On Monday, CNN This Morning gave a signal boost to the radical anti-gun rights group “Here 4 the Kids,” with internet journalist/Daily Blast Live co-host Samantha Schacher and actress/director Lake Bell attempting to gain support for their dream of banning ALL firearms in America. The former went so far as to equate banning guns to banning slavery and the subsequent civil rights movement.
After CNN co-anchor Poppy Harlow allowed the pair to push their cause for nearly three minutes (2:50) uninterrupted, bragging about their sit-ins in Colorado, she huffed at how Democratic Governor Jared Polis flatly rejected their liberal fantasies as “unconstitutional”:
Well look, you know. I don't have to tell you this runs into all sorts of issues in the courts -- the Second Amendment, how the Supreme Court has ruled -- would make this unconstitutional at this point. That's just a point of fact.
But I thought it was interesting that Gov. Polis' staff in response to this said that the Governor, quote, "...will not issue an unconstitutional order that will be struck down in the court simply to make public relations statements. He will continue to focus on real solutions."
“So for you guys, is this about more than just bumping up against this issue in the courts? This is about a broader message, no?” she teed them up to preach the righteousness of their anti-gun rights crusade.
Schacher bloviated about how their movement was supposedly going to “shape a new social norm” where people can be more publically anti-gun rights. “A lot of people are afraid to say the quiet parts out loud that more guns equal more death. We are so ingrained in gun culture in this country that it's hard to say that and acknowledge it out loud,” she lamented … on a national newscast.
Citing a USA Today poll, Schacher proclaimed “64 percent of Americans … want gun reform,” which she took to mean a ban on ALL firearms. But as The Reload’s Stephen Gutowski (a winner of the MRC’s Bulldog Award) noted on Twitter, the number of people who want to ban handguns in the U.S. was only about 18 percent according to Gallup.
The asinine argument Schacher was making soon veered into the truly ridiculous (and arguably insulting) as she compared banning ALL guns to abolishing slavery. “[Firearm ownership is constitutional] but so was slavery. We abolished slavery. So, there's many things about the Constitution that can change -- amendments. It's meant to change,” she proclaimed.
Bell was allowed to speak and she opined about how “you don't have to be a constitutional scholar to understand that the Constitution is a living document” and “It's up for evolution.” “That's our privilege as humans to evolve,” she bizarrely declared.
She too tried to tie banning ALL guns with ending slavery by bragging that they were supposedly utilizing “the abolitionist playbook when we talk about amendments that changed the course of our history.” Schacher chimed back in equate themselves to “the civil rights movement.” “[T]his is a movement led by black, brown, and indigenous women,” Bell added.
Harlow agreed with the comparison to the civil rights movement by suggesting, “this sit-in starting this morning -- is really modeled on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.”
Of course, there was no mention of the fact that America's first gun control laws were meant to take the right to bear arms away from newly freed slaves.
CNN’s support for anti-gun rights radicals was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Ensure and Pfizer. Their contact information is linked.
[H/T to NewsBusters intern Cassandra DeVries]
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CNN This Morning
June 5, 2023
7:57:12 a.m. Eastern(…)
POPPY HARLOW: So, I thought it was interesting the response -- Well look, you know. I don't have to tell you this runs into all sorts of issues in the courts -- the Second Amendment, how the Supreme Court has ruled -- would make this unconstitutional at this point. That's just a point of fact.
But I thought it was interesting that Gov. Polis' staff in response to this said that the Governor, quote, "...will not issue an unconstitutional order that will be struck down in the court simply to make public relations statements. He will continue to focus on real solutions."
And he has done a number of things on guns, right, in the state. He signed laws to --
LAKE BELL: Yes.
HARLOW: -- raise the age to buy --
SAMANTHA SCHACHER: Yes.
HARLOW: -- a firearm to 21. He established a minimum waiting period. Expanded the state's red flag laws.
So for you guys, is this about more than just bumping up against this issue in the courts? This is about a broader message, no?
SCHACHER: Yes. Number one, we need to shape a new social norm. First of all, it's there. A lot of people are afraid to say the quiet parts out loud that more guns equal more death. We are so ingrained in gun culture in this country that it's hard to say that and acknowledge it out loud.
So, number one, pushing this social norm that's already existed within our country right now. Because 64 percent of Americans -- 64 percent of Americans, according to USA Today -- they want gun reform. That's more important to them than preserving the rights of guns.
So, at the end of the day, is it unconstitutional? Yes, but so was slavery. We abolished slavery. So there's many things about the Constitution that can change -- amendments. It's meant to change.
And then -- jump in, please, Lake.
BELL: No. Yes, I was just going to say that I think you don't have to be a constitutional scholar to understand that the Constitution is a living document. It's a -- it's up for amendment. It's up for evolution. That's our privilege as humans to evolve. And I recognize that the Second Amendment is what's standing in the way of this being more of a national conversation.
But I also -- you know, we are -- this is a movement led by black, brown, and indigenous --
SCHACHER: Yes.
BELL: -- women, as you said earlier. And ostensibly, they have given us the playbook -- the abolitionist playbook when we talk about amendments that changed the course of our history.
SCHACHER: The civil rights movement.
BELL: Yes.
So I think -- in thinking of that, I think you have to be -- you have to think big. You have to think in terms of big picture and making a big swing. And as Saira Rao, one of our -- you know, one of the leadership here -- she says we haven't lost our minds, we've lost our imaginations.
SCHACHER: Yes.
BELL: And I think that has been --
HARLOW: I was --
BELL: -- very much a north star.
HARLOW: I was really struck --
SCHACHER: I agree.
HARLOW: -- reading her -- when she said that and the fact that as you brought up the civil rights movement that the way that this is being held -- this sit-in starting this morning -- is really modeled on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery marches.
