In the immediate aftermath of the tragic shooting at Reynolds High School in Troutdale, Oregon, gun control fanatics were ready to go straight away to their never-ending crusade to slap more and more restrictions on gun rights. Some of them went on air, however, in the guise of apolitical security experts.
Take the June 10 edition of MSNBC’s The Cycle, where the panel brought on security and criminal investigation expert Anthony Roman to discuss the latest shooting. While the MSNBC hosts were mostly subdued throughout coverage of the story, a welcome development, Roman was more than ready to take up the banner for a fresh round of federal gun control laws [MP3 audio here; video below].
Roman made his pitch after liberal panelist Krystal Ball posed a fairly reasonable question, wondering what were the “most important and relevant details” about the shooting. Roman gave about a sentence of surface level analysis, stating that the police will “be going into his hard drive, looking at his friends, interviewing family and other witnesses that know his state of mind in the last couple of weeks, the last month.” But not much later, Roman jumped head first into the gun control fray:
These shootings are just becoming far too prevalent here and it's gone beyond the call for gun control. It's gone to a scream for gun control.
Not quite what one had in mind coming from a security and criminal investigation expert. Mr. Roman must have felt that just a few hours was enough time for the dust to settle before delving into his clear political agenda.
Now, it is important to give credit to quasi-conservative Abby Huntsman for not taking the bait in this situation. Roman did make a point everyone can agree on, that “these shootings are just becoming far too prevalent.” Huntsman agreed, and suggested that “oftentimes this ends up being a copycat.”
Roman was not quite finished yet in criticizing our elected officials, opining, “I don’t understand why Congress is silent on this issue...we really need to be so much better at prevention.”
A relevant portion of the transcript is below:
MSNBC
The Cycle
June 10, 2014
3:13 p.m. Eastern
KRYSTAL BALL, host: Let's bring in now security and criminal investigation expert Anthony Roman with Roman and Associates. Anthony, thank you so much for being with us today. We don't know a whole lot here, we don’t a lot of details about the shooter. We know that one student was killed, we know that the shooter is dead, we know that one teacher was injured. As an expert in investigation, what to you seem like the most important and relevant details here?ANTHONY ROMAN, Roman and Associates: Well, looking into the individual's background, that is the shooter. They're going to be going into his hard drive, looking at his friends, interviewing family and other witnesses that know his state of mind in the last couple of weeks, the last month. If he'd been seeking mental health, they'll be looking into those records and interviewing the psychiatrist or psychologist as well. These shootings are just becoming far too prevalent here and it's gone beyond the call for gun control. It's gone to a scream for gun control.
ABBY HUNTSMAN, host: And Pete Williams who we had on earlier, was saying often times this ends up being a copycat, from shootings as you were saying, shootings that happen far too often. What goes through your mind the minute you see something like this breaking on our news banner?
ROMAN: I am sadly shocked every single time. And I don't understand why Congress is silent on the issue. I simply–at this point we've lost an entire school of children, elementary school children, every school is vulnerable to this. The response is absolutely spectacular and your last guest was absolutely correct. We've gotten so much better at the response, but we really need to be so much better at the prevention.
