When we’re looking for sharp and thoughtful debate on gun rights in America, we turn to the women of “The View.”
Sorry … been watching a lot of “Stranger Things” lately. Got caught up in the Upside-Down mythos.
Obviously, one of the last places we’d turn to for a discussion on gun rights is “The View,” in no small part because of stuff like this from Whoopi Goldberg:
"You can have your other yee-haw guns, whatever you want," Whoopi Goldberg lectures Americans, says the AR-15 "has got to go." pic.twitter.com/0efyxqO6vg
— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) May 31, 2022
Here’s the meat of Whoopi’s argument:
“And I don’t care, NRA. You got to give that gun up. You can have your other yee-haw guns, whatever you want. The AR-15 is not a hunting gun. It is a not a gun where you’re gonna go out and shoot your dinner. This gun is meant to kill people. That’s what it’s for. And you can’t have it anymore.”
Special shout-out to Sunny Hostin (we think?), who interjected at some point during that rant to point out that the AR-15 is “a weapon of war.”
Anyway, yes, an AR-15 can, in fact, kill someone. If you’re using it for self-defense, it’s possible that you will kill your attacker. That’s kind of how self-defense works. Perhaps Whoopi Goldberg would personally prefer to be attacked and possibly killed rather than have to pull a trigger to defend herself. And that’s her prerogative.
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But someone who chooses to own an AR-15 for self-defense isn’t trying to hunt people. And it’s really disingenuous and gross of Whoopi and “The View” to suggest that it is.
Yee-Haw Guns? Ooof. The AR-15 is infrequently used in crimes compared to handguns. Though neither should be banned. The issue is ensuring prohibited possessors don't obtain firearms AND those who violate gun laws aren't released early from jail or given a slap on the wrist. https://t.co/oPUbXRg9UK
— Gabriella Hoffman (@Gabby_Hoffman) May 31, 2022
It’s actually pretty simple. But somehow way too complicated for the likes of Whoopi Goldberg.
Is there any evidence that shootings would decrease if the choice of weapon was limited? While most headline-grabbing mass shootings use the AR-15, the ones that fail to make headlines (most of them, largely gang-related, many in major cities) typically involve handguns, it seems https://t.co/5foBKfwqDg
— Emily Zanotti (@emzanotti) May 31, 2022
(Well, Joe Biden sounds like he wants to ban handguns, too, at some point.)
Like, this also goes to the question of whether we care about *mass shootings * or just *mass shootings of specific people* because lots of kids die in Chicago from gang warfare every year, and those incidents fit the mass shooting description of 4+ victims
— Emily Zanotti (@emzanotti) May 31, 2022
It also requires the left to acknowledge that most gun violence is 1) with illegal guns and 2) most legal gun violence is suicide.
Being clear with these statistics forces them to change legislative priorities.
— Adrienne (@AdrienneRoyer) May 31, 2022
And when their legislative priorities are effectively “punish conservatives,” the last thing Whoopi et al. want to do is change legislative priorities.
What this tells me is we have a problem that we really don't care to solve, but want to be able to pat ourselves on the back and make-believe we did something. https://t.co/wWUhu82Jnr
— Will ❤️🔥 (@NHBullmoose) May 31, 2022
Bingo.
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