Sheriff Schools Piers Morgan on Gun Control

Piers Morgan isn’t one to pass up an opportunity to exploit a shooting to push his anti-gun agenda.

Last week, Morgan interviewed Pasco County, Florida, Sheriff Chris Nocco the day after Curtis Reeves shot and killed Chad Oulson in a movie theater in Wesley Chapel, Florida.

Instead of discussing the details of this particular shooting, Morgan tried to steer the interview towards a debate on gun control:

“In terms of these two shootings, we said at the start of show, 245 people in America are hit by gunfire every day and which at least 80, 90 lose their lives. The school shooting, I just talked about, is the 30th school shooting in America since Newtown, a quite extraordinary statistic. As a sheriff on the ground trying to deal with this gun violence epidemic, what do you make of it?”

Sheriff Nocco wasn’t having it:

“People commit violent crimes, you know, whether be a knife or a gun,” Nocco said. “The issue is that somebody decides to take somebody’s life. The gun didn’t kill him. It was the trigger of the person that was arrested that pulled the gun and killed that person. So, I can tell you from a law enforcement perspective, we’re dealing with somebody who committed a homicide.”

Nocco pointed out that guns themselves aren’t the cause of shootings:

“We have mental health issues and substance abuse issues. The gun itself did not kill the victim here. It was the person who had the gun in his hands. And so, I go back — keep going back to the fact that you want to talk about gun control issues.

“From a law enforcement perspective, we deal with mental health issues and substance abuse issues. It was violence. It was violence that killed the victim yesterday. So I keep reiterating, it’s mental health issues that we deal in this country that is paramount compared to gun control.”

Here’s Morgan’s response:

“I don’t disagree with you that mental health is clearly a part of this. But I do take issue with the fact that many people in law enforcement that I talked to do try and persist in saying it’s never the gun when clearly there are many countries around the world that have strict gun control where you simply wouldn’t have somebody armed with a gun in a movie theater. It would be strictly illegal. And people wouldn’t have the access to firearm.”

Sheriff Nocco pointed out that guns are often used for protection:

“From our standpoint is, we can say there’s also times where people are in their houses and some are breaking in, and to protect their family, their gun is what saved them and their family. So, you know, I can argue just the opposite way that guns do protect Americans.”

Morgan began to spew out statistics again, but Nocco shut him up with this brilliant reply:

“Well, you want to talk about statistics. We can also talk about how many people are killed because of DUIs, driving under the influence. You know, criminals have guns. If you want to ban guns from good people, criminals are still going to get them. They’re going to smuggle them through into this country and they’re still going to have them. So, you can create laws that will ban guns, bad people are still going to get them. You can create laws that are going to ban drugs, bad people are still get them.”

“I think we have to talk about the bigger issues: Why are people committing these crimes? And I go back to the fact that we have mental health and substance abuse issues, that’s exactly what needs to be talked about and that’s what has to be addressed.”

Didn’t Morgan once say he was going to deport himself over gun control in the U.S?  We’d be happy to help him pack.