This Week Panel Clashes Over Causes Of Shooting: Guns, Violence In The Media, Or Mental Illness?
The panelists on ABC’s This Week today got into a heated argument over the societal factors that resulted in the tragic shooting in Aurora, Colorado on Friday. Cokie Roberts emphasized the gun control argument, while George Will kept telling the other panelists that they shouldn’t be so quick to assign blame to something so senseless.
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Will said that the crux of the issue is merely “an individual’s twisted mind,” and trying to explain something as senseless as the Aurora massacre by pointing to “some defect in the social system” which could easily be corrected. But what makes Will uneasy about events like these is the lack of any clear social motive.
Roberts countered Will by marveling at how easy it was for Holmes to get his hands on so many guns and so much ammunition. Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin said that there’s really no specific set of gun rules that would ensure absolute safety, and noted that five of the ten biggest gun crimes in history were committed with handguns. She said the current situation should make us wary of a “mental health epidemic” in the United States.
Joe Klein addressed the Second Amendment issue by doubting the Founders thought the right to bear arms included bazookas and assault weapons. Ed Rendell added that Congress should revisit and reinstate the assault weapons ban.
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Will criticized his fellow panelists and others for trying to “piggyback on a tragedy” by turning it into a gun control issue. When he brought up Anders Breivik and the fact that Norway has strict gun laws, Rendell shot back by arguing tragedies like these happen much more often in the United States than Norway. Klein pointed the blame at the violence in the entertainment business, suggesting that people are getting “weird ideas” all over the world because they are seeing violent films like The Dark Knight Rises. As Klein put it, you cannot legislate entertainment, you can legislate guns.
Rubin, Roberts, and Rendell argued over whether mental illness or gun access was the bigger problem. Stephanopoulos brought up a poll showing decreasing support for stronger gun control laws, which Klein was said the result of Democrats keeping quiet on the issue.
Watch the video below, courtesy of ABC:
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