"Is it time to rethink the Second Amendment?" MSNBC anchor Richard Lui asked viewers of the January 11 "Jansing & Co." on the way to commercial break around 10:15 a.m. EST.
[Video after page break; MP3 audio available here]
Lui was teasing an upcoming segment in which MSNBC anchor Chris Jansing would interview House Intelligence Committee chairman and former FBI agent Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) about what measures Congress could or should take to explore greater security measures for congressmen and/or gun control legislation.
"Every recent gun control law has passed after a high-profile shooting," Jansing noted before starting her interview with Rogers later that hour.
Unlike Lui, Jansing did not suggest the Second Amendment should be "rethought" but asked Rogers if he would support a specific piece of legislation cosponsored by two pro-gun control Democrats aiming to ban high-capacity magazines for handguns.
"No, actually I think this serves the wrong purpose in this particular event, and I argue these are folks trying to take advantage for their political gain," Rogers replied, arguing that if anything the tragedy highlights that shooting suspect Jared Loughner "needed mental health services or legal intervention earlier in his cycle towards violence."
MSNBC continued its push for new gun control laws in the following hour as frequent "Morning Joe" contributor and former ABC News reporter Jami Floyd suggested among other things that states like Arizona should repeal their concealed carry laws.
"I think people would be surprised, Chris, to learn, that there are only three laws in the country at the federal level, three sets of laws, that deal with guns," Floyd complained.
"The Brady Bill only goes to background checks, and unless you've been adjudicated mentally ill, in other words, put in some mental institution or found by a court of law to have been found mentally ill at some point in your past, the Brady Bill won't catch you," Floyd explained. Jared Loughner then "is entitled under Arizona law or law in any other state to a firearm," she added.
Of course, Floyd failed to explain that the adjudication requirement is to safeguard the individual's right to keep and bear arms from being deprived without due process of law.
Later in the interview, Floyd, who helped draft gun control laws during the Clinton administration, laid out three areas on her gun control wish list:
I think we need to target, and I use that word very deliberately, the high-capacity magazines, perhaps the carry, the concealed-carry laws. I don't know that you need to carry a concealed weapon in any state. And Arizona is one of those that permits that. And I think we need a centralized database for information. Those are three areas that don't require targeting the guns themselves that I think we can all come together on.
