At Least 91 People Reported Dead After Monstrous Oklahoma Tornado…120+ Injured…Many Children Among Dead…Some Children Drowned…Heartbreaking Pictures…Reporter Struggles to Share Terrible News…

Watch Live: Continuing Coverage of Oklahoma Tornado Aftermath

Media

‘You Are a Dangerous Man…and You Shame Your Country’: CNN Anchor Lashes Out at Gun Lobby Director

Dec. 19, 2012 11:56am Madeleine Morgenstern

CNN’s Piers Morgan on Tuesday went head-to-head with the executive director of a pro-gun organization, at one point calling him a “dangerous man” who brings “shame” to his country in the wake of the Newtown massacre.

Larry Pratt, head of Gun Owners of America, started off his appearance on “Piers Morgan Tonight” by saying America needs to “ban gun control laws that keep people from being able to protect themselves.”

“The problem is not going to go away if we ban this or that gun,” Pratt said. “We’ve tried that, that doesn’t work. Doesn’t even work in England. You have mass murders there all over Europe, there have been mass murderers.”

Morgan said Pratt was talking “complete and utter nonsense” and said the gun murder rates in Britain, Germany or Australia are far lower than that in the U.S. — “75 against 12,000 in Australia.”

Pratt conceded that the gun murder rate in those countries is indeed lower than the U.S., but that the violent crime rate is higher.

“America is not the Wild West that you are depicting. We only have the problems in our cities, and unhappily, in our schools where people like you have been able to get laws put on the books that keep people from being able to defend themselves,” he said. “I honestly don’t understand why you would rather have people be victims of a crime than be able to defend themselves. It’s incomprehensible.”

“You’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?” Morgan asked.

Pratt shot back that Morgan was being “morally obtuse,” adding: “You seem to prefer being a victim to being able to prevail over the criminal element. And I don’t know why you want to be the criminal’s friend.”

“What a ridiculous argument. You have absolutely no coherent argument whatsoever,” Morgan said. “You don’t give a damn, do you, about the gun murder rate in America? You don’t actually care. All you care about — ”

Pratt cut in that Morgan was ignoring the facts.

“What we do know is that when you go to an area of the United States where guns are freely available, readily able to be carried legally, there you find our lowest murder rates, lower than the murder rates in Europe. You go to our cities where we have cracked down on guns, and that’s where criminals have a field day,” he said.

Morgan later said he wasn’t arguing about Americans’ rights to defend themselves in the home, but that there is “no use and no justification for these AR-15-type assault weapons.”

“There are these assault weapons which have been used now in movie theaters, in shopping malls, in elementary schools to murder many, many Americans,” he said. “Your only answer, Mr. Pratt, to people that want to get rid of both the magazines and these assault weapons, if I’m not mistaken is to let everybody else have similar weapons. Is that the solution to America’s gun murder problem?

Pratt said Morgan was “talking against self-defense” and “against people being able to protect themselves.”

“Post what happened at Sandy Hook,” Morgan said. “Your answer to this problem of repeated use of this weapon with these high-capacity magazines is to continue letting Americans buy them with impunity, and to not concern yourself with these mass shootings, is that right?”

“The Second Amendment means what it says, and meanwhile, you want to continue laws against self-defense,” Pratt said. “Laws that prohibit self-defense. Laws that prohibit teachers and other faculty, other members of the administration in schools from being able to defend themselves if they have a concealed carry permit. The laws prohibit them right now. We have been lobbying against those laws since they were put on. We will continue to do so, pointing out that that is where the problem is. And for you to support them means that you’re really blind to the role that that plays in enabling murders to operate with impunity.”

Morgan responded that he knows “why sales of these weapons have been soaring in the last few days — it’s down to idiots like you.”

After Morgan thanked Pratt for coming on the show and prepared to go to commercial, Pratt thanked him for the “high-level argument…it’s really good.”

“You know what, you wouldn’t understand the meaning of the phrase high-level argument. You are a dangerous man espousing dangerous nonsense and you shame your country,” Morgan said.

CNN posted the entire segment on its website, minus the last few moments with Morgan’s “shame your country” remark. NewsBusters published an edited version that includes the final moments (scroll):

–

RELATED:

Piers Morgan gets in Twitter war with popular radio DJ over shooting coverage

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (285)

B-Neil
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:32pm
Piers Morgan is a Royalty dolt. He bows and puckers on command. He has no idea why we have a second amedment. His British Royalty conduct toward the citizenry forced us to ensure there was a balance of power.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Gimme Shelter
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:24pm
Nothing like being lectured by an arrogant foreigner, who had more people see him on Apprentice than on CNN!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
sgtstubbs
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:23pm
I can see some type of rules or laws should be pasted, but I also see the Left wing voting for it. Problem is after it is passed, the Leftys and progressive Republicans will return and change it to outlaw all firearms of any type. They have done it in the past and will do it in the future. They really need to open places for the mental screwed up people who are violent like they had in the past and remove them off the streets into care units.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
mckeand09
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:21pm
Poor CNN. They try to be ‘trendy’, ‘hard-hitting’, ‘centrist’ and then they hire this hack. Do you hear that? It’s the world’s smallest violin.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
JBeech
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:20pm
The assault on the Second Amendment and the Right to Bear Arms has begun. President Obama’s speech made it clear that the libs are not aiming for reasonable measures alone. There will be no bill recommending universal background checks and an improved mental health reporting system.

http://easybakegunclub.com/news/2027/President-Obama-Speaks—Get-Ready-for-an-Assault-.html

This is an all out push for the Assault Weapons Ban and every conservative, every American, must do what they can to protect our rights.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
BehindTheMouth
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:19pm
Hey CNN shut the **** up!!!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
searcher619
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:16pm
I find it hilariously ironic that a Brit is blasting Americans for their gun ownership. Those guns helped us break the chains the British had around our necks so long ago.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
mikenleeds
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:16pm
Larry Pratt is exactly correct , if you fools gives up your weapons and depend on government to protect you well your dumber than i am ,
history has taught us what happens when we give up our guns than only criminals and police will have guns , people will be killed left and right when they have no way to defend them selfs

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
MisterSarcastic
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:15pm
I’d bet Morgan is the jerk here. I’d bet a lot that he’s using this tragedy to grow his ratings.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
FaithfulFriend
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:14pm
Just some logical thought here and certainly not advocating anything to anyone’s sensibilities, but…. Semi-auto or single-shot gunfire (1 pull equals 1 round) is no doubt the most efficient use of any firearm and spends less ammunition, so in the control of a murderous active shooter can equate to more victims. Is not full-auto gunfire sending most rounds missing any other victim at all and full-auto would therefore equate to a far less accurate murderer with no more ammunition for more victims, much sooner?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
THX-1138
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:10pm
Virtually every mass killing in the US over the past 50 or 60 years has been in a “Gun Free Zone”. The exceptions to this rule were, I believe, all committed with handguns.

The plan is this:
- Use the current massacre to justify restricting certain rifles, etc.
- Do nothing to protect our children in “Gun Free Zones”
- Wait for a massacre with a different kind of gun.
- Rinse.
- Repeat.

Once all guns are outlawed and people start using home made explosives with accelerants (*far* more deadly, think 2 liter bottle, napalm, dynamite, blasting cap, cheap 10 second timer.) then they will begin outlawing the things neede to make these bombs.

And then knives, sticks, whatever they want.

What bothers me most about the current mass killing is that I just don’t care anymore.

Anyone dumb enough to blame guns for these killings can not be reasoned with. Anyone who believes that we can prevent these mass murders by outlawing certain types of guns and locking up more mentally ill people is beyond help. They are bound and determined to be slaves and I for one will not join them. I will remain armed and pray I never need to use my weapon. Only a gutless cur would let more kids die because he refused to be prepaired.

The State killed those children. And we let them. And we’re going to let them kill more of them.

For the first time in my life I am truly ashamed to be an American.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
PPMStudios
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:05pm
“You shame your country”? Really?

If Morgan was such a ‘patriot’ then why isn’t he helping the British economy by living and working in the U.K.??

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
LibTardHater
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:01pm
Get this British POS off my TV & computer. Go home LIMEY!!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
DoOrDie
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:55pm
If Morgan was interviewing me and spoke to me in that way, we would be fist fighting. Morgan can’t have a logical debate without spewing hatred or calling people names. Sorry folks, in my world, those are fighting words. I wouldn’t be able to sit back and have a British punk calling me stupid,especially on the air. Fighting is not proper for adults, but there comes a time when someone like Piers needs a good azz whipping to get him off his liberal high horse. Go home Piers! They probably don’t want you either. Stop riding Simon Cowell’s coat tails.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
kinggrain
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:54pm
In 1982, Kennesaw, Georgia, passed a law that every household must keep a weapon for defensive purposes. In 1982 the crime rate plunged 74% from 1981, and in 1983, it plunged another 45% from 1982. The violent crime rate in that community is almost negligible. I would ask Mr. Morgan, if someone kicked in his door in the middle of the night, would he rather call 911, or have a weapon handy to protect his family? If you watch “Law and Order,” it seems that all you see is the detective’s hunting clues around the murder victim who was unarmed. Of course the victim’s live in New York where they are safe, because the gun law’s are so strict.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
poetopoet
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:52pm
No control, these mass tragic events are pathetic commentaries, when the only proven link to them all, are legal drugs. The role prescription drugs in mass murders and in untold acts of violence and suicides are linked by prescription drug use. By doctors who proscribe them wantonly and parents who escape their duties, because of a doctor’s order, who never bothered to check if the person’s enzyme was able to tolerate them, by a simple blood test, for Prozac Ritalin Luvox Celexa Effexor Trazodone Zoloft Topamax benzodiazepine and many more reactions, called side-effects.

There is no Constitutional Right to take or manufacture drugs that kill you or drive you insane. But there is the Constitutional Right to bear arms, to protect yourself, your family and your property from a drug crazed killers and thief’s, it’s called the Second Amendment, for without it, we would really need the drugs too.

Autos kill 50,000 people, young and old every year; do you stop their production or use?
No you do not! You make them safer with seat-belts, air-bags better engineering and a regular license test to see if you can operate your auto safely.

Neither, not by lobbying congress to speed up any companies drug passage and profit margin.
But we are intelligent people who buy their stocks and take their drugs as told, next.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
JUSTANOTHEROPINION
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:50pm
Morgan is proof that any zealot left wing nut job can get himself a job an MSm network.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
woodyee
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:43pm
Piers Morgan is a foreigner, hired to argue in favor of Euro-style gobblement against our Founders form of government – nothing more and nothing less. It explains ALL of his deluded and diluted opinions of freedom; he is a “Lord” from a country of serfs; from a continent whose people have accepted serfdom as an acceptable way of life, and he’s now proselytizing our young and poorly educated adults to do the same.

They nibbled at the hook in 2008 and took the bait in November….

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- RDavis49
  Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:59pm
  A “GOBBLE SYTLE OF GOVERNMENT” ……. gobbling up Americans rights and freedoms by the plate full, allowing invasion by foreign nationals over our borders and working for his self-made promotion from president to dictator of America…… Man is that ever absolutely and perfectly descriptive concerning the Hussein Obama administration’s form of government and his liberal follower’s mindset. While, as you say, brainwashing America’s youth and un- educated or under-educated adult population to his way of thinking. People need to stop drinking the Kool-Aid and start to thinking for themselves.
  
  Report this comment
- jsplaine
  Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:46pm
  The freedom to be stupid, uninformed and and ignorant of your unalienable rights is what these leftys prey on and promote. Our children are being educated by these leftys…our demise
  
  Report this comment
GuruMeditation
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:43pm
Our forefathers created the 2nd amendment because they wanted the people to be able to possess the military capacity to fight off the threat of a tyrannical government (foreign or domestic). It’s about national security, not hunting and personal protection.

You would think that a righteous government that is concerned about their own well being as leaders would want an armed public to help guarantee their safety. Unless, of course, they have ill intent toward the people.

What have we here?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Tom Ballard
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:35pm
Give him a knife put him in a room with a killer with a gun. see who comes out

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
mdlwoods
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:33pm
Once again a liberal had no valid argument so stooped to name calling!!! Who’s the idiot here, Piers???

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
DenisWTexas
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:32pm
And what is it that keeps all the people who hate Piers Morgan from storming into his studio and beating the carp out of him?

Oh yeah. Guards aremed with guns.

Why, exactly, are we letting this Brit try to tell us what America is all about? Seriously?

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- DenisWTexas
  Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:34pm
  Sorry – armed, not “aremed”
  
  Report this comment
- GuruMeditation
  Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:49pm
  We threw the yoke of his King off our backs 200+ years ago and will do it again if called for. If he doesn’t like it he can go back to England. I really think he should. We don’t need people with his mindset in this country. Just leave Piers!
  
  Report this comment
- THX-1138
  Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:16pm
  @GuruMeditation
  
  And if memory serves, we used guns to kick their asses. Maybe he’s still mad about that…
  
  Report this comment
- GuruMeditation
  Posted on December 19, 2012 at 3:09pm
  @thx-1138: Grins ;->
  
  Report this comment
mecanic
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:31pm
Piers Morgan = left wing IDIOT.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
hunter1riley
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:30pm
I welcome a spirited debate. I think it’s healthy to have it. But this type of discourse is not necessary. Morgan should be ashamed. I can’t understand why the left is always so angry. If people on the right carried on like this we’d never hear the end of it.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
J_Ruben_Kincaid
Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:28pm
LIberty in America is gone. The future is here and it is socialism and central control. There are simply more people living here now that want it that way. Much more central authority is coming in the next 4 years. The people are begging for a tyrant.
I am starting to believe that we had all better accept this or be prepared to lose more than you liberty.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- RDavis49
  Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:36pm
  I will never accept this and I would be prepared to defend my AMERICAN LIBERTIES to the last drop of my blood. Only cowards and sheep minded people would lay down and accept such a fate. Which are you?
  
  Report this comment
- J_Ruben_Kincaid
  Posted on December 19, 2012 at 1:52pm
  I believe the evil we face is beyond man. Its a fight that men cannot win.
  
  Report this comment
- Cameron1745
  Posted on December 19, 2012 at 2:08pm
  We ain’t dead yet.
  
  Report this comment

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.