Former Marine Schools Piers Morgan: Americans Aren't As Trigger-Happy As Media Claim

Piers Morgan, CNN's most-outspoken and impolite gun control advocate, got a much-needed education about the Second Amendment and firearms Tuesday.

In the middle of a lengthy and uncharacteristically civil interview on Piers Morgan Tonight, former Marine Joshua Boston said, "The American people aren't as gun-happy and trigger-happy as they're being painted out to be by the media. They are smarter than that. They know when to hold their fire. They know when to fire" (video follows with transcript and commentary):

PIERS MORGAN, HOST: If everybody exercises that choice and is legally allowed to do so, you could end up with every movie theater and every school and every church and every shopping mall in America with everybody armed with an AR-15 assault rifle and magazines that could kill 100 people in a minute. Where does that lead America to other than utter Wild West hell?

JOSHUA BOSTON, FORMER MARINE: All right, they said this was going to happen whenever Texas instituted its concealed handgun laws, and it hasn't happened. In the Clackamas mall shooting there was a 22-year-old carrying a concealed weapon, and he presented his weapon at the threat, and he held his fire just like happened at Congresswoman Giffords' shooting. There was a CHL holder there, and he held his fire.

The American people aren't as gun-happy and trigger-happy as they're being painted out to be by the media. They are smarter than that. They know when to hold their fire. They know when to fire. And we can increase the chances of success for these people that get caught in these situations for their survival by education. We've got to stop making this a taboo subject to everyone because it's scary. We can't give up our rights because we're afraid.

MORGAN: Well, I would say the only thing I would say to that is I believe the rights of a six or seven-year-old child to go to school without the fear of being murdered, to me, exceed and come higher than any rights to own an AR-15 assault rifle. That's my point.

BOSTON: Well, Piers, I don't disagree with you. I don't think children should have to be going to school worry about being murdered. But we have to accept reality. No matter what laws we pass, Lord knows we have laws, and during the last assault weapons ban, it didn't stop Columbine from happening. It didn't stop the West Hollywood shoot-out from happening. These things happen. There are criminals in our world that we have to contend with. And disarming people and taking the AR-15s out of their homes isn’t going to help.

There was a lady in Georgia who shot a man six times. He laid down, cried, got up and left. Now, imagine if there were multiple attackers. She only had six bullets in her pistol. If there were more than one attacker, she could not be alive today.

Indeed.

Unfortunately, such instances of Americans successfully defending themselves and their property with guns go largely unreported by a media hellbent on tighter firearms restrictions.

By contrast, incidents like Sandy Hook and Aurora get wall-to-wall coverage for days with people such as Morgan screaming for guns to be outlawed.

But when some armed citizen bravely thwarts an attack by criminals - which happens far more often than mass murders in our country! - all we hear are crickets.

Why do you think that is?