It didn’t take long on Monday for the liberal media to start calling for sweeping legislation restricting every Americans’ right to keep and bear arms in the wake of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada. Among the day’s false reports about how suppressors work and the overblown availability of fully automatic weapons (which are illegal in the U.S.), the Big Three Networks complained that not much was going to get done to push their anti-Second Amendment agenda while Trump was in office.
“As the shock of yet another mass shooting reverberates across the country, in Washington the debate over gun control is raging once again,” announced Anchor Lester Holt during the extended NBC Nightly News. “Some saying the immediate aftermath of a tragedy like this is no time for this sort of debate, while others say it's precisely the appropriate time.”
Chief White House Correspondent Hallie Jackson’s entire report touted the rising Democratic pressure to act on gun control. “The President responding to the attack with remarks that called for unity but not gun control. Making no mention of gun rights at all as the combative debate resurfaces,” she bemoaned.
After showing clips of Democrats calling for action, she slimed Congressional Republicans with the deaths of the kids who perished at Sandy Hook:
By now it's a familiar pattern that not even the murders of 20 children at Sandy Hook could break, a devastating shooting, a national gun dialogue, then gridlock, with deep disagreements over tougher policies like federal background checks and mental health regulations.
“Most Republicans oppose stricter rules on gun sales, rallying around the Second Amendment. But the GOP in control of Congress and the White House, tonight it looks like little will change,” Jackson added, failing to mention that background checks already existed and that the Las Vegas shooter had passed them several times.
On ABC’s World News Tonight, Correspondent Jon Karl longed for the days of President Obama. “At the Sandy Hook memorial, President Obama vowed a national effort to prevent such a thing from ever happening again … President Obama tried and failed entirely to pass stricter gun restrictions.”
In wrapping up his report, Karl praised Hillary Clinton and Joe ‘just go outside and shoot a shotgun’ Biden for trying to start a gun control conversation. “Hillary Clinton tweeting, quote: “Our grief is not enough. We must stand up to the NRA.” And we also heard today from Joe Biden, the former vice president, a very similar message. He tweeted, quote: “Congress and the White House should act now to save lives,’” he hyped.
CBS White House Correspondent Major Garrett took to CBS Evening News to apparently caution that Trump’s opinion about gun control appeared not to have changed. “In a 2015 interview, after a mass shooting in Oregon, candidate Trump said gun laws have nothing to do with such crimes, that it's all about mental illness and people who quote: “Slip through the cracks." There is no sign President Trump has changed his mind on the topic,” he reported.
None of them mentioned what gun control proposals they wanted or talked about how in fact they would have stopped the attack. And only NBC mentioned that fully automatic weapons were already outlawed in the United States.
Transcripts below:
NBC Nightly News
October 2, 2017
7:39:06 PM EasternLESTER HOLT: As the shock of yet another mass shooting reverberates across the country, in Washington the debate over gun control is raging once again. Some saying the immediate aftermath of a tragedy like this is no time for this sort of debate, while others say it's precisely the appropriate time. Our Chief White House Correspondent Halle Jackson has those details.
[Cuts to video]
HALLIE JACKSON: For President Trump, somber silence after a sobering speech.
DONALD TRUMP: It was an act of pure evil. In moments of tragedy and horror, America comes together as one.
JACKSON: The President responding to the attack with remarks that called for unity but not gun control. Making no mention of gun rights at all as the combative debate resurfaces.
SARAH SANDERS: It would be premature for us to discuss policy when we don't fully know all the facts or what took place last night.
JACKSON: Gun control advocates see it differently.
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL: If we don't act now, when will we?
JACKSON: At the Capitol, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, shot in the head in Arizona in 2011, delivered a message to her former colleagues.
GABBY GIFFORDS: The nation's counting on you.
JACKSON: By now it's a familiar pattern that not even the murders of 20 children at Sandy Hook could break, a devastating shooting, a national gun dialogue, then gridlock, with deep disagreements over tougher policies like federal background checks and mental health regulations.
DANA LOESCH: You can't sit here and call for ban this, ban that when you don't even know what was used.
JACKSON: Most Republicans oppose stricter rules on gun sales, rallying around the Second Amendment. But the GOP in control of Congress and the White House, tonight it looks like little will change.
[Cuts back to live]
The President plans to visit Las Vegas on Wednesday but before he does, he'll head to Puerto Rico tomorrow to see firsthand what's become a crisis there. Lester.
...
ABC
World News Tonight
October 2, 2017
7:06:32 PM Eastern(…)
JON KARL: At the Sandy Hook memorial, President Obama vowed a national effort to prevent such a thing from ever happening again.
BARACK OBAMA: Because what choice do we have? We can't accept events like this as routine.
KARL: But the violence didn't stop. More than a dozen mass shootings after Sandy Hook.
(…)
KARL: And now, President Trump faces the challenge not just of reassuring the nation after the deadliest shooting yet, but of figuring out how to prevent more. At the White House, he ignored questions about gun control.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Is it time for new gun control laws?
KARL: President Obama tried and failed entirely to pass stricter gun restrictions. That's unlikely to be President Trump's path, but as the tears subside, he will face the same maddeningly frustrating challenge that bedeviled his predecessor. Stopping this from happening again.
[Cuts back to live]
DAVID MUIR: And Jon Karl joins us tonight from Puerto Rico, where President Trump will arrive tomorrow, then the President comes here to Vegas on Wednesday. And Jon, we heard that question, Jon, shouted there at the White House about gun control. And this President now facing what presidents before him faced, and this pressure to have a conversation about gun violence in this country.
KARL: Certainly hearing that pressure, feeling that pressure from Democrats, including, David, two very familiar names, Hillary Clinton tweeting, quote: “Our grief is not enough. We must stand up to the NRA.” And we also heard today from Joe Biden, the former vice president, a very similar message. He tweeted, quote: “Congress and the White House should act now to save lives.” Clearly the beginning of this conversation, David.
