On Tuesday -- one day after nearly begging Senator Jeff Flake on New Day for Congress to pass more gun laws -- CNN's Alisyn Camerota continued pushing for more gun control as she complained that President Donald Trump has been repeating "the same old NRA talking point" and "the tired NRA talking point," calling it "absurd," during a discussion of the President's reactions to the Texas mass shooting.
At about 6:13 a.m. ET, CNN political analyst David Gregory claimed that the large number of guns in the U.S. is a problem and even ridiculously asserted that there are "more bad guys with weapons" than "good guys." Gregory:
To what the President said, again, I think it's belied by the facts. We've seen it in the data that our problem in America is way too many guns -- both legal and certainly illegal -- and the fact that those states like Texas that have lax gun laws have easier access to concealed weapons and guns in general -- they get lots of good guys with weapons, but even more bad guys with weapons.
Camerota soon bemoaned:
The President started today in his press conference with that same old NRA talking point -- it's too soon to talk about this -- people are grieving, we can't talk about it, we can't look at what went wrong.
In a later segment, she further complained:
This is just so absurd. It's just so absurd, Chris, that the idea -- I mean, the President is sticking to the tired NRA talking point of "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." That's it -- that is not true in other countries. Other countries are able to stop bad guys from getting guns. That's how other developed countries do it...
As the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza responded, he ignored an opinion article that ran in his own paper from a statistician who studied the issue and concluded that more gun laws would impact only a tiny percentage of shootings:
When I heard -- and I heard it early this morning -- the line we just played from South Korea where he -- I mean, he literally almost says, "The only way you stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." The problem there is that I think is it ends up functioning as a catch all for "Well, can't do anything."
And I think what we're dong here -- I actually -- look, Donald Trump said yesterday that this is more a mental health issue than it's a guns issue. I would argue it's a mental health issue and it's a guns issue. And even if you think it's just the one, then we should try to do something on the one.
After Gregory jumped back in to remind everyone that a clerical error was to blame for the Texas gunman passing background checks to purchase several guns, Camerota further bemoaned:
CAMEROTA: Fair enough, but in February -- we should also mention that President Trump did make it easier for mentally unstable people to get their hands on guns.
GREGORY: That has nothing to do with why he got a gun in this case.
CAMEROTA: But there are a million different ways to skin this cat.
Below is a transcript of relevant portions of the Tuesday, November 7, New Day on CNN:
6:13 a.m. ET
DAVID GREGORY: To what the President said, again, I think it's belied by the facts. We've seen it in the data that our problem in America is way too many guns -- both legal and certainly illegal -- and the fact that those states like Texas that have lax gun laws have easier access to concealed weapons and guns in general -- they get lots of good guys with weapons, but even more bad guys with weapons. That's part of the problem is: How do we make it harder? How do they make it less accessible? People like David Sanger's colleagues at the Times -- Nick Kristof - have done interesting work around defining this as public health and not just public policy, and taking a look at how we make some real impact on this.
ALISYN CAMEROTA: But, David Sanger, listen, the President started today in his press conference with that same old NRA talking point -- it's too soon to talk about this -- people are grieving, we can't talk about it, we can't look at what went wrong. But then he did ultimately answer the question. And so do you think that in some ways this issue of gun violence will keep coming up on his Asia trip and eclipse some of what he's trying to do here?
(...)
6:43 a.m. ET
CAMEROTA: This is just so absurd. It's just so absurd, Chris, that the idea -- I mean, the President is sticking to the tired NRA talking point of "The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun." That's it -- that is not true in other countries. Other countries are able to stop bad guys from getting guns. That's how other developed countries do it, and the idea that this guy -- just to be clear about his background in case everyone hasn't been clued up -- he choked, he punched, he hit, he pulled the hair of his wife, and then he cracked the skull of her infant child. That's the guy that then was able to get at least four guns.
CHRIS CILLIZZA: Yup. When I heard -- and I heard it early this morning -- the line we just played from South Korea where he -- I mean, he literally almost says, "The only way you stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun."
CAMEROTA: We hear it all the time, and that's just the old saw.
CILLIZZA: The problem there is that I think is it ends up functioning as a catch all for "Well, can't do anything."
CAMEROTA: Can't do anything.
CILLIZZA: And I think what we're dong here -- I actually -- look, Donald Trump said yesterday that this is more a mental health issue than it's a guns issue. I would argue it's a mental health issue and it's a guns issue. And even if you think it's just the one, then we should try to do something on the one. To your point, Alisyn, which is like, this is clearly a person who should not have been able to buy any --
GREGORY: Well, we know what the remedy is for that. ... The Air Force dropped the ball. This is not Donald Trump's fault or people who advocate gun rights. There was an existing measure that was in place that, had it been followed, he wouldn't have had a gun.
CAMEROTA: Fair enough, but in February -- we should also mention that President Trump did make it easier for mentally unstable people to get their hands on guns.
GREGORY: That has nothing to do with why he got a gun in this case.
CAMEROTA: But there are a million different ways to skin this cat.
(...)
GREGORY; What's hypocritical about this is that you don't hear this President or most Republicans saying, "Look, when it comes to terrorism, we have to accept that some of these things are just going to happen, you know, like what happened in New York, this stuff's just going to happen -- it's almost impossible to stop." But that appears to be the concession on gun violence.
