Wednesday on Piers Morgan Live, Morgan elicited the help of New York Magazine writer-at-large Frank Rich to affirm his vision for a gun control “snowball” rolling across America (even if it has to be a “very slow snowball”...).
Morgan brought on Rich to talk a variety of topics Wednesday, including the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections, which provided Rich the opportunity to declare that most Americans are in “a state of denial about how radical [the Republican Party] is.”
Morgan eventually steered the conversation to his fact-deficient crusade for gun control. As a transition, Morgan played a clip of Mayor Bloomberg’s absurd claim that McAuliffe’s win was actually a commentary on Virginia’s willingness to reconsider tighter gun control laws—which even Rich had to dismiss as “myopic” at best.
Regardless, Rich reassured Morgan that he agreed with his gun control stance wholeheartedly, setting up the following fantasy session:
Morgan: President Clinton made a point when I introduced him recently, saying gun control will only really happen in America if the people start to vote for politicians who are in favor of it rather than be cowed into silence by the NRA, and voting for politicians who are completely against it. Could there be a bit of momentum if you had a few politicians who genuinely made gun control a big position of theirs? And they actually began to win some elections, even on a very local level? Is that the way, in the end, you could see eventually some kind of sensible gun control?
Rich: Absolutely. That’s a very fair point. And I think that’s often how change happens in America on a myriad of issues. That said, it’s going to be very slow and very incremental because too many Americans really, really believe the 2nd Amendment is a birthright and they’re entitled to all the guns they want. And the fact that even something like Newtown could have such a tiny effect is disheartening. That said, that McAuliffe could win with that position in Virginia, it’s a small victory. We have to hope that it’s the beginning of a snowball—but it’s going to be a very slow snowball to roll forward, I think, in America.
“Birthright?" Exactly. But just to be clear, it’s officially called the Bill of Rights.