Gingrich Schools Gun-Grabbing Piers Morgan: 'Isn't Your Real View That You Would Ban Pistols?'

Townhall.com ^ | January 25, 2013 | Scott Whitlock

[Kaslin]

Newt Gingrich on Thursday night interrogated the gun-grabbing Piers Morgan, pushing the CNN host as to what his real motives are. An aggressive Gingrich insisted, "So, why don't you share your real view?...Isn't your real view that you would ban pistols if you could?" [See video below. MP3 audio here.] The Republican also told the British anchor why the Founding Fathers were able to defeat "your army."

Morgan swore that his concern was "the high-powered guns of any variety which can fire 30 or 40 or more rounds in less than a minute." He added, "...That would be my primary concern right now." The former Speaker pounced, "Right now? Okay, right now." Gingrich lectured, "The reason you find so many of us very reluctant to go down this road is we believe each step down this road leads to the next step and the next step and the next step."

Gingrich Schools Gun-Grabbing Piers Morgan: 'Isn't Your Real View That You Would Ban Pistols?'

The ex-presidential candidate grilled:

NEWT GINGRICH: And we actually think the Second Amendment is central to our liberties, not just something there for hunters, not something there for target practice, but actually there because the founding fathers remembered that when your army tried to defeat us, luckily, our peasants weren't peasants. They were citizens. And as citizens, they were in fact armed. And that's the only reason we were able to win the Revolutionary War.

On January 10, Morgan sneered at another conservative guest who cited the Constitution: "You brandish your little book." 

On January 16, he mocked a female gun rights activist: "Do you want the right to have a tank?"

A partial transcript of the January 24 segment can be found below:

NEWT GINGRICH: So where -- so where are you -- so where are you on pistols that have fairly large capacity? Where are you on the pistols that killed most of the people in Chicago, Piers?

PIERS MORGAN: My position --

GINGRICH: It's okay if we kill them individually?

MORGAN: No. Let me make my position.

GINGRICH: Are you saying three, four, five, and that's okay?

MORGAN: Let my position very, very clear. What is happening in Chicago is completely outrageous, completely unacceptable. I think there's been a total breakdown in the effectiveness of the law enforcement. Because when you compare it to New York, they have solved a lot of the gun problems in New York with very stringent gun control and they've enforced it properly. There are -- it's like the Wild West situation in parts of Chicago. I've been there, I think it's outrageous. And I think the fact that 11,000 or 12,000 people die a year in America from gun fire and a lot of that is from handguns used by criminals and gangsters is disgraceful.

GINGRICH: Right.

MORGAN: And I think many of the other --

GINGRICH: So why -- right. So why don't you share your real view?

MORGAN: Many of the other proposals --

GINGRICH: Isn't it --

MORGAN: It's all wrong to me.

GINGRICH: Isn't your real view that you would ban pistols if you could?

MORGAN: No, it wouldn't. What --

GINGRICH: Wouldn't you ban pistols if you could?

MORGAN: Let me -- let me explain what I would do. I would agree with Diane Feinstein. It is the high-powered guns of any variety which can fire 30 or 40 or more rounds in less than a minute that can cause mass murder that would be my primary concern right now. And the AR-15 is a prime example of that.

GINGRICH: Okay, right now, and the reason you find so many of us, and by the way, it's a substantial majority, I think the last time I saw, 63 percent of the American people agree that the Second Amendment is actually there to protect us from tyranny. The reason you find so many of us very reluctant to go down this road is we believe each step down this road leads to the next step and the next step and the next step. And we actually think the Second Amendment is central to our liberties, not just something there for hunters, not something there for target practice, but actually there because the founding fathers remembered that when your army tried to defeat us, luckily, our peasants weren't peasants. They were citizens. And as citizens, they were in fact armed. And that's the only reason we were able to win the Revolutionary War.

MORGAN: And you think -- and you honestly think the founding fathers sat there and thought, okay, automatic weapons are banned because they are very dangerous. The semiautomatics that can fire 100 bullets in a minute are not dangerous and they should be lawful?

GINGRICH: I think the founding fathers would have found this entire debate strange because they actually believed in individual freedom and they were very suspicious of big government, and they would find the idea that you're going to permit, to use the word you kept using. You're going to permit us to have a few liberties right now, was the antithesis of the American experience.  

[tnvol01]

I thought Newt did poorly wrt Automatic weapons.

It is not illegal to possess a pre-1986 fully-automatic weapon.

You do have to obtain a Class III Stamp to do so, but they are not off-limits to the public.

Newt misfired.

[DuncanWaring]

If they want, we can make it a self-fullfilling prophecy.

[ElkGroveDan]

How I wish Gingrich was Prez now.

I'd settle for PeeWee Herman.

[metmom]

If they make firearms illegal, it will only make the black market for them explode.

Like in Star Wars when Princess Leah said *The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.*

Same principle.

[publius321]

“The government doesn’t “permit” me anything, including guns.

I permit them some small amount of resources that I yield up reluctantly.

They work for me. I own the rights. They are MY SLAVES.”

---

Very well said. As I said before http://youtu.be/qLIva0__zhk , our home owners association should have MORE power than the damned federal ___wipes. “Moving up” in public service We are ironically are the ones who do the servicing) - but moving up in public service should be as follows. You start out as a US Congressman - and after you get some experience and prove yourself - then you move up to your state and local government. We need to tell this tyrant to go get his freaking shine box (Goodfellas reference).

[houeto]

Fantastic graphic onyx! That is now my wallpaper. Where’d ya get it?

[onyx]

Probably Face Book...LOL.

[jmacusa]

Piers Morgan isn’t a citizen? Is he here illegally or on a visa?

[tina07]

Totally agree and he would have danced circles around obama in all 3 debates.

[MarMema]

I love, love, love this. Thank you for posting it.

[MarMema]

Step 2: Wait for mass killing with a pistol

Let's just see when and where this happens..

[MarMema]

see number 47 and tuck it away for now.

[JudgemAll]

I guess Piers is a typical homosexualoid dhimmituding sharya male feminist, mocking a woman who needs semi auto and high cap features in order to avoid the difficulty of handling bolt actions which are mainly for men stature, asking her if she needs a tank.

She might as well have been on a wheel chair defending her rights and he would have been: you need a tank?

Let them eat cake I guess...

Liberals are vile racist fascists.

[1010RD]

The title of this thread should be “How Conservatives saved the career of Piers Morgan”.

[littleharbour]

I could care less about Newt’s marital status. It was his eagerness to throw conservatives under the bus on fiscal responsibility (he accused Paul Ryan of “right wing social engineering”), immigration (implying that those Republicans who opposed amnesty were not “humane”) that kept him from building a winning coalition. And since the election he’s pushing for a Republican cave on homosexual “marriage”. Every time Newt had a bit of a surge during the primaries he said something stupid and killed his own momentum.

[xkaydet65]

He keeps bringing up 100 rounds a minute. He should investigate the numbers of rounds NYPD officers have been putting out in their rare but violent shootings. Amadou Diallo was fired on 44 times in ten seconds. Two of the cops fired 5 times. That meant the two others fired 39 shots. If all someone wants to do is shoot lots of lead at a crowd a 1911 with six extra mags can unleash a lot of lead in a short time. Say50 shots in 55 seconds. You are right. It’s about total ban on any firearm.

[River Hawk]

Newt Gringrich has his strong points - he’s smart and is one of the few leading Republicans who will really debate liberals and take the fight to them. Gingrich’s problems, in both his personal and political life,are his lack of self-control and discipline and his short attention span. Plus his pandering to the Latino lobby is sheer suicide for the GOP.

[RedMDer]

The time is now
Support Free Republic

[mancini]

I do, too. He was my choice, but honestly I think his level of intellectual discourse is above what more than half of America could handle. America, stuck on stupid.

[vette6387]

“I could care less about Newt’s marital status. “
Good for you. At least you are judging him on his political BG! I know everyone had their “favorites.” I was just commenting on the non-political “issues” that drove certain group’s voting decisions. One thing is certain, any of the Republican candidates would have been light years better than what we got.