MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough said the government must prevent civilians from owning assault rifles and labeled them “weapons of war” Friday on “Morning Joe.”
“The United States Supreme Court said that was not a fundamental right,” Scarborough said. “Even when the Supreme Court was saying that Americans for the first time, because of the second amendment, had the right to keep and bear arms — they specifically said that these weapons of war, these military assault rifles, the type of military assault rifles that our police commissioners say should not be in the hands of civilians.”
Scarborough claimed to be a supporter of the second amendment and said he has issues with several states’ gun laws, but doesn’t believe an assault rifle ban infringes upon the rights of Americans.
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“I am actually uncomfortable with a lot of carry laws, a lot of really extreme carry laws in states like New York and Connecticut. I’m not uncomfortable around guns,” Scarborough said. “But the NRA and the gun lobbyists occupy 4.5 percent of where Americans are. And they twist and distort this debate. So when the president of the United States goes down to Florida, if somebody says something he’ll say, I won’t let them take your guns away. Nobody wants to take the shotguns away. Nobody wants to take their handguns away. They can’t because that’s unconstitutional now because of Heller. Because of D.C. versus Heller in 2008. They can’t do it.”
“We need to take away these weapons of war,” he continued. “Look at these mass shootings. Look at what’s happened.”
Scarborough also blamed the GOP for preventing former President Obama from enacting stricter gun control after the Newtown shooting and called gun violence an epidemic.
“After Newtown, President Obama tried to do something. But the Republicans were saying, we can do nothing. Our thoughts and prayers are with you and the 20 little kids who are slaughtered on the Friday before Christmas vacation. And now Parkland? Are Republicans really going to keep saying we can do nothing,” Scarborough concluded. “This is an epidemic and all they keep doing is making excuses.”
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