Don Lemon said Tuesday night that the First Amendment gives Americans the right to “criticize” and “improve” the Second Amendment.
The CNN host played clips of pro-Second Amendment advertisements from Republican lawmakers Lauren Boebert, Madison Cawthorne, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. He criticized the lawmakers for being pro-gun while he was talking about the shooting in Boulder, Colorado that left ten people dead.
“They love to talk about the Second Amendment … love to pose with their weapons, right?” Lemon said. “Try to make it sexy. But the Second Amendment doesn’t require us to submit to a lifetime of mass carnage.” (RELATED: Facebook Confirms It Deleted Account For Suspected Boulder Shooter Containing Posts About Islam, Trump)
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Lemon said that the “carnage is happening in our real life” and “not their theater of the militia” or “in their role-playing.” He further criticized the lawmakers for playing “politics with our lives” and said that the Second Amendment is a “privilege.”
“Here’s the thing about America,” Lemon continued. “You have the Second Amendment, which is a right in the Constitution, right? A privilege.”
The First Amendment gives Americans the right to “criticize” and “analyze” the Second Amendment, Lemon said.
“But you also have the First Amendment that people can love this country and then want to analyze and criticize the Second Amendment and the rest of the amendments and everything,” the CNN host said. “That’s your right under the First Amendment of the Constitution. So by criticizing the Second Amendment and wondering if there are things we can do to improve the situation when it comes to guns — doesn’t mean you’re un-American, doesn’t mean you’re anti-gun. It means you’re exercising your First Amendment.”
Lemon said that criticizing the Second Amendment is “part of being a patriot” and is an attempt “to save lives.”
“So stop playing politics with our lives. And you know what I’m talking about, that crew,” Lemon added, referring to pro-gun elected officials. “You know they’re going to continue to play politics with our lives because that is their whole shtick. It’s the same old song and same old dance while Americans are grieving.”
Gun rights and the Second Amendment have been major topics of discussion since the shooting in Boulder.
President Joe Biden called on Congress to pass new gun legislation in wake of the tragedy.