Watch Live: Obama’s Counterterrorism Speech

Watch Today’s BlazeCast With Your Questions, Comments & Live Chat!

Media

‘Answer My Question!’: Angry Piers Morgan Berates Gun Advocate Over How Many Bullets an AR-15 Can Fire in One Second (Featuring TheBlaze’s Will Cain)

Dec. 19, 2012 11:30pm Jason Howerton

The gun control debate raged on Wednesday night as CNN host Piers Morgan battled TheBlaze’s Will Cain and other pro-gun advocates over whether an semi-automatic assault weapons ban would curb violent crime in the United States.

“Why does any American need one of these AR-15s? What possible protection can that kind of thing offer them? It’s a military rifle,” Morgan began.

“I don’t think that the conversation, when it comes to me, is with the burden upon me to say why I might need that weapon,” Cain replied. “What I need you to do explain how you’ve made the country safer by proposing to ban that weapon.”

“I understand the sense that we have at a moment like this that we must do something,” he added. “But what I would suggest is make sure you are actually going to accomplish that.”

Cain went on to say he is not convinced that banning assault weapons would accomplish anything “significant.” He noted that the rifle that Newtown, Conn. shooter Adam Lanza used when he killed 20 children and six adults would not be covered under Connecticut’s assault weapons ban or the federal assault weapons ban that expired in 2004.

“I find that ridiculous,” Morgan replied.

“What I would say is, the federal ban that we did have for 10 years didn’t drop national violence,” Cain said.

“But it did. Demonstrably, it did,” Morgan shot back.

After saying he wasn’t aware of the statistics that Morgan was referring to, Cain explained that it takes a very “determined criminal” to do something as horrific as Adam Lanza, and an assault weapons ban isn’t necessarily going to deter that kind of deranged individual.

As far as Morgan’s claim that the federal assault weapons ban passed by Congress in 1994 “demonstrably” reduced national violence, he may be overselling, according to a 2004 study from the University of Pennsylvania.

ABC News reports:

That is unclear. According to a 2004 study from the University of Pennsylvania, the number of people killed in mass shootings did go down generally during the years that the ban was in effect. The exception was 1999, the year that the shooting at Columbine High School happened.

The number of mass shootings per year has doubled since the ban expired, but the researchers say it’s difficult to discern whether there was a cause-and-effect relationship.

When asked what law he would propose to stop mass killings like the one in Connecticut, Morgan said “you’ve got to try.”

“I’ve been in this country for the last six, seven years watching shooting massacre after [shooting massacre],” he added. “When does the slaughter stop?”

At this point, John R. Lott Jr., author of “More Guns, Less Crime,” chimed in and defended the use of semi-automatic rifles, saying the guns have the same characteristics as all semi-automatic weapons.

“You want people to think that they are just harmless old hunting rifles, and that’s why they sell so fast. And it is a disgrace that you won’t answer those questions,” Morgan said, raising his voice.

At several points throughout the interaction between Lott and Morgan, it was more of a shouting match as Morgan demanded Lott answer the AR-15 related question, “How many bullets does it fire a second?”

Benghazi, IRS, AP...What's next? Only TheBlaze TV offers the truth from Glenn Beck, Andrew Wilkow, and Real News from TheBlaze. Get instant access and a free trial here.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (420)

Southernsoul
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 9:05am
I, for one, am glad to see the left wants to do something to protect the lives of little children. Let’s start at the top. There are 3,700 babies a day murdered by abortions. Lets ban those and from there we will work our way down by number. Its gonna take a long time before we get to guns.

And Piers, why don’t you go back to your worthless dance showand stay out of American politics until you at least learn a few facts. For an example, read and understand the Constitution and try to get past the first amendment. Wanker.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Zatoichi
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 9:02am
Go back to England you ignorant bloody lymey. Come over here, make big bucks then ridicule us, STFU.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
wildjoker5
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:56am
1: “Why does any American need one of these AR-15s? What possible protection can that kind of thing offer them? It’s a military rifle,” Morgan began.

The military IS the person I want the AR-15 to protect myself from. Duh.

2: If a ban on mass killings didn’t stop this guy, why would a ban on assault rifles have stopped this guy?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
raderby
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:56am
Will is too squishy, and why I have issues with him.

Piers pile driver? F the dog.

Check on mass shootings in Switzerland. Citizens are required to own a gun, and TRAINED on one.
If just 25% of these leftist dummies would take a gun class, and then BE HONEST, this whole discussion would be over.

POWER AND CONTROL – and Mr. Pile Driver:: We fought for our independence from your vile country 230+ years back – and one of the things your monarch tried was to disarm us so we could not rise up against his tyranny. The 2nd amendment is ALL about keeping ANY gov’t here in America from stomping on our rights as people. And that leads me to think we all should have access to any weapons the military has. See, we are not quite sure when aholes like you are going to try and take over everything- oh wait- we are about there, huh?

I will not let the final nail go into freedom’s coffin with **** droozles like PP Morgan at the helm.

MORGAN OUT OF USA/ UN OUT OF US.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
666Sucks
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:53am
Why we need fully Automatic Assault Rifles, but will settle for what we have, Semi Automatic Assault Rifle look-a-likes:

People in the Obama Government or close to it planned to Execute 25 Million Americans, here is the proof: http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=HWMIwziGrAQ&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DHWMIwziGrAQ
In order to kill 25 million Americans, they needed to accomplish the following goals, which they wrote down and that were entered into Congressional record before we became Sheeple, which they have now accomplished: http://www.uhuh.com/nwo/communism/comgoals.htm
This has happened time and time again (graphic): http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=ZY58k3ihRaQ&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DZY58k3ihRaQ%26feature%3Dyoutu.be
Finally, all they need is for the “responsible” part of the government, to suffer from what’s known as The Normalcy Bias http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Normalcy_bias, while the rest of the “Sheeple” become gorged on entitlement, done!
All they have to do after accomplishing the above, is sit back till the demographics tip and there are more entitlement whores then real Americans, and they win… See last election results! On 6 November, 2012, America knowingly re-elected a blatantly obvious “We Need To Spread The the wealth around” Marxist.
All that is left is to disarm the populous.
Not Me, I know history! I suggest you pass this on to every talking head you can reach, and every real politician you know, and get them to look the enem

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- 666Sucks
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 9:26am
  and get them to look the enemy, like this Morgan moron, in the eye every time they say we don’t need Assault Rifles to hunt, and say, “We need Assault Rifles to stop rogue tyrannical dictatorships and invading theocratic ideologies!!!”
  
  Report this comment
FeliciaJewel
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:37am
Sick and tired of people making decisions for me. I will have a gun in my home or on my person to protect my family or myself from the crazies that commit these crimes. Guns, Soda, Salt, and Fat… for those of you that think you can dictate what I eat, drink, or how I protect myself.. it is of none of your concern. As a law biding citizen I have the right to choose. I will not ask you to pay for my decisions including my health insurance. I will take the responsibility for my own actions. I do not sit here and pretend that I know what is best for you, do not think for one minuet that you know what is best for me. You don’t want to carry… DON’T! You don’t want to drink pop, DON’T! But as for anyone out there that thinks they know best for me here is some advice… fix your own problems before you come knocking at my door to fix mine. Leave me alone, I will eat, drink, carry, sleep, with what or whom I want!! The moment any of you that thinks you know best-becomes with out doubt the perfect individual without fault let me know.. until then get out of my house, get out of my life, leave me to my own choices. As long as I am not hurting you or pushing my beliefs on you, shut up and live your own life. I am sure you can find things in your own life to work on. Stop pretending that you can cure the world!!! Evil is what it is.. how I choose to deal with it is of my own concern. I have the right to protect myself.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Borderlegion
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:36am
Why let a good crisis go to waste, especially when you can put crazy uncle Joe in charge of it. This is not about gun control, it’s about CONTROL.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
rphilli2
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:30am
Pierce,Please take the first flight back to where you came from.You are no better than any immigrant that comes to our country because we are different from your home country and then wants to make us like the country you left. If you want a country like that,GO HOME and leave us alone.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
@leftfighter
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:29am
Not that he wants to hear this, but Piers is falling into a logical fallacy.

He’s saying that because mass shootings fell during the ban years, it’s “demonstrable” that there’s a correlation.

Shockingly, the fallacy is called “Correlation does not imply causation.” http://www.stats.org/in_depth/faq/causation_correlation.htm

As to why Piers wouldn’t be interested in hearing what logical fallacy he’s falling into, one would have to demonstrate that he’s a logical thinker in the first place, which I’m certain can’t be done. He’s about as logical as Chris Matthews, he’s just better at enounciating whatever fail is coming out of his face.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
americansfightingforcommonsense
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:26am
Piers Morgan – You like to call people names and raise your voice over anyone that has a different point of view than you. You will not allow a discussion to take place because you are a “BULLY” and have the Bully microphone. You sir should get out of OUR country and go back to where ever you came from. You, sir, are despicable! “We the People” can fix this problem, and it’s not that hard to do. How do you stop people from shooting “Fish in a Barrel”; You arm the “Fish” so they can shoot back! Why do robbers hit homes without alarms? Because they want to go to the path of least resistance! Why do gunman shoot at schools? Because their goal is to cause mass chaos for as long as they can! Allow school officials who want to be armed, who can pass a mental/sanity screening, and who gets all the proper training! Put emergency alert buttons into the rooms that will set off alarms in the school that tells everyone WHERE the problem is and have everyone trained and armed come to the rescue. Have an armed police officer in every school. You must fight fire with fire!
BULLIES PICK ON THGE WEAK! The answer is = Don’t allow a Bully the opportunity to pick on you. Don’t allow a shooter to have free rein over your school until police can show up to take them out. Take them out yourself! Trust me! If potential shooters think that the school is armed, they will go somewhere else. You can not stop EVIL from being EVIL; you can stop EVIL from having the upper hand!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Damocles
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:23am
Morgan is using supposed data that is way skewed. The US gov’t data indicates that gun related crimes have been on a steady decline over the last 40 years. More people are killed by car accidents and even suicide. His logic, if one can use that term with Morgan is seriously flawed. Gun bans don’t work, one only need look to Chicago and DC.
Hey if people don’t want to own a gun, fine. Good for them. But trying to demonize the 100 million that do own guns is bull. It is a legal right and will continue to be so. The only way to stop any and all gun violence is to remove every gun from the planet. Good luck with that. Get tougher on criminals and provide assistance to those who have family member in need of mental heath.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- ShallNotBeInfringed
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:26am
  Yes, the crime rate did drop during the “ban” on “assault weapons” 1994-2004. But here’s the key point. Since there were no confiscations and every gun already in private hands remained legal to own, to shoot to re-sell and to buy, there was no decrease in semi-auto rifles. There was no ban. And tens of thousands of new guns manufactured to comply with the law (no bayonet lug, no flash suppressor, et cetera) were also put into the hands of law abiding citizens. At the end of the ban there were many, many more “banned” guns out there. It was a truly stupid form of political masturbation — felt great and accomplished nothing.
  
  After 09/11, there was no call for a ban on box cutters or airliners. We put guns onto planes, in the hands of sky marshals and pilots appropriately trained. It works.
  
  Do you think that Al Qaeda is watching all this and not considering dozens of copycat incidents because Joe Biden’s been put in charge?
  
  Report this comment
American-first
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:15am
MR Morgan has no clue as to what he is talking about. The question he fails to address is how a deranged person whom should be locked where he can not harm anyone is loose. Guess the Liberals would also be in danger of confinement too! If America is so bad please go back to the UK!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
GIVEMEGIVEMEGIVEME
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:10am
If every women and child in the country were shot to death,the NRA clones would still insist it would have been worse if we restrict gun sales.It’s the only thing they know how to say.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
braddock66
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:06am
These two idiots can’t answer the question, they make piers look justified by their stupidity. We have a right to defend ourselves from criminals and the government.Who wants a single shot .22 to protect from the government with their ultra modern weaponry. We need assault weapons.Change the culture, arm the schools.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- americansfightingforcommonsense
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:32am
  Actually, Will Cain is a very intelligent guy, and has lots of great thoughts of how to fix this and many other problems. The problem here is that PIERS MORGAN is a bully and won’t let anyone talk that he disagrees with. He is the “NAZI of TV” these days. He is misleading our country towards communism, that will ultimately KILL this nation. Piers is a danger to OUR society.
  
  Report this comment
Damocles
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:04am
Remember that Morgan didn’t take that snide tone with Ted Nugent.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
ShallNotBeInfringed
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:01am
Two points:
The answer to the question why anyone “needs” a semi-auto rifle is simple — “for the same reason the police have them.” If you want to elaborate, “for law enforcement, for defense, to keep the peace and to deal with really bad people.” Sure they’re great for target shooting and thousands are used at high-power rifle matches by civilians all over the country, and they’re good for hunting, buit they are very effective deterrants to common criminals and domestic terrorists. We’re the militia.

Two is more complicated. Yes, the crime rate did drop during the “ban” on “assault weapons” 1994-2004. But here’s the key point. Since there were no confiscations and every gun already in private hands remained legal to own, to shoot to re-sell and to buy, there was no decrease in semi-auto rifles. There was no ban. And tens of thousands of new guns manufactured to comply with the law (no bayonet lug, no flash suppressor, et cetera) were also put into the hands of law abiding citizens. At the end of the ban there were many, many more “banned” guns out there. It was a truly stupid form of political masturbation — felt great and accomplished nothing.

After 09/11, there was no call for a ban on box cutters or airliners. We put guns onto planes, in the hands of sky marshals and pilots appropriately trained. It works.

Do you think that Al Qaeda is watching all this and not considering dozens of copycat incidents because Joe Biden’s been put in charge of

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Damocles
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:45am
  Excellent post!
  
  Report this comment
chingachgook
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:00am
The point is the Founding fathers instituted the second amendment to protect the people from a tyrannical government. An armed man is a free man. It has been that way for all of time. It is just that the weapons of today are guns not swords. The rate of fire of a simi-auto weapons is spurious if you are firing as rapidly as this guy was saying you are in no way aiming. The rate depends on the recoil of weapon and target acquisition.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Mossy_pump
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 7:51am
Morons! Gun control isn’t the answer…what we have is one huge jackfest over gun control when the government needs to quit its rediculous overspending and use that $$ for the mental health programs that they are shutting down and pulling $$ away from.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
EWRoss
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 7:49am
There isn’t an American with a heart that isn’t sick over the Newtown, Connecticut, shootings of all those innocent children and teachers; and there shouldn’t be a gun owner in America that’s afraid of a national conversation about mass shootings and how to prevent them.

That conversation, however, must begin with everyone on the same page about guns. I scratch my head when I listen to people on television (like Piers Morgan) that call for more gun control because of their appalling lack of knowledge about guns. It’s very difficult to have an intelligence conversation about guns with someone who doesn’t know what they are talking about.

http://ewrossblog.com/2012/12/16/a-national-conversation-about-mass-shootings/

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
NavyAFCM
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 7:47am
Most people, who speak without a political agenda, realize the true meaning and reason behind the 2nd Amendment. Although most are relutant to say it publicly,…The Government is unable to completely take over the country as long as the American people are armed…..Our military fights throughout the world to protect others freedoms, yet we are so blindly givin ours up at such a slow rate many do no see the handwritting on the wall.
My heart felt sympothy and prayers go out to all those families of any victims of any gun related deaths or injuryies, especially all those beautiful young children recently in CT. But lets not allow this crisis to become a political agenda diven on emotions in our attempt to find a solution.
Many have said ban all assult weapons, first I would suggest looking up and understanding the correct definition of assult weapons. Then realize that even if “ALL” guns were banned the criminals would still have access to them. That will not change.
There are suggestions we allow teachers or armed guards at schools, I agree that would help but in realit is only putting a band-aid fix on the problem. Where do we put armed guards next….Shopping malls, sporting events, parades or any large gthering of children/adults?
I suggest we do have good indepth backround checks on all gun owners, make owning/carrying a gun (handgun in most instances) something more Americans can do if they desire too. Criminals of all types would have to th

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Mess23
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 7:34am
Chicago

Gun ban

MURDERS way up

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Mess23
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 7:36am
  The US gave guns to Mexican drug dealers
  
  Report this comment
- Mess23
  Posted on December 20, 2012 at 8:38am
  US give the Radical Islams 20 state of the art F-16′s
  
  Report this comment
reality based lifeform
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 7:27am
What will we do when the Fast and Furious guns make their way back into America after our semi-auto
rifles are banned?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
RaydocX
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 7:23am
The left are hand wringing in the extreme, led by the the socialist in chief,BHO listed the subsequent killings … Except for those in NYC or Chicago, of course.

And without addressing owning cuts to mental health reimbursement…

As to Piers utter cluelessness an AR15 style weapon stands a chance against a group of aggressors, since in today’s culture a gang may risk 1 or 2 being hit or even killed before they subdue a homeowner to take what they want…

Sadly, the Left doesn’t want to hear that individuals aren’t safe in this society, from their insulated glass and steel cocoons, protected by armed security, they want to pretend we are better than is really the case,ignoring their own willingness to achieve goals on the backs of other people…

Imagine if anonymous sent security home at CNN or msnbc headquarters , shut off the phones, and advertised the vulnerable state in low income areas…

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
proliance
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 7:12am
Quote of the day: Last night I was watching the final episode from season 17 of Top Gear. Host Jeremy Clarkson was giddy from test driving a BMW around the Top Gear track and said:

“I feel as if someone has given me permission to set Piers Morgan on fire.”

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Chris.underhill
Posted on December 20, 2012 at 7:11am
i stand corrected the story i am referring to as to the guy never use a riffle has been altered.. Although i am sure no one will get to see the real autopsy results and see if in fact the guy did use the gun.. funny thing is the story i was referring to was also a video of the same Lt saying he found the assault rifle in the trunk now says shotgun.. i knew i should have screen grabbed it :/

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply

It appears that you have Javascript Disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser preferences for a better user experience on TheBlaze. You can not comment without Javascript enabled.