Princeton University Professor Eddie Glaude Jr. said Thursday on MSNBC that Americans are “selfish” for wanting to own guns and that selfishness is one of the factors contributing to gun violence in the country.
The “Morning Joe” panel were discussing gun control in the wake of Monday’s deadly shooting, where transgender 28-year-old Audrey Hale opened fire at a Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee.
Co-host Jonathan Lemire argued supporting the NRA is “part of the cultural identity of those on the right.” (RELATED: ‘You’re Not Looking At Any Data’: Reps. Bowman, Massie Get Into Shouting Match Over Gun Violence)
“Maybe it’s the fringe right, but still a loud fringe right. Is there anything that’s going to break that fever, or is this what we have to live with?” Lemire said.
“I think there are three elements. One is greed. The gun manufacturing industry, the gun lobby, NRA. The other is selfishness. ‘I’m so selfish that I want my gun. I don’t care if this weapon of war is killing babies. I’m going to keep my AR-15,'” Glaude said. “Then there’s indifference, greed, selfishness. And indifference is, ‘This is not going to touch me until it touches me. Because we’re so damn selfish.’ So it makes it very difficult to imagine what a notion of the public good, of the common good, what it would look like. And if that’s the case, I don’t know how democracy survives.”
Hale killed three nine-year-old students and three adults staff members before she was fatally shot by Nashville police officers. Police said Hale had “maps” of other possible targets and a manifesto, but have not yet released the details of said document to the public.