MSNBC’s Ali Velshi kicked off the new year by guest hosting All In on Monday and looking back at 2022 with a segment that called for more gun control by comparing it to simple traffic laws and falsely suggesting that the typical American gun owner is better armed than those who fight in war.
Addressing the media favorite gun owner who supports gun control, Ryan Busse, Velshi led not with a question, but a statement:
Ryan, you come from an industry, and I'm an avid consumer of the publications that come out from the industry, because they are so interesting to understand how the psyche comes around, that has built the psyche over years, that has caused demand for guns that, in most cases, people don't need. This is not a Second Amendment thing. This is people owning a lot of guns, and the paraphernalia that goes along with it because it does attempt to normalize that sort of behavior.
Referencing a recent incident in Atlanta. Busse lamented, “the tragedy isn't what's illegal, the tragedy here is what is legal. And as you note, this guy didn't need six loaded guns, including an AR and a tactical shotgun to go grocery shopping, right?”
He then sought out an analogy:
But yet, Georgia is one of the states that [Brady President] Kris [Brown] mentioned that has recently rolled back concealed carry permitting. I mean, I think Americans really need to think about it this way. We have about 270 million registered vehicles in the United States, and you don't have to travel on many of our roads to know it seems pretty crowded. We have a lot of traffic laws, right? We've got lines on the road, we've got bumpers, we've got speed limits, we've got police that are patrolling everything.
We do have a lot of traffic laws and despite them, people still speed, run red lights, and conduct unsafe lane changes resulting in nasty collisions. Still, Busse declared that a main reason for gun violence is “the NRA and the NSSF and an irresponsible slice of the American gun consumers, of which I'm not one of those, I'm a proud gun owner, I hunted yesterday with my boys.”
Shortly after Busse concluded, Velshi turned to Brown and wondered, “But how do we get folks to understand this, that when people say it's about the Second Amendment, and the right to self-defense, people in war don't carry the weapons that the average American has?”
That’s simply not true and it will not become true simply because MSNBC has repeated it a thousand times. Nevertheless, Brown tried to imply that was:
Well, my partner is actually retired Navy. He was a fighter pilot and before I came on today, Ali, I talked to him about what his requirements were flying over Bosnia, for example. He was issued a gun every time he left the carrier, and had to check it back in every time he got back. That's the standard on most military bases in this country. You're not allowed to carry a gun unless you have a specific reason on that duty, on that day. And then it goes back in the armory.
It is true that there are civilian versions of pilots’ service weapons, but the proper analogy would be infantry or other ground units. Brown’s argument also ignores history of how this rule has left bases vulnerable.
This segment was sponsored by Celebrity Cruises.
Here is a transcript for the January 2 show:
MSNBC All in with Chris Hayes
1/2/2023
8:54 PM ET
ALI VELSHI: Ryan, you come from an industry, and I'm an avid consumer of the publications that come out from the industry, because they are so interesting to understand how the psyche comes around, that has built the psyche over years, that has caused demand for guns that, in most cases, people don't need.
This is not a Second Amendment thing. This is people owning a lot of guns, and the paraphernalia that goes along with it because it does attempt to normalize that sort of behavior.
RYAN BUSSE: Yeah, thanks for having me, Ali. I think as with a lot of what we face in America sometimes, the tragedy isn't what's illegal, the tragedy here is what is legal. And as you note, this guy didn't need six loaded guns, including an AR and a tactical shotgun to go grocery shopping, right?
But yet, Georgia is one of the states that Kris mentioned that has recently rolled back concealed carry permitting. I mean, I think Americans really need to think about it this way. We have about 270 million registered vehicles in the United States, and you don't have to travel on many of our roads to know it seems pretty crowded.
We have a lot of traffic laws, right? We've got lines on the road, we've got bumpers, we've got speed limits, we've got police that are patrolling everything. We've got 415 million guns in the United States. And we have the NRA and the NSSF and an irresponsible slice of the American gun consumers, of which I'm not one of those, I'm a proud gun owner, I hunted yesterday with my boys.
But I'm not okay living in a country with 415 million guns where we’re reducing the amount out of controls on ourself, that's just insane. We wouldn't roll back the laws on all the 270 million cars, right? You have more cars, you need more laws to control them, so that, you know, people can stay safe and that-- this is what we're facing right now.
VELSHI: Kris, you’ve worked hard to clarify that message. Again, generally, it actually works -- most Americans are in favor of certain forms of regulation around guns, whether it's red flag laws or background checks. And we've made incremental progress, very incremental progress on a federal level. We've made better than incremental progress on the state level with respect to guns.
But how do we get folks to understand this, that when people say it's about the Second Amendment, and the right to self-defense, people in war don't carry the weapons that the average American has?
KRIS BROWN: Well, my partner is actually retired Navy. He was a fighter pilot and before I came on today, Ali, I talked to him about what his requirements were flying over Bosnia, for example. He was issued a gun every time he left the carrier, and had to check it back in every time he got back. That's the standard on most military bases in this country. You're not allowed to carry a gun unless you have a specific reason on that duty, on that day. And then it goes back in the armory.
I think that part of our history and heritage is actually quite important. We hear references to things like the Wild West, Ali, and in the end, in most of those western towns, you have to check your gun at the border. You couldn't bring it in. And I think what you see in the polls, which is rising across the country, Americans saying, enough, background checks, I want those. Extreme risk laws or red flag laws, and assault weapons bans.
It’s because of things like this. We don't believe that a guns everywhere philosophy, as Americans, is consistent with our heritage. And certainly isn't consistent with our public safety. So, we need to see the states incubate much more of a focus around public safety. We need these permitting systems to be put back in place.
