Trump Scorches Fox News Host Touting Gun Control

Fox News is where a lot of people who are fans of President Trump go for news. While there’s also Newsmax and One America, Fox News is in more homes and thus the only option for many people beyond CNN or MSNBC, which is kind of no choice at all.

In the wake of the massacre in a Manhattan office building, we expect to see the latter two touting gun control. It’s what they do.

But Jessica Tarlov did the same on Fox News, and President Trump didn’t hide his feelings on that.

President Donald Trump took a jab at Fox News host Jessica Tarlov and called her a “real loser” as she offered her take on gun control while honoring the victims of the New York City shooting.

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Meanwhile, she then added, “On the gun control front, what Kathy Hochul is talking about is the fact that when we did have an assault weapons ban from 1994 to 2004, we saw a decrease in mass shootings in this country. 70 percent less likely to happen. And then when the ban sunsetted, it spiked back up. That’s what she’s talking about. And you say, this is a crazy person. This isn’t the norm.”

Moreover, Tarlov said, “He had his prescription meds on him, apparently, according to the reporting. How did he get a concealed carry license even in Nevada? How are these things happening? And I don’t think that it hurts the conversation or takes us backward at all to consider how we might prevent one of these things from happening.”

“You will never be able to stop all of the lunatics. But if you stopped this one, we’d have four people that were alive today who certainly deserve to be. And I don’t see why that’s a bad thing to do,” she added.

But would you stop that one? That’s not a guarantee, and you’re still talking about a constitutionally protected right.

I’m not sure calling Tarlov a loser is particularly productive, especially as it doesn’t really point out the flaws in her arguments, and there are plenty. I get that two of the dead are friends of friends of Tarlov, which she talked about, and that may have rattled her, but both Ryan Petty and I lost people we cared about–not friends of friends, but his daughter and my friend–and we didn’t go anti-gun. I can’t cut her any slack on that front.

Let’s understand that the studies don’t actually show a decrease in mass shootings, at least not when you factor in what came before the ban.

The last handful of years have seen an increase in mass killings with a firearm, sure, but before the ban, there were even fewer of these incidents than during the ban years, on average. Further, when the ban sunset, it took years for there to be that increase. Something changed during that time and we’d do well to look at that instead of griping about guns.

As for prescription meds, so what? Not all mental health issues should disqualify someone from owning a gun. Most people with depression or anxiety, for example, aren’t a threat to anyone at all, even themselves. A handful are more likely to be a threat to themselves, but not to anyone else. The presence of these meds isn’t alarming except in hindsight.

And pretending it is, Jessica, is stigmatizing people who might want to seek help but will become afraid they’ll lose their gun rights.

Tarlov, who works for the network many turn to when they don’t want the anti-gun nonsense, is pushing the same narrative. It’s just a bloody shame.

Editor’s Note: President Trump and Republicans across the country are doing everything they can to protect our Second Amendment rights and right to self-defense.

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