CNN's John Berman must stay up nights, devising outrageous remarks aimed at winning attention for his ratings-crashing network
On today's New Day, co-host Berman came up with a particularly vile attention-getter. He flatly accused lawmakers who oppose additional gun control measures of intentionally choosing mass shootings, like the recent ones in Boulder and Georgia. Said Berman:
"This morning, lawmakers face a choice. It’s a choice they have faced before. Will they choose to take action, do something, anything, to try to stop these mass shootings, or will they choose the status quo?
"Which means looking at what happened in Boulder this week, in Georgia last week, and saying: I choose this. Let’s stick with this. Boulder is working for me."
Berman should be ashamed of himself for slurring people whose understanding of the Second Amendment and the practicalities of public safety differ from his. But of course he won't be. He'll be happy if his slander wins some notice and pats on the head in liberal corners for him and his struggling network.
If Berman's remarks were repugnant, co-host Alisyn Camerota's were entirely inane. She proposed that gun shop employees administer on-the-fly psychological evaluations of potential buyers, and refuse sales if they determine that a would-be buyer has paranoid tendencies. Of course we all know that gun shop employees are invariably also certified psychoanalysts, fully capable of doing this.
Camerota's two guests, both with law enforcement backgrounds, dutifully expressed sympathy for Alisyn's idea, but had to gently talk her in off the ledge, pointing out that it was entirely impractical, and inconsistent with the law.
CNN analyst Asha Rangappa, a former FBI Special agent, much as she wanted to demonstrate that her heart was in the right [i.e., pro-gun control] place, literally chuckled [see video at 2:41] at the absurdity of Camerota's suggestion, politely pointing out that "an eyeball test wouldn't work."
So this is CNN. Its morning team consists of one guy who slanders people with opposing views. And the other who makes proposals so ridiculous that even sympathizers literally laugh at them. No wonder CNN's ratings stink.
This is just more leftist claptrap from CNN hosts like Don Lemon last night, and Brianna Keilar yesterday. America finds mass shootings "acceptable" unless they do what CNN wants.
CNN's John Berman saying that people who oppose additional gun control laws "choose" mass shootings was sponsored in part by Ensure, Verizon, and Johnson & Johnson, maker of Aveeno.
Here's the transcript.
CNN
New Day
3/25/21
6:00 am EDTJOHN BERMAN: So this morning, lawmakers face a choice. It’s a choice they have faced before. Will they choose to take action, do something, anything, to try to stop these mass shootings, or will they choose the status quo?
Which means looking at what happened in Boulder this week, in Georgia last week, and saying: I choose this. Let’s stick with this. Boulder is working for me.
. . .
ALISYN CAMEROTA: Joining us now is Daniel Oats. He was the police chief in Aurora, Colorado, when a gunman killed 12 people in a movie-theater massacre nearly a decade ago. Also with us is CNN legal and national security analyst, Asha Rangappa. She's a former FBI Special Agent.
Chief Oats, in terms of the investigation, do you think that police now, by this time, know where this suspect bought the gun? And why don’t we start there? Why — in case — in terms of making change, since it seems intractable at the national level, why don’t we go to gun shop owners and say, do you think that this 21-year-old who comes in and wants an AR-15-style weapon, do you think he looks like he’s going hunting with this weapon? Did you ask him: by the way do, you ever think that people are chasing you? Do you ever hear voices saying that people are coming for you? Do they ever ask questions like that? Because this guy, it sounds like, according to his family, would have answered yes.
DANIEL OATS: The short answer is in our society we don’t ask those questions. We don’t demand of gun shops that they ask those questions. We have a perspective in America that there is a right to buy a weapon, absent some compelling and obvious circumstances, and gun shops don’t ask those questions.
. . .
CAMEROTA: Asha, how about that? How onerous would it be to have a gun shop owner just say: by the way, are you hearing voice? Do you ever hear anybody -- do you think people are chasing you? Do you think everbody is watching you? I mean, that, it would have weeded out, possibly, this guy.
ASHA RANGAPPA: Well, Alisyn, I, I, I completely agree with, with the concerns that you’re mentioning. But based on the law, even asking those questions wouldn’t, wouldn't allow a buyer to prevent the purchase. At least under federal so. So with mental illness, at least under the federal fireams disqualifiers, you have to actually be committed to a mental institution, or adjudicated by a court as mentally defective, in order to be legally disqualified from purchasing a firearm.
You know [chuckles] an eyeball test wouldn’t work, and I don’t even think a psychologist having evaluated someone would reach that level. It’s a very high bar.
