Of all the television programs out there, I think The View has the most appropriate name. It’s not that their view is necessarily right, but despite the vaguest attempts at trying to make it look balanced by having a token Republican on, there’s still only one view generally espoused on any issue.
And we generally know that this is not a pro-Second Amendment show. While the token conservative may have a firearm, no one else is allowed to really express any support for gun rights, apparently.
That became clear–or perhaps I should say clearer–recently when one of theirs actually bought a gun.
The View held an interesting discussion on gun ownership and whether more blacks owning guns should be celebrated or reviled. Joy Behar started off by pointing out fellow co-host Sherri Shepherd was now a gun owner.
Shepherd admitted she was: “Yes, I did, I bought a 9 millimeter gun,” explaining to her co-hosts that she bought it for self-protection and to keep her family safe:
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Sunny Hostin jumped in to lecture Shepherd about all the horrible things that gun ownership supposedly leads to, like suicide and homicide. Hostin also blamed the rise in black gun owners to the looming threat of white supremacists:
I will tell you, I’ve had so many friends, my black girlfriends also get guns, especially during the pandemic, they wanted me to get a gun and as a former federal prosecutor and someone who has seen — been to crime scenes and has seen a lot of gun violence in my career, you know, I know the statistics and that when you do have a gun in your home you are more likely to kill a loved one or a relative and the suicide rate goes up in your own home when you have a gun and I understand about the training, but I will say when I asked them why are you getting a gun, one said, ‘I googled civil war and 2020.’ One said, ‘it’s the propensity of certain people to initiate violence when they don’t get their way.’ And in the article that we were given, it said when you are being targeted you hear stories like Breonna Taylor and Sandra Bland and have these incidents going on around the country and ‘want to know you have a chance of survival because some people are radical.’ We have to remember that the FBI has made it clear that the white supremacy is the most persistent and lethal threat to the country and I think that is why so many black women and black people in general are now arming themselves but I still believe that in this country, our readiness to sort of allow arms to be purchased at will and fired at will has led to violence and hatred becoming a really popular pastime.
Joy Behar tried to make the case that the NRA supported gun control back in the day as a way to disarm black people, then tried to claim that with more black gun ownership, you were going to see bigger gun control laws passed.
Which is funny because she supports pretty much all of the gun control laws.
But what about Sunny Hostin’s comments? Well, we’re going to have to focus on the bolded parts, because debunking all of that stupid would require an entire book.
“I know the statistics and that when you do have a gun in your home you are more likely to kill a loved one or a relative and the suicide rate goes up in your own home when you have a gun[.]”
Well, yeah. It’s pretty impossible to shoot someone if you don’t have a firearm, so of course, you’re more likely to kill a family member. Yet that doesn’t actually mean a damn thing. You’re more likely to drive drunk if you have a car. So what?
An increase in the probability of carrying out such an act, though, isn’t some kind of sentence. There are nearly 400 million firearms in private hands in this country. If owning a gun somehow meant you were destined to kill someone or yourself, there wouldn’t be anyone left alive in this country.
“…but I still believe that in this country, our readiness to sort of allow arms to be purchased at will and fired at will has led to violence and hatred becoming a really popular pastime. “
Now, Hostin frames this as her personal belief, which I respect. She’s not trying to sell this as an established fact, and she’s more than entitled to her own opinions.
Yes, even if they’re this stupid.
Firearms have been available for purchase ever since before our nation’s founding. People have been able to buy and shoot guns without permission in most places in this country from the get-go. And yet, now suddenly it’s a problem? Now it leads to hatred and violence when it didn’t before, yet it’s still the gun’s fault?
Honestly, Hostin does absolutely nothing to establish this link. She makes it sound like having a gun in your hand suddenly triggers some internal response that makes you want to look for someone to hate.
Frankly, for me anyway, the opposite is true. I’m never more calm than when I’m handling a firearm. Maybe my guns are all just broken?
And Hostin forgets that the violence is why so many people are buying guns right now. It’s not causing violence and hatred, it’s because of the violence and hatred.
Honestly, The View and the people on it are welcome to their beliefs. They’re not welcome to their own facts nor are they immune from being blasted when they spout completely and utter BS and try to frame it as opinion.
