On the June 18 edition of The Kelly File, Dana Loesch of The Blaze destroyed fellow guest Nomiki Konst’s argument in favor of gun control. Reacting to the church shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, Konst pointed to Australia in an effort to show that gun control measures can be effective at reducing mass shootings and gun violence.
However, Loesch wasn’t buying it. She made the case that statistics are irrelevant in this instance because Dylann Roof was barred from carrying a weapon under South Carolina law:
And there is something I want to point out, Megyn. I mean, I could sit here – I did write the book on it, and I could spout off stats all day long. For instance, Honduras has 21 times the gun murders that we do and 14 times fewer guns. But, this gun – we do know, actually, that this individual, this murderous thug in Charleston, was legally barred from carrying, Megyn. We can talk about statistics but it's irrelevant here.
Loesch indicated once again that existing gun laws proved ineffective in preventing the shooter from getting a weapon, as opposed to a lack of sufficient gun control:
In South Carolina, all you have to do is be charged with a felony to be declared illegitimate to carry, which he was in February of 2015. He was charged with a felony for drug possession. It was methamphetamines and cocaine. His father purchased a firearm for him for his 21st birthday, April 4, 2015. That could have been a straw man purchase, which is also a felony. He reportedly told someone that he stole the gun that he used in these murders. That’s also a felony. Felony, felony, felony.
Megyn Kelly also chimed in, noting that in many cases, like the Newtown shooting, the shooter obtains guns in ways that gun laws would be hard pressed to prevent: “Even in the Sandy Hook situation, you know, his mother had the guns legally and he took them. I mean, how are stricter gun laws going to prevent that?”
Earlier in the segment, Loesch contested the notion – espoused by President Obama – that mass shootings are a uniquely American phenomenon. She asserted that this “happens quite a bit. This is not unique to American society. This is a moral deficiency that all of humanity shares.”
The relevant portion of the transcript is below.
Fox News
The Kelly File
June 18, 2015
9:32 p.m. EasternMEGYN KELLY, host: They seem to genuinely believe that gun control will diminish the number of mass shootings we’re seeing in the country. And yet, I ask you Dana, as somebody who studies guns and supports gun rights, whether the facts bear that out.
DANA LOESCH, The Blaze: No Megyn, they simply don't. And I don't think that they mean to do a disservice to the memory of those who lost their lives in Europe and other countries where there has been gun violence and there have been mass shootings. Just – in fact, there was the one in Norway, which regulates guns quite heavily, I might add, in 2011, where you had a murderous thug who murdered 69 people. And it played out on live television. There is also the case of the shooting rampage that took place in Britain, again, where handguns are basically illegal. And 12 people were murdered there. This happens quite a bit. This is not unique to American society, Megyn. This is a moral deficiency that all of humanity
shares.
[...]
KELLY: Okay, but let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Because the question is whether we have any reason to believe those – tighter regulations would prevent these crimes. I mean, in this instance, we don't know yet, but it appears the father had a gun – which I haven’t heard that it was an illegal gun – that he gave to his son. Or perhaps he just bought him one that was legal. But my point is we don't have evidence that this was an unlawful gun, yet. And we didn’t have that evidence in the case of Sandy Hook either.
NOMIKI KONST, The Accountability Project: Well, you know, there is an interesting study recently done in Australia [in] 1996. There was a mass shooting epidemic. There were 11 mass shootings that happened in a decade, which was the highest ever. Under a conservative prime minister, they passed sweeping gun reform laws, banned – destroyed 650,000 semi-automatic and automatic weapons, created tight, tight restrictions in Australia, and within ten years the murders created by gun violence dropped by 59%. They went from 11 murders in a decade – mass murders in a decade – to zero. So there are, you know there is evidence here to show that this type of reform does have a serious impact. Now, can you control the black market?
KELLY: And yet, Dana, that’s not the experience we had in our country when Bill Clinton passed his gun law.
LOESCH: Right. No. And there is something I want to point out, Megyn. I mean, I could sit here – I did write the book on it, and I could spout off stats all day long. For instance, Honduras has 21 times the gun murders that we do and 14 times fewer guns. But, this gun – we do know, actually, that this individual, this murderous thug in Charleston, was legally barred from carrying, Megyn. We can talk about statistics but it's irrelevant here. In South Carolina, all you have to do is be charged with a felony to be declared illegitimate to carry, which he was in February of 2015. He was charged with a felony for drug possession. It was methamphetamines and cocaine. His father purchased a firearm for him for his 21st birthday, April 4, 2015. That could have been a straw man purchase, which is also a felony. He reportedly told someone that he stole the gun that he used in these murders. That’s also a felony. Felony, felony, felony. We have regulations on firearm ownership which is why when you compare us to countries, advanced countries Megyn, that have fewer guns and more restrictions, the murder rate is higher, the violent crime rate is higher. The studies speak for themselves.
[...]
KELLY: Even in the Sandy Hook situation, you know, his mother had the guns legally and he took them. I mean, how are stricter gun laws going to prevent that? The question is whether the focus is on the wrong thing. Because remember the mental health thing? Remember how we were gonna crack down on that after Newtown? What happened?
