Is It Fair to Call it a Conspiracy?': CNN Host Presses Obama When He Laughs Off Those Who Say He Wants to 'Take Everybody's Guns Away

CNN host Anderson Cooper challenged President Barack Obama during a town hall Thursday, asking the president whether it is fair to dismiss those who believe he wants to "take everybody's guns away" as conspiracy theorists.

The exchange came when Obama addressed "this notion of a conspiracy out there" to confiscate guns.

"Let me just jump in — is it fair to call it a conspiracy?" Cooper asked the president. "I mean, there’s a lot of people who really believe this deeply — that they just don’t trust you."

.@POTUS addresses the "conspiracy" that "we are creating a plot to take everybody's guns" https://t.co/AFzFmmsvGC https://t.co/p611SWIrgk

— CNN (@CNN) January 8, 2016

Obama seemed surprised to be challenged on that particular point.

"I’m sorry, Cooper, yes it is fair to call it a conspiracy. What are you saying?" he asked as the audience roared in applause. "Are you suggesting that the notion that we are creating a plot to take everybody’s guns away so that we can impose martial law?"

"Not everybody, but there is certainly a lot of people—," Cooper replied before Obama interjected.

"A conspiracy? Yes, that is a conspiracy. I would hope that you would agree with that," he said. "Is that controversial except on some websites around the country?"

Cooper continued to press the president.

"There are certainly a lot of people who just have a fundamental distrust that you do not want to get — go further and further and further down this road," he said.

"Look, I mean, I’m only going to be here for another year," Obama joked. "I don’t know when would I have started on this enterprise, right?"

During the town hall, Obama noted that he has never owned a firearm. He was also confronted by a rape survivor, an Arizona sheriff and “American Sniper” widow Taya Kyle who both challenged him on his gun control position.

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