On his first broadcast since last week’s shooting tragedy in Newtown, Conn., MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough sounded off for 10 minutes Monday about the event and why he is rethinking his approach to gun control.
“Today as a nation we grieve and today we as a people we feel helpless — helpless to stop these random acts of violence that seem to be getting less random by the day,” Scarborough said. “You know, it may be the geographic proximity of Newtown to my hometown, or the fact that my children’s ages average those of the 20 young children tragically killed on Friday, or the fact that my second son has Asperger’s, or the fact that too many other facts associated with Friday’s nightmare strike so close to home. For me, just like for you, there is no escaping the horrors visited upon those children and teachers at Sandy Hook.”
“The events that occurred in a short, violent outburst Friday, Dec. 14, 2012, were so evil that no words that I know of have yet been invented to sufficiently describe the horror experienced by 20 precious first-grade students, their heroic principal, their anguished parents or the shocked New England town that will never be the same,” he continued. “There’s nothing any of us can do to ease the pain this morning or to cause those children to run back into the loving arms of their family members this Christmas season. Soon, we are going to be watching the burials of these babies. We will hold their parents up in prayer, and we will hold our own children tighter as we thank God every afternoon as we watch our children walk off their school bus and into our arms.”
That, as Scarborough later explained, is why he is re-thinking his stance on gun issues, one that earned him the National Rifle Association’s highest rating and four endorsements.
“I knew that day that the ideologies of my past career were no longer relevant to the future that I want, that I demand for my children,” he said. “Friday changed everything. It must change everything. We all must begin anew and demand that Washington’s old way of doing business is no longer acceptable. Entertainment moguls don’t have an absolute right to glorify murder while spreading mayhem in young minds across America. And our Bill of Rights does not guarantee gun manufacturers the absolute right to sell military-styled, high-caliber, semi-automatic combat assault rifles with high-capacity magazines to whoever the hell they want. It is time for Congress to put children before deadly dogmas.”
Scarborough acknowledged it was “change” on his part and that he hopes the country falls in line with his sentiment.
“For the sake of my four children and yours, I choose life, and I choose change,” Scarborough said. “And for the sake of our children, we must do what’s right. And for the sake of this great nation that we love, let’s pray to God that we do.”
