Katy Tur Breaks Down How 4 Gun Control Measures Would Have Stopped 35 Mass Shooters and Saved 446 Lives
MSNBC’s Katy Tur discussed the gun control measures currently being considered in Congress and explained how they would have stopped 35 of the mass shootings in the country since 1999. Tur was reacting to Mathew McConaughey’s White House address Tuesday on gun violence, which she praised as “powerful.”
“I’m not sure who asked him if he was grandstanding,” Tur began, noting that a reporter, later identified as Newsmax’s James Rosen, shouted at McConaughey as he was exiting.
“Those were powerful words from Mathew McConaughey there. I just want to note, we were there live through the duration, CNN was and so was Fox News,” Tur continued, adding:
All right. So Mathew McConaughey, there, he is from Uvalde. It was notable. He said he grew up learning how to shoot a gun. First a BB gun and then a shotgun. He said he learned to revere guns when he was growing up in Uvalde. But he also learned how to be responsible with a gun.
He went through and he told stories from the families that he spoke with who lost their children in that massacre. Heart-wrenching stuff about how one little girl wanted to go to SeaWorld. Her father was excited to take her there. He got a new job and had the money for it, never got to take her to SeaWorld.
Another little girl wearing green converse with a heart that she drew on her toe, known for these green converse with a heart on her toe because she loved nature. That was the only way they could identify her after the shooting.
“Lots of stuff there. He had been, Mathew McConaughey, reluctant before now to, it seemed at least, to take a real strong stance on gun control measures,” she added.
“Here he was at the White House podium speaking beyond Republicans and Democrats but to Americans and gun owners and saying this stuff that we are talking about is not controversial. It’s not divisive,” she explained of McConaughey’s message.
“Everybody agrees with this. Basically, everybody agrees with this. It’s time for politicians to see past their own re-election. Their own jobs and to do something that will make the country safer for our kids,” she continued.
“He said gun owners, Second Amendment enthusiasts, aren’t saying, ‘hey give a crazy person a gun,’” Tur added.
“They would like to see a crazy person with a gun not infringe on their rights, or not make it so they are painting everybody with a gun as a bad person, as somebody who is irresponsible,” she continued, adding:
He said, responsible gun ownership, background checks, pretty much everyone agrees with that, a minimum age for an assault rifle. A waiting period for high-capacity — I got confused on this one — for large amounts of ammunition, red flag laws, and also consequences for those who abuse this.
He said they should not be a partisan issue at all. If you go back to the New York Times article from June 4th that I referenced earlier, there are key four gun-control provisions being considered.
“And if the four — four of the gunmen in the mass shootings since 1999, four of them were under 21, they could have been blocked from legally buying the rifles they used in mass shootings,” she noted.
“At least four of the assailants would have been subject to a required background check, instead of slipping through loopholes,” she continued, reading from the Times.
“Ten might have not been able to steal the weapons because of efforts to require or encourage safer gun storage, and 20 would not have been able to buy large-capacity magazines that they used to upgrade their guns, helping them kill an average of 16 people each,” she added, concluding:
Together those four measures, which I just laid out, would have stopped 35 shootings, in those 35 shootings since 1999, 446 people — 446 people would have been saved. Again, Matthew McConaughey at the White House podium pleading with our lawmakers to do something.
Watch the full clip above via MSNBC
