MSNBC's Reid Charges Pro-Gun Groups 'Almost Creating a Wild West Atmosphere'
On the Tuesday, July 16, PoliticsNation, MSNBC contributor Joy Reid complained that pro-gun groups like the ALEC and the NRA are "almost creating a Wild West atmosphere" to protect gun owners.
After she seemed to suggest a profit motive of wanting to "sell a lot more guns," Reid lamented that these conservative groups are trying to "roll back anything that would inhibit a rational, reasonable person from getting and carrying and even discharging a firearm."
After host Al Sharpton brought up singer Stevie Wonder's declaration that he would not perform in states with Stand Your Ground laws, Reid responded:
Orlando attracts a lot of conventions, central Florida does. You can actually begin to hurt a state by doing these kinds of actions. And, look, it's also a matter of safety because what people have to understand is that what ALEC and the NRA are doing, the American Legislative exchange Council, the conservative group that writes these laws, what they want to do is three things.
She added:
First, they want to sell a lot more guns. So the NRA pushes the way system work on. They also want to expand the places you can carry a gun, because they want to break down the pro exhibition, the self prohibition about owning a gun. The third thing is to make safe the discharging of a gun. Because one of the reason not to purchase, not to carry, is the fear, "If I drop it, it goes off and kill a child, will I go to jail? If I shoot somebody by mistake thinking they were going to rob me, but, oh my God, they weren't, will I go to jail?"
Reid concluded her anti-gun analysis:
ALEC's goal is roll back anything that would inhibit a rational, reasonable person from getting and carrying and even discharging a firearm. It's almost creating a Wild West atmosphere where they're saying, "Take your gun anywhere you want, into a bar, into school, into church. And you know what, if you discharge it, we're going create a web of laws that will protect you from the law."
-- Brad Wilmouth is a news analyst at the Media Research Center
