Chris Cuomo declares 'engaging in gun vocab is mostly a distraction'

Greg P. | 9:56 AM on February 20, 2018

CNN’s Chris Cuomo declared this morning that “engaging in gun vocab is mostly a distraction” and that it must be “reconsidered” on who does and does not get access to “military style” “Ar’s”:

in my experience, engaging in gun vocab is mostly a distraction. Ar's are military style rifle. period. too many people get them and use them to kill innocent people. who gets them and how must be reconsidered. https://t.co/TwF5Ao9aKS

— Christopher C. Cuomo (@ChrisCuomo) February 20, 2018

Cuomo was responding to the very reasonable request for those talking about guns to actually know what they’re talking about:

The important thing Chris is for everyone to speak the same language on the issues. A talk on gun control should be had using the appropriate and correct gun terms and language. Too many people get frustrated over the circular arguments like the definition of “semi-automatic”

— RicksterB (@Karadax) February 20, 2018

Hold up. “Facts” are a distraction now?

"In my experience, using facts is mostly a distraction" https://t.co/ST9jXSqY8l

— Chris B (@chrisbitel) February 20, 2018

And just how is Chris “Period” Cuomo going to define a “military style rifle”? Because, most guns could be considered “military style”:

https://twitter.com/UngerJd/status/965945486053175296

So when Cuomo says something like we need to “reconsider” who gets AR-style rifles, people who actually focus on “gun vocab” and what the words mean hear that he’s coming for all guns. Because if you want to ban the gun used in the majority of mass shootings, it would be a handgun, not the “military style” AR that Cuomo is talking about. From Vice:

A list of mass shootings between April 1999 and January 2013 prepared for lawmakers in Connecticut showed that rifles were used in 10 incidents and shotguns in 10 others, while handguns were used in 42. Glock brand pistols turned up in nine of those cases. Another compendium of mass shootings since 2009 by the New York Times showed that handguns were used in 13 incidents, compared to five in which a rifle was the primary weapon. Glocks were recovered from six of the perpetrators.

You see? It’s not just a “distraction.” It’s the entire debate. Facts matter, and not just for CNN’s apples and bananas.

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