On the morning after the shooting attack on a bank in Louisville, CNN This Morning was true to form in promoting new gun laws that were not relevant to the crime, and devoted a segment to allowing anti-gun Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) to push for irrelevant gun laws.
Even though the Louisville gunman passed a background check and purchased the murder weapon legally from a gun dealer, co-host Poppy Harlow plugged Senator Murphy's push for "universal background checks" as she opened the show at 6:00 a.m. Eastern: "We'll talk to Senator Chris Murphy later in the show, who keeps reintroducing this universal background check bill -- keeps trying, keeps trying, keeps trying."
At 8:08 a.m., Harlow recalled that President Joe Biden keeps calling for more gun control in the aftermath of each high-casualty mass shooting, playing recent clips of him. She then reiterated Senator Murphy's push for "universal background checks" as she introduced the Connecticut Democrat: "Let's bring in Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. He was a key negotiator in the previous bipartisan gun talks -- keeps reintroducing legislation for universal background checks."
It is baffling that "universal background checks" (requiring private sellers of used firearms to pay a gun dealer to conduct a background check) is so reflexively brought up when it is never relevant to any of the mass shootings that receive media attention.
Without mentioning the role that journalists and other liberals have played in stoking murder rates and shootings by portraying police officers as racists, and complaining about "mass incarceration" of criminals, Harlow blamed guns for a recent surge in gun-related deaths of children.
In a followup, co-host Don Lemon complained that "virtually nothing gets done" by Congress after each mass shooting, and then suggested that the most recent shooting might have been prevented if the right laws had been passed: "...virtually nothing gets done. A little bit of movement with the Biden administration with some of the moves that were -- some of the things that they got passed, but not enough -- not nearly enough, as we see what's happening."
He then read from an anti-gun tweet by Senator Murphy in which the Connecticut Democrat denied that gun ownership can play a role in making Americans safer:
You tweeted this just yesterday, You said, "If guns made us safer, America would be the safest place in the world. But the opposite is true. Nowhere else do students, concert goers and bank patrons get slaughtered on a daily basis because, as it turns out, it's all the guns that make us so unsafe."
The CNN host then added: "So, having said that then, what gives? What is it going to take to get your Republican colleagues to go along for bipartisan -- for some bipartisanship and something to be done?"
It was not mentioned that studies have shown that schools that arm teachers do not have the same problems with mass shootings as those that are gun-free zones.
This episode of CNN This Morning was sponsored in part by Consumer Cellular. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
CNN This Morning
April 11, 2023
6:01 a.m. Eastern
POPPY HARLOW: Another day, another mass shooting in America.
KAITLAN COLLINS: It just broke right after we got off the air yesterday, and it's just one of those moments where you're just waiting to see what's next -- what are the details?
DON LEMON: But then, near it, another shooting in the same city.
COLLINS: Around the same time.
LEMON: Around the same time. It's just nuts, and something has to be -- we say it every time, but let's hope this time -- just hoping and hoping and hoping, but we'll see.
HARLOW: We'll talk to Senator Chris Murphy later in the show, who keeps reintroducing this universal background check bill -- keeps trying, keeps trying, keeps trying.
(...)
8:08 a.m.
HARLOW: President Biden condemning the latest mass shooting, calling on Republicans in Congress to do something, take action on gun violence. That is the message he has repeated a lot, mass shooting after mass shooting.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN (dated March 28, 2023): As a nation. we owe these families more than our prayers. We owe them action. (editing jump) So I again call on Congress to pass the assault weapons ban.
PRESIDENT BIDEN (dated March 15, 2023): Enough. Do something. Remember and mourn today, but I'm here with you today to act.
PRESIDENT BIDEN (dated February 14, 2023): It's a family's worst nightmare that's happening far too often in this country. (editing jump) We have to do something to stop gun violence ripping apart our communities.
HARLOW: Let's bring in Democratic Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut. He was a key negotiator in the previous bipartisan gun talks --keeps reintroducing legislation for universal background checks. Senator, thank you very much for being with us this morning.
You know, the fact that guns are the leading cause of death in American children now -- more than car accidents -- the fact that the number of gun deaths for kids is up 50 percent from 2019 to 2021, but a lot of your Republican colleagues have said in recent weeks, "We've done what we're going to do on guns." So is that what we should tell our kids?
SENATOR CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): We can't because our -- the kids are growing up with a devastating, crippling fear that we have delivered to them by choice -- all right, no other kids in any other high-income nation worry about whether they're going to survive their day at school or survive their walk to school. I mean, you frankly can't quantify the threat to our kids by just the number of kids who die. I live in, you know, in a neighborhood in Hartford, Connecticut, that has a high rate of gun violence.
I have a group of young seventh and eighth graders that I meet with every now and again just to hear from them what they want me to be working on. Their number one concern is their walk to and from school. School for them is actually the safe place. For them, they worry for their lives when they're outside their home in their neighborhood. That kind of trauma -- it frankly biologically changes the brains of these kids because they're living through trauma that's, you know, similar to what a soldier goes through when they deploy overseas. And it's no coincidence that in these violent neighborhoods you have these underperforming schools because the exposure to trauma and violence is literally ruining these kids' ability to learn and adapt.
So this epidemic -- the scope of it is so much bigger than just the numbers -- a hundred plus people dying per day. We are literally losing a generation of kids in some neighborhoods. And of course the answer is not to stand pat and do nothing. Of course we should be continuing to try to find common ground -- try to find the ways that we can work together -- Republicans and Democrats -- to make our laws reflect what the American public want -- which is criminals and people with mental illness not having access to these very dangerous weapons.
LEMON: Senator, listen, with all due respect, I'm not contradicting anything that you're saying, but I think you'll agree, every time there's a shooting, right, you say what you say -- others say the same thing -- "We have to do something, we have to do something" -- and then virtually nothing gets done. A little bit of movement with the Biden administration with some of the moves that were -- some of the things that they got passed, but not enough -- not nearly enough, as we see what's happening.
I was interested -- listen, the real question is, so then what happens? Is there room for what happens? You tweeted this just yesterday, You said, "If guns made us safer, America would be the safest place in the world. But the opposite is true. Nowhere else do students, concert goers and bank patrons get slaughtered on a daily basis because, as it turns out, it's all the guns that make us so unsafe." So, having said that then, what gives? What is it going to take to get your Republican colleagues to go along for bipartisan -- for some bipartisanship and something to be done?
SENATOR MURPHY: So, listen, I think we have to acknowledge that last year we passed the first bipartisan gun safety legislation in 30 years. For 30 years -- from 1994 until 2022 -- the gun industry owned Washington, and last summer we passed legislation that makes five major changes to American gun laws. One of the things that it does is put a waiting period on every under 21 buyer in this country so that you can't have a situation like we had in Uvalde where a young person in crisis goes to a gun store, buys a gun, and uses it days later.
That makes this country safer. But it also suggests that we have seen a paradigm shift in this country, that now Republicans see the anti-gun violence movement as being more powerful than the gun lobby. And so I know my Republican colleagues, fresh off that bipartisan bill, say they're not ready for more bipartisan compromise, but I think the pressure is on. I think parents and kids all across this country are not going to allow for inaction, and will try to find for the rest of this year a bipartisan area of compromise.
LEMON (jumping in): You really think there's been a paradigm shift?
SENATOR MURPHY: I do. I absolutely do. I think today the gun safety movement is at least as powerful as the gun lobby if not more powerful. We would not have passed that legislation last summer if that were not the case. And I get it -- we are only nine months since the passage of the biggest bipartisan gun safety legislation in 30 years -- Republicans are not exactly jumping at the opportunity to take on the NRA again, but I think it's just a matter of time before we find that common ground again.
