Gingrich to Piers Morgan: Let’s hold gun-control hearings in Chicago

Hot Air ^ | January 25, 2013 | Allahpundit

[2ndDivisionVet]

Twelve minutes long but worth watching in full, partly because Gingrich is in fine form and partly because it’s a nice demonstration of how futile and bad-faith the “debate” over guns is. Morgan’s point is straightforward: If gun-rights fans think it’s okay to ban machine guns because rapid-fire weapons are too dangerous for the public to own, why not ban assault rifles? Granted, automatics fire much more rapidly than semiautomatics, but you can still get off an awful lot of shots quickly with an AR-15 if you’re pulling the trigger fast enough. Gingrich comes at that logic from the other direction: If semiautomatic rifles are banworthy because you can fire rapidly in volume with them, why aren’t semiautomatic pistols also banworthy?

The answer, if you talk to an honest gun-control advocate, is that they are. They’d love to ban all semiautomatics. It’s wildly illogical to focus only on one type if you’re worried about rapid-fire weapons, to the point where Morgan is left arguing here that we need to get rid of rifles but not pistols because, um, well, that’s the sort of weapon that lunatics like James Holmes and Adam Lanza seem to prefer — as if they wouldn’t resort to pistols if rifles were off the market. (Holmes and Lanza both had semiautomatic pistols on them during the shootings, in fact. My hunch is that the reason spree killers prefer “assault rifles” to pistols has little to do with lethality and everything to do with image. They’re on an insane power trip, and a bigger gun that resembles a machine gun adds to the thrill.) But Morgan knows that banning all semiautomatics won’t fly politically, at least right now, because most Americans believe in the right to own a gun...

[Yo-Yo]

Gingrich blew it at the start. Hey Pierced, IT ISN'T ILLEGAL FOR AMERICANS TO OWN FULLY AUTOMATIC WEAPONS, and Newt didn't know enough to call Pierced on it.

Go back on the couch with NancyPants where you belong, Newtie.

[tractorman]

So the Gatling gun is OK then.

[gspurlock]

We need to focus more on the distinction between “needs” and “rights” - they are not the same. A right is inherent and is not dependent upon another’s sacrifice. People need food, but they are not entitled to steal it because they need it. People don’t “need” guns, but it is their right to purchase, own and use them. I would not be opposed to fully automatic weapons in the hands of American citizens. I don’t agree with those laws. The “mental health” litmus test is just as slippery a slope as giving the government any other authority to infringe upon our rights.

[Glennb51]

It is in Arizona

[gusty]

When Piers Morgan asks why anybody needs an AR-15, this song may explain it to him, enjoy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OT0yoo9B2Bc