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REWIND// REPLAY: Transcript of Tom Selleck & Rosie O'Donnell's NRA "Discussion"
GeoCities ^

Posted on 06/29/2003 5:45:54 PM PDT by yankeedame

Transcript of Tom Selleck & Rosie O'Donnell's NRA Discussion

transcribed by Otherone .

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Rosie: We're here with Tom Selleck who's a member of the NRA. Three months ago you joined the NRA.

Tom: I did. I actually joined to do an ad. Because, I've done a lot of consensus work for like the last 7 to 8 years and what disturbs me and I think disturbs a lot of Americans is the whole idea of politics now-a-days which seems to be, 'if you disagree with me, you must be evil' as opposed to 'if you disagree with me, you must be stupid'. That's very American.

You know, the demonizing of a group like the NRA is very disturbing. And that coupled with the idea that the government is getting into the idea of suing. We did it for noble reasons with tobacco. I think it was a mistake. Then they moved to gun makers, now they're suing television shows. Oliver Stone there's a suit on his movie.

I think the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, and all of the Bill of Rights are extremely important. And somebody needs to stand up at times where... maybe some of our politicians are demagogue-ing issues. Reasonable people should disagree in this country; we should celebrate that, not consider it a threat.

Rosie: Right, but I think that the reason that people are so extreme against the NRA is because the NRA has such a militant strength, especially a power in Washington to veto or to stronghold any sensible gun law. They have been against every sensible gun law, until yesterday, including trigger locks, so that children, which there are 500 a year that die, don't get killed.

Tom: I'm not a spokesman for the NRA. In fact, all I can tell you is, I was a member when I was kid. I was a junior NRA member. I learned firearm safety. And from what I can see in the last three months, they don't do a lot of the stuff that you assume that they do.

Rosie: I don't assume.

Tom: They are for trigger locks. The NRA is for a lot of things as long as they're voluntary.

Rosie: They're against the registering of guns. We have to register cars. Why shouldn't we register guns so that when a crime is committed we can trace who has owned it?

Tom: You know, I understand how you feel. This is a really contentious issue. Probably as contentious, and potentially as troubling as the abortion issue in this country. All I can tell you is, rushes to pass legislation at a time of national crisis or mourning, I don't really think are proper. And more importantly, nothing in any of this legislation would have done anything to prevent that awful tragedy in Littleton.

What I see in the work I've done with kids is, is troubling direction in our culture. And where I see consensus, which is I think we ought to concentrate on in our culture is... look... nobody argues anymore whether they're Conservatives or Liberal whether our society is going in the wrong direction. They may argue trying to quantify how far it's gone wrong or why it's gone that far wrong, whether it's guns, or television, or the Internet, or whatever. But there's consensus saying that something's happened. Guns were much more accessible 40 years ago. A kid could walk into a pawn shop or a hardware store and buy a high capacity magazine weapon that could kill a lot of people and they didn't do it.

The question we should be asking is... look... suicide is a tragedy. And it's a horrible thing. But 30 or 40 years ago, particularly men, and even young men, when they were suicidal, they went, and unfortunately, blew their brains out. In today's world, someone who is suicidal sits home, nurses their grievance, develops a rage, and is just a suicidal but they take 20 people with them. There's something changed in our culture. That's not a simple...

Rosie: But you can't say that guns don't bear a responsibility. If the makers of the TEC-9 assault rifle... Why wouldn't the NRA be against assault rifles? This is a gun that can shoot five bullets in a second. This is the gun that those boys brought into the school. Why the NRA wouldn't say as a matter of compromise, 'we agree, assault weapons are not good'?

Tom: I'm not... I can't speak for the NRA.

Rosie: But you're their spokesperson Tom, so you have to be responsible for what they say.

Tom: But I'm not a spokesperson. I'm not a spokesperson for the NRA.

Rosie: But if you put your name out and say, 'I, Tom Selleck...

Tom: Don't put words in my mouth. I'm not a spokesperson. Remember how calm you said you'd be? Now you're questioning my humanity.

Rosie: No, not your humanity. I think you're a very humane man. I'm saying that if you...

Tom: Let's just say that I disagree with you but I think you're being stupid.

Rosie: But you can't say that I will not take responsibility for anything the NRA represents if you're saying that you're going to do an ad for the NRA.

Tom: Really?

Rosie: You can't say that. Do you think you can?

Tom: Look... you're carefully skirting the issue. It's an act of moral vanity, Rosie, to assume that someone who disagrees with your political agenda to solve our problems, cares any less or is any less shocked...

Rosie: I never said you cared less.

Tom: Well, let me finish...

Rosie: Tom, I don't think you cared less. Nor do I think the men in the NRA cared less.

Tom: The women too.

Rosie: And the women. I simply said, why can there not be a compromise on the issue...

Tom: There IS a compromise! There's a compromise in enforcing laws. There's a compromise with not allowing kids with guns in school. The problem is, and what you don't seem to realize... you seem to have some sort of... look, we all hang out with people we agree with. And you have a one very one-sided view of the fact of what you don't understand...

Rosie: As does the NRA and the people you hang out with at the NRA have a one-sided view as well.

Tom: I don't hang out with people of the NRA...

Rosie: OK, well, you're saying that I hang out with people with my views. I'm just saying...

Tom: I said people tend to...

Rosie: We all tend to. The NRA does and the un-NRA does.

Tom: You know, this is a nice one-sided conversation but you keep interrupting me. Remember how civil you said we were going to be?

Rosie: I let you talk for four minutes without saying one thing! I did. I didn't say one thing! I simply asked a question on what their philosophies are. And you don't want to...

Tom: I told you... look, when do you want to get to television and violence...

Rosie: I agree! I agree.

Tom: ...and game shows...

Rosie: Game shows?

Tom: ...and how do you reconcile...

Rosie: You mean video games? I agree!

Tom: Please let me finish! Let me say just one thing. What you're really talking about... at least what I'm talking about... is are we a responsible enough society, in terms of television, in terms of guns, in terms of everything else, to be this free? That should frame the debate. My answer unfortunately, in this culture, is 'probably not'. But I'm going to down with the Civil Liberties ship, and all the Bill of Rights, and apply them equally. That's the way I feel. You can ask me specific questions about anything, but it's simply stupid political rhetoric.

Rosie: Well, it's not stupid political rhetoric. We also have freedom of speech, but you're not allowed to scream 'fire' in a crowded movie theater because it threatens the safety of other people.

Tom: I understand.

Rosie: Assault weapons threaten the safety of other people. There's no reason, in my opinion, to have them. You want to have a hunting rifle? Great! You want to have a handgun?

Tom: Do you really think the Second Amendment to the Constitution to guarantee hunting and target shooting? Do you really think that's what the Founding Fathers meant?

Rosie: I think the Second Amendment is in the Constitution so that we can have muskets when the British people come over in 1800. I don't think it's in the Constitution to have assault weapons in the year 2000. But I'm wrong? I guess...

Tom: (nods his head)

Rosie: You know, this is the problem. Here's what happens. The people with opposing views, there is no compromise because, you feel attacked, I feel attacked. You feel less understood...

Tom: I haven't attacked you. I've disagreed with you.

Rosie: And I've disagreed with you as well. But mine comes in the form of attacking because...

Tom: I haven't mentioned assault weapons once. I haven't mentioned a lot of things once. The nature of this debate... I didn't come on your show to have a debate. I came on your show to plug a movie. That's what's I'm doing here.

Rosie: And that's what we did.

Tom: If you think it's proper to have a debate about the NRA, I'm trying to be fair with you.

Rosie: As I am trying to...

Tom: But this is absurd. You're calling me a spokesman for the NRA.

Rosie: Tom, if you are a celebrity and you're doing an ad that says, 'I am the NRA', then what should have been...

Tom: Have you read the ads?

Rosie: I have read the ads.

Tom: Good.

Rosie: Did you read the ads?

Tom: I said them. I read them when I say them.

Rosie: Well, I do too. Well, this is not supposed to be a personal...

Tom: Well it's certainly very entertaining, look at the audience, they're just laughing and having a great old time.

Rosie: Well it's a serious subject. I don't think it's a lot to laugh about.

Tom: Well, that's fine.

Rosie: All right, well, this has not gone the way I had hoped it had gone. But, I would like to thank you for appearing anyway, knowing that we have differing views. I was happy that you decided to come on the show. And if you feel insulted by my questions, I apologize, because it was not a personal attack. I was meant to bring up the subject as it is in the consciousness of so many today. That was my intent. And if it was wrong, I apologize to you, on a personal level.

Tom: It's your show and you can talk about it after I leave too.

Rosie: Well, I thought I would give you an opportunity to discuss your side of it. Which is what I hope that I did. And if I was wrong I'm sorry. (Tom looks away from Rosie) Well, obviously, it didn't do much good.


TOPICS: Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: banglist; nra; rosie; selleck

1 posted on 06/29/2003 5:45:54 PM PDT by yankeedame
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To: yankeedame
LOL, great read.
2 posted on 06/29/2003 6:05:04 PM PDT by Cap'n Crunch
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To: yankeedame


3 posted on 06/29/2003 6:05:49 PM PDT by demlosers
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To: Cap'n Crunch
Bang!Bang!....Bang!

Note please: The *bang_list is a collection of articles pertaining to the Second Amendment and our firearms related Civil Rights. It is not a ping list. Please do not ask me to include you, as there is no one to notify you of new additions to the list. It is a collection of like-subject articles placed by anyone who believes an article belongs there, and can be read anytime. You can read the list here. You can bookmark the list on your FR homepage here. You can add an article to the list by posting a reply and sending it to *bang_list as in this post.
4 posted on 06/29/2003 7:55:23 PM PDT by kAcknor
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To: yankeedame
Good job by Tom. Of course, now, because Howard Dean is for allowing gun ownership for Vermont farmers, the left will politely whistle and look the other way on the issue. Fat Rosie included.
5 posted on 06/29/2003 8:09:22 PM PDT by Jhensy
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To: Jhensy
I actually saw that show...and I did so because Selleck was going to be on. She just totally ambushed him! He is such a gentleman and she's not. I think he should have gone on the attack--pointing out to the audience her hypocrisy in screeching about guns yet keeping her armed bodyguards and being a schill for K-Mart, the worlds biggest gun dealer.....
6 posted on 06/29/2003 8:18:43 PM PDT by ExSoldier (M1911A1: The ORIGINAL "Point and Click" interface!)
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To: yankeedame
Only an un-American liberal would choose to come out and identify Tom Selleck, movie and tv star and major all-around celebrity, simply as "a member of the NRA." And all because he had joined three months previously! Just incredible. Everything is "Well, you said our side does this (hang out together, etc.), so I'm saying the exact same thing back about you and your people" - so Third Grade. She really showed her Long Island nasty side in this one.
7 posted on 06/29/2003 9:18:24 PM PDT by KellyAdmirer
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To: yankeedame
Great read, Rosie O'Donnell makes my skin crawl.

Trace
8 posted on 06/29/2003 9:25:49 PM PDT by Trace21230 (Ideal MOAB test site: Paris)
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To: yankeedame

9 posted on 06/29/2003 10:22:25 PM PDT by Jay D. Dyson (Liberty * Liberalism = Constant)
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To: Gunslingr3; FLdeputy; WolfsView; prana
I would have utterly destroyed this fat carpet-munching douchebag if she'd had the temerity to question why I "need" an "assault weapon" on her >cough< television show. Tom Selleck should have sucked it up and annihilated her weak, emotion-based arguments, but alas, I guess he wanted to be "nice." I'd rather be victorious than nice, but that's just me.

How's the career, Rosie? Turns out being a crazy, anti-freedom, raving homosexual cave bear ain't real hot for the paycheck, eh? Good riddance, you snivelling, lust-driven cow. Maybe the next time we read your name in print it will be a notice of your suicide.

10 posted on 06/30/2003 1:21:12 AM PDT by Jonathon Spectre (Nazis believed they were doing good)
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To: Jonathon Spectre
It would have been fun to watch Tom rhetorically stomp a mudhole in Rosie's enormous butt, but it was not going to happen. The skank had full control of the venue and a sycophantic audience and nothing on that show is about reason or logic. If Selleck had started to beat on her, he would have been booed down or Rosie would have cut to a commercial. He played it _perfectly_, adopted a "more in sorrow than in anger" stance, gave Rosie plenty of opportunity to show her arse and had the audience on his side.

Tom Selleck is a pro and he did a hell of a job.
11 posted on 06/30/2003 5:17:11 AM PDT by Rifleman
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To: yankeedame
A lot of people criticized Tom Selleck for being soft - but he actually did a great job.

A lot of people saw the true liberal colors of Rosie and promptly boycotted her show. Her career is in a freefall and her magazine is defunct. She's truly a has-been now.

It's best to remain calm and courteous when arguing with liberal nut-cases like Rosie. And that's exactly what Selleck did.

12 posted on 06/30/2003 5:32:36 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
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To: yankeedame
Rosie "You want to have a hunting rifle? Not if I have anything to say about it, sister!
13 posted on 06/30/2003 7:14:48 AM PDT by Oztrich Boy ("To alcohol! The cause of- and solution to- all of life's problems" Homer)
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To: *bang_list
Ooooops.
14 posted on 06/30/2003 12:10:49 PM PDT by kAcknor
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