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Pro-Gun Control Piers Morgan Once Joked About Shooting His Rivals & Said Homeowners Who Shoot Burglars Shouldn’t Face Charges

Jan. 18, 2013 3:10pm Madeleine Morgenstern

Piers Morgan Once Joked About Shooting His Rivals & Said Homeowners Who Shoot Burglars Shouldnt Face Murder Charges

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CNN’s Piers Morgan has come out swinging in the last month as a major proponent of gun control legislation, but just a few years ago it seems he was singing a different tune: he once mused about shooting professional enemies and said homeowners who kill burglars shouldn’t be prosecuted.

The Daily Caller uncovered those comments and more from Morgan in an op-ed he wrote in 2004 and an interview he gave in 2006 when he was still in England. For starters, Morgan faced a tough choice when discussing what he would do to rivals “Top Gear” host Jeremy Clarkson, writer A.A. Gill and editor Ian Hislop:

“So the real question is, if I had a gun with just two bullets, who would I shoot?” Morgan said during the May 2006 interview.

“In the end,” wrote Hardy, “he can’t choose between them, so he opts for a clean shot to take out Hislop and a ricocheting hit to mortally wound both Clarkson and Gill.”

But it’s the 2004 op-ed he wrote for the Evening Standard that perhaps highlights the biggest change between Morgan then and Morgan now. Titled,”I can’t be liberal on burglars,” Morgan said several break-ins in his home had made him wish for a gun, despite Britain’s ban on firearms. He brought up the murder of financier John Monckton, murdered during a home invasion in 2004:

If Monckton “had killed one of those burglars while defending himself … then he would now be facing a jail sentence for manslaughter or even murder,” Morgan wrote. “No part of my liberalism allows me to deem this fair.”

“I am now so liberal on most things that my army-officer brother likes to refer to me as a ‘wet, pinko, cheese-eating surrender monkey,’” Morgan wrote. “I’m antiwar, don’t like foxhunting, feel threatened by ID cards, and think cannabis should be decriminalised.”

“But when it comes to burglars I turn into a rabid fascist. I want them erased from life, all of them. Preferably after a decent period of cattle-prodding, testicle electrode treatment, and slow gentle skewering over hot coals.”

Morgan also wrote that when he bought his first home in London, they were burgled three times in six months, and said he would have no regrets about killing a burglar who was a threat to him or his family:

I wouldn’t shoot anyone because, like most people in this country, I’m not licensed to carry a gun,” he insisted. “But if I woke up to find a thug in my house at 2am, stealing my hard-earned things, and posing a clear and present threat to my wellbeing and perhaps that of my children, then I wouldn’t hesitate to grab the hardest thing I could find and defend myself.”

“And if I killed a burglar in that situation, I would expect the law to be on my side, not the despicable little toerag defiling my life.”

Days after the Newtown shooting, Morgan interviewed Gun Owners of America leader Larry Pratt who said America needs to “ban gun control laws that keep people from being able to protect themselves.”

Morgan went on to accuse Pratt of talking “complete and utter nonsense” and called him an “unbelievably stupid man.”

“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.”

–

Related:

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.

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Comments (51)

clinker
Posted on January 19, 2013 at 6:25am
His mouth and *ss are interchangable.

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- wayner4162
  Posted on January 19, 2013 at 2:29pm
  someone should ask this clown why he is here in the US??
  
  go home you cry baby, oh that right, Britain as he knew it is gone, the wonder why??
  
  Report this comment
Blazen420
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 9:36pm
Him and his anti-gun buddies joked about shooting Alex Jones just a night or two after Alex’s appearance on his show. This guy is a piece of crap. He’s a coward, standing on the graves of those children, and behind the cover of their families. This guys lives in a fantasy world where money is no option and security is seconds away. Reality is lost.

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- burnteye86
  Posted on January 19, 2013 at 5:44am
  Morgan is just a ratings whore.
  
  Report this comment
- starman70
  Posted on January 19, 2013 at 10:21am
  Can’t we begin DEPORTATION HEARINGS on this idiot?
  
  Report this comment
CulperGang
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 8:12pm
Time to bring in the guy in the white jacket and declare piers “metal case.”

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Hispaniconservative
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 7:42pm
What is an assault weapon? What is the definition of a assault weapon?
If I am sick person and I grab a fully loaded 357 magnum and 5 speed loaders and go into a shop rite and and shoot 36 people, would that make the the revolver a assault weapon. I am taking the supermarket by assault after all. Just asking. By the same token if I barracked myself and start shooting with a bolt action rifle and kill 25 people in the democrat party convention. Does that make a Remington 700 an assault weapon. It is the intent that with which people use weapons not the weapon it self. To use the cliche ” guns don’t kill people , people kill people” yo solamente digo…….. Just a little Spanish lingo to make it interesting…….

God save the republic ( little r)

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- bumpkin
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 9:54pm
  Excellent point, your post, -but I might add, concerning your closing lines, that after I read Beck’s (et al) book, “Agenda 21″ (a really good read, BTW,) I no longer ask GOD to save the ‘republic’ (initiates visions of horror in my head now, post-book) I ask HIM to save the USA from the evil loudmouth dictators and moneychangers, and the spawn of satan.
  
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- ConservativeHispanic
  Posted on January 19, 2013 at 9:52am
  I ask liberals this very question at work whenever they bring it up and unfortunately, I’m the only prior service member there. The answer is that they don’t know. The answer is that they have their heads too far up their butts, that they can’t even compute that banning guns will only elevate violent crimes in our country.
  
  There have been studies after studies over the passed 50 years that prove gun legislation only promotes crime. Most people don’t even know what the 2nd amendment means. They think it’s about hunting and home protection. NO PEOPLE!! It’s about the PEOPLE protecting themselves FROM GOVERNMENT.
  
  Obama is laying the foundation for what will become the demise of the country. We already have way too many people thinking they can’t achieve success without the government’s help.
  
  Makes this Veteran SICK! The Republic WILL stand up!
  
  Report this comment
garbagecanlogic
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 7:32pm
He reminds me of the little pudgy kid on the playground that everyone picked on. In other words, the nerd no one liked and it affected his mental outlook growing up. Distored the hell out of it.

Praise Be To Obama. Psalm 109:8

The U.S. Out Of The U.N.
The U.N. Out Of The U.S.

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Vincero
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 6:25pm
So…a two faced Progressive. Would you have expected anything different?

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Metallicat
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 5:28pm
Examples should be made of foreigners who come to America to take away our liberties and make a profit in the process. Piers Morgan should have his tongue cut out and all of it mailed back to England. He is no better than a foreign mercenary here to destroy America. Im so sick of this lying hypocritical opportunist,who is just another ambulance chaser among the media,trying to find the most worthy liberal cause he can champion to fatten his pockets and bring himself fame. Apparently the queen didnt get the message the last time we evicted them and her canadian subjects need their noses smacked too.

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Southernsoul
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 5:01pm
his guy’s show is in the basement as far as ratings go. All of the attention he is being giving only helps to promote this Limey idiot. Please do not cover any further stories of this man. Except maybe if he were agree to leave the country.

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shorelineliz
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:43pm
Stop calling it Assault Rifle! Acckkk! It’s a semi automatic! The lady down in Georgia needed it cause she had a handgun and shot it into the thug with the crowbar about 5 or 6 times and unloaded all the bullets and it still didn’t stop him! She was cornered in her attic with twin 9 year old boys behind her. So, shut up! She needed an elephant gun to stop that big dude and if women with children or anybody else in their homes needs an elephant gun then they should get one so shut up!

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- shorelineliz
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 5:08pm
  P.S. She only had a .38 caliber revolver and after unloading the whole chamber of bullets into the thug’s face he was still able to speak and tell her to stop shooting! Ackkk! Give this woman a free elephant gun! Please! I know people who live where cougars and bears and other big game are nearby and guess what? A handgun ain’t gonna cut it! Ackkk! People know so little about firearms! Ackkkk!
  
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moreteaplease
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:37pm
Just more bull from a hypocritical leftist who thinks he should be the only one with any rights.

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RaydocX
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:27pm
This poppin will say whatever outrages the majority in order to spike his ratings…
he certainly has armed security.
he cannot be so simple as to miss the vast majority of gun violence is handgun violence,
that the violence is greatest in the cities where control is most stringent,
and that clearly criminals already ignore the laws in place.

so if he is not a simpleton, unable to process facts, he is a tool, trying to manipulate (or allowing himself to be manipulated– nobody claims he is a genius, either) the tragedy for the benefit of his show, his political party and ideology, or both.

thankfully, the only time i hear about him is on conservative web recaps and talk radio… i think only his handful of syncophants and the media watchdogs are listening, so what he says matters little, beyond reminding thinking Americans there are real threats to our nation from right here within the borders.

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shorelineliz
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:23pm
More on: An Englishman’s Home is His Dungeon by Mark Steyn:

Various reassuring types, from police spokesmen to the Economist, described the stabbing of the Moncktons as a “burglary gone wrong”. If only more burglaries could go right, they imply, this sort of thing wouldn’t happen.
But the trouble is that this kind of burglary – the kind most likely to go “wrong” – is now the norm in Britain. In America, it’s called a “hot” burglary – a burglary that takes place when the homeowners are present – or a “home invasion”, which is a much more accurate term. Just over 10 per cent of US burglaries are “hot” burglaries, and in my part of the world it’s statistically insignificant: there is virtually zero chance of a New Hampshire home being broken into while the family are present. But in England and Wales it’s more than 50 per cent and climbing. Which is hardly surprising given the police’s petty, well-publicised pursuit of those citizens who have the impertinence to resist criminals.
These days, even as he or she is being clobbered, the more thoughtful British subject is usually keeping an eye (the one that hasn’t been poked out) on potential liability. Four years ago, Shirley Best, proprietor of the Rolander Fashion emporium, whose clients include Zara Phillips, was ironing some clothes when the proverbial two youths showed up. They pressed the hot iron into her flesh, burning her badly, and then stole her watch. “I was frightened to defend myself,” said Mis

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shorelineliz
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:20pm
An Englishman’s Home is His Dungeon
By Mark Steyn/
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3613417/An-Englishmans-home-is-his-dungeon.html

In Britain, alas, it’s the peculiar genius of Home Office policy to have turned the entire country into one big, rundown, inner-city, no-go slum estate, extending from prosperous suburbs to leafy villages, even unto Upper Cheyne Row.
The murderers of John Monckton understood the logic of this policy better than the lethargic overpaid British constabulary. An Englishman’s home is not his castle, but his dungeon. and ever more so – window bars, window locks, dead bolts, laser security, and no doubt biometricrecognition garage doors, once the Blunkett national ID card goes into circulation.
All this high-tech protection, urged on the householder by Pc Plod, may make your home more secure, but it makes you less so. From the burglar’s point of view, the more advanced and impregnable the alarm systems become, the more it makes sense just to knock on the door and stab whoever answers.

Mr Monckton’s killers thus made an entirely rational choice. He was a wealthy man, living in a prestigious neighbourhood of £3 million homes, and he presumably had the best security system to go with it. But time it right, get him to the front door, (STAB HIM) and the state-enforced impotence of the homeowner makes him as vulnerable as any old loser in a decrepit urine-sodden block on Broadwater Farm.

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joeslick
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:20pm
“Assault weapons and high capacity magazines”…do you mean like the ones given to the Mexican drug lords by the admin??? “Background checks”…do you mean like ones that would go all the way back to college records??? And what if they found you had close ties to a known terrorist…would that prevent you from getting a permit or buying a gun???? Just askin…….

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- TurboCat
  Posted on January 21, 2013 at 1:40am
  Nicely done! Thank-you!
  
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asybot12
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:17pm
No wonder the Brits don’t want this hypocrite back, they especially know one when they see one!

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shorelineliz
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:11pm
Source: http://futurewire.blogspot.ca/2004/12/home-invasions-us-vs-uk.html
December 09, 2004

Home Invasions: US vs. UK

In which country is it more dangerous to be in your home, the US or Great Britain? If you said Great Britain, you’re right… if you’re talking about home-invasion robberies.

Violent home invasions have become a serious problem in the UK, fueled in part by laws against gun ownership and violence in self-defense. British law holds that a person who kills an intruder in their home can be charged with murder; a self-defense argument does exist, but the threshold is very high.

In the US, by contrast, burglars who commit home invasion statistically have just as great a chance of getting shot as they do going to jail — a significant deterrent even when homeowners don’t own guns. If you’re a burglar intent on committing a home invasion, you don’t know if the homeowner has a gun and an itchy trigger finger… and you probably don’t want to find out the hard way.

As a result, a movement is afoot in Great Britain to strengthen homeowners’ rights to self-defense. Efforts to loosen restrictions on gun ownership, however, may still be a ways off.

GlennReynolds.com

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Anonymous T. Irrelevant
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:54pm
I’ll bet the hypocrite carries a gun, too.

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OKNative
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:48pm
“But if I woke up to find a thug in my house at 2am, stealing my hard-earned things, and posing a clear and present threat to my wellbeing and perhaps that of my children, then I wouldn’t hesitate to grab the hardest thing I could find and defend myself.” Piers, this is the same way Americans feel about the government stealing from us and our children! No different!

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justangry
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:44pm
Piers and the other gun grabbers have their emotion. I’ll stick with reason, statistics, history.

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stopprintn
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:31pm
my army-officer brother likes to refer to me as a ‘wet, pinko, cheese-eating surrender monkey

Sounds like his bro knows him as we do.

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- Twinspeedr
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:54pm
  The funny thing is that all of us “evil, fascist conservatives” would only want a burglar dead so there is no chance he can harm our families, or anyone else.
  
  But the mr. bleeding heart, liberal goes all bellicose and wants:
  
  “… I want them erased from life, all of them. Preferably after a decent period of cattle-prodding, testicle electrode treatment, and slow gentle skewering over hot coals.”?
  
  Torture? Angry self-righteous, elitist Liberals are the only members of society that would actually want torture for their own satisfaction…
  
  Report this comment
GoodStuff
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:28pm
“But when it comes to burglars I turn into a rabid fascist.”

Let me guess this right…Piers associates self-defense with fascism. How wonderful. Ah, the mind of a leftist.

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asybot12
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:26pm
Morgan, liberal, everything goes right? that is liberal right?.
But only just for Morgan and not for you.
Morgan liberal = hypocrite.

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BODYBAG
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:23pm
Stupid Prog hypocrite stunts
[pay attention to the very last sentence]

Anti-Gun Nut Brandishes AK-47 on VA State House Floor
http://washingtonexaminer.com/virginia-lawmakers-ak-47-sparks-gun-debate-on-house-floor/article/2518986#.UPmCMUbCz8A

“A Richmond-area lawmaker brandished an AK-47 on the floor of the Virginia House of Delegates on Thursday in a wild stunt aimed at rallying support for tougher gun laws.

Del. Joe Morrissey, D-Highland Springs, pulled the weapon out shortly after the day’s session got underway, a time when legislators typically welcome school groups and other visitors in the chamber’s gallery.”

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ginger100
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:22pm
If I were to go to the UK and say something like “down with the monarchy you UKers are incredibly stupid for clinging to the Queen and country”, what do you think would happen to me?

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- shorelineliz
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:09pm
  A gang of roving youths would stab you inside your own house in what is an epidemic of home invasions in Great Britain and the UK which has 10 times the violent crime in people’s homes by stabbing since they disarmed people. Piers Morgan is a stupid fool and he should get his arrogant arse back to Great Britain and stop the violent crime there by stabbings!
  
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Canada_Goose
Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:16pm
Remind me again how this contradicts banning assault weapons, high capacity magazines, or implementing universal background checks.

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- HMNSC
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:23pm
  Remind me again how any of the things you just suggested would prevent mass murder?
  
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- progressiveslayer
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:27pm
  The banning of so called assult weapons,high capacity magazines or any other law the lawbreakers in DC dream up to infringe on our right to bear arms is unconstitutional. In fact every gun law passed since the second amendment is unconstitutional. There was a poll recently that said a majority of Americans supported stricter gun laws,BHO was reelected by those same idiots. The constitution trumps a poll a washed up limey hack who got booted out of the UK and a Marxist POS currently trashing America.
  
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- catty
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:28pm
  It doesn’t. They are just trying to enrage the nuts.
  
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- Canada_Goose
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:32pm
  There is no 100% effective recipe for preventing mass murder. That said, it shouldn’t be this easy for mass murderers to go on deadly rampages.
  
  Report this comment
- UNALIEN
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:41pm
  @ CANADA_GOOSE
  
  define assault weapon???
  
  Report this comment
- Cavallo
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:51pm
  @Canada, Stripping rights from citizens should be your LAST resort, not your first. This isn’t, and never has been, about protecting citizens from mass shooters. This is about strengthening government. Increasing the power of the State over individuals, and further changing them from citizens and individuals into collective subjects.
  
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- Canada_Goose
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:53pm
  For starters, go with the previous definition ala the Clinton era ban and add AR15 type rifles to that.
  
  How far does that go in Congress – not that far I suspect. The universal background checks have a much better chance of passing.
  
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- 00100111
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:06pm
  Goose, it doesn’t matter what laws are passed, it will always be this easy to go on murderous rampages. Why? Because news flash, mass murderers don’t obey the law. (Shocking, I know) The fact that some people can kill others with glee, like you libs want to do to all of us, is no reason to deny others their right to defend themselves. I know thinking is hard for you, but do try. For your own sake, try.
  
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- dissentnow
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:10pm
  @Canada
  “There is no 100% effective recipe for preventing mass murder. That said, it shouldn’t be this easy for mass murderers to go on deadly rampages”
  
  I don’t understand why you can’t understand that good people don’t go on “deadly rampages”. Likewise, good people don’t commit armed robbery; good people don’t do home invasions; good people aren’t gang-banging thugs. In general, good people don’t commit crime. That’s what makes them “good” people. Bad people DO break the law. That’s what makes them “bad” people. In short, bad people don’t follow the law. You can pass all the laws that it takes to make you feel better about yourself, but bad people will still find a way to break those laws.
  
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- 00100111
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:11pm
  That is an invalid definition as it focuses on the aesthetics on a rifle, not on functionality. It was written by liberals who have no knowledge about what they were legislating.
  
  Liberals not knowing what they’re talking about…go figure.
  
  Report this comment
- UNALIEN
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 4:52pm
  CANADA_GOOSE
  Posted on January 18, 2013 at 3:53pm
  For starters, go with the previous definition ala the Clinton era ban and add AR15 type rifles to that.
  ————
  
  You have identified the problem,,, that definition is based on “appearance” a semi auto that looks like a fully auto.. It is a feel good law that accomplishes nothing, unless you want to ban all semi autos???
  
  Report this comment

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