If you can’t convince Americans to give into gun control after mass shootings, the next best thing is to convince them that the NRA and Republicans are so extreme they won’t even ban bullets targeting police officers. Or so suggest The Young Turks.
In the wake of Wednesday’s horrific shooting at a high school in Florida, the boisterous hosts of The Young Turks had much to say about guns and ammunition, specifically armor-piercing bullets. Per usual, the outrage as to the mere existence of AR-15s and armor-piercing bullets was the main talking point.
Cenk Uygur and John Iadarola started off by mocking that heavy duty weapons go hand-in-hand with deer hunting. Iadarola jumped to his point on bump stocks, exclaiming, “Obviously, it’s designed to kill a crowd of humans! That’s what it was used for, that’s what it’s designed for.” He added incredulously, “We can’t ban that! If there were bullets that could literally only kill children, we couldn’t ban them in America. It would be impossible.”
However, it was Iadarola’s last point of satire that inspired Cenk Uygur to really take it over the top: “If there were bullets that were magnetically attracted to cops we couldn’t ban them in America.” Cenk immediately cut in, insisting:
No, but there are John. No, it’s not a hypothetical. Armor-piercing bullets are not for deer -- they don’t have armor. And the regular citizen doesn’t have armor. Armor-piercing bullets are only meant to kill cops! We have special bullets to kill cops, and they won’t ban them! And then they’ll go around and do #BlueLivesMatter.
He continued, mentioning how #BlueLivesMatter is only relevant to gun supporters when they feel African Americans need to be kept down, but, “‘Oh, you’re (cops) getting murdered out there by armor-piercing bullets? I don’t give a crap. Go and die. Why do I care? Cops? I don’t give a crap about cops.’ That’s what all you right-wingers say. You right-wingers hate cops! Because you allow those armor-piercing bullets to murder them!”
Returning to a calmer state, Cenk maintained that this is all proliferated by the NRA lobby, who give lawmakers windfalls of cash so that they don’t change the laws, resulting in more cop “murder.” Mimicking the Republican congressmen, he said, “Those terrorists gave us bribes… so nope! I’m not going to do anything about it.” Then he pointed out that the “right-wing clowns” aren’t going to do anything about it either.
He followed up by accusing conservatives of not caring about kids, cops, or anyone in this country, essentially saying that their blood is on conservatives’ hands until they give into gun control on leftist terms.
But, of course, Cenk assured the right-wing audience in hushed, soothing tones, that they are not trying to be tyrannical. They just want to protect “you and your family.”
