when he hit the ground and it kept firing. Why did he have a gun? He has, apparently, from what you read, you know, I don't know the man--
BEHAR: Because he didn't commit a felony, he was accused of domestic abuse --
BILA: Go ahead.
WHOOPI: Beating up his daughter wasn't enough to take the gun out of his hand.
They dropped the charges, that's the problem.
SONNY HOSTIN: An Illinois fire alarm (phone rings) oh--That's me. Sorry about that. Sorry about that.
BEHAR: At least yours doesn't play "Call Me Maybe."
HOSTIN: Sorry about that. He had an Illinois firearm I.D. Card and a conceal carry license in that state, and in Virginia, the gun laws are very, very laxed, they're very, very loose. But law enforcement officers will tell you, when there is more than one person that has a gun, it makes the situation more dangerous for them because they don't know who the bad guys are.
BEHAR: Because I live in New York state -- I want to say this one thing because it's personal really. Because I live in New York state and there are tight gun laws here. I take the subway, I take the bus. I walk around freely. If I was living in one of these states -- open carry or whatever they are.
Permit.
BEHAR: I would never do public transportation. I would be afraid some guy on the subway would have a fit, go mad or be upset about somebody took your seat or someone is mansplaining or what have you, and shoot somebody else because it's easy to do.
HOSTIN: Why can't we follow the lead of other countries? I mean if you look at Japan, there is almost no gun violence, in fact, it's like the chance of being killed by a gun are just the same as chances in the United States of being struck by lightning. It's, like, one in a million.
BEHAR: They don't have the second amendment in Japan.
HOSTIN: Why don't we learn from them?
BILA: I feel differently about that. When I go to states like Arizona. When I go to states like Texas, I'm not worried about law-abiding citizens carrying guns. They don't make me nervous. I feel much more comfortable knowing that if something happens you have law-abiding citizens who have gone through background checks that have been trained--
WHOOPI: Have you been around people with guns? No.
BILA: No I have! I have been around a lot of people who have been trained--
WHOOPI: Really. So have you been around--afraid people with guns?
BILA: A lot of these people --
WHOOPI: I don't believe you, Jed. I don't believe you.
BILA: I'm a conservative. They are a very pro-guns and pro-second amendment group. I have a lot of -- I'm not a gun girl, but I have a lot of experience.
WHOOPI: I am saying to you, that when people start shooting, people tend to run. If other people have guns, it makes it very hard for the police to know who is shooting.
HOSTIN: (indistinguishable) more likely to hurt themselves.
WHOOPI: Who to shoot, because every civilian has got a gun out.
HOSTIN: But the problem is if the capitol police weren't there and the capitol police were only there because Scalise is there, because he's the House majority whip and if they had not shown up, there would have been a massacre there.
That's their job, that's their training.
BILA: You live in a society where only police have guns, that's called a police state. That is not the United States of America.
WHOOPI: That is not a police state. Listen. Jed--the Second Amendment--Let's talk about the Second Amendment then.
Please.
WHOOPI: Because the second amendment is about a militia. That's what it says.
BILA: But that was at the time that it was written.
WHOOPI: That's right.
BILA: The right to bear arms. Protect yourself and your family.
HOSTIN: Not to protect yourself and your family that's not what the second amendment is about.
WHOOPI: Put up the militia-- the Second Amendment while we're talking about other stuff. We'll be right back
