CNN's Piers Morgan used the stabbing of 14 people at Lone Star College
on Tuesday to argue that gun laws prevented what could have been a
massacre.
On Tuesday's Piers Morgan Live, Morgan hosted two students
from the college who said they could have prevented the stabbing had
they been allowed to carry guns; he replied that that would create
"total Wild West madness" and argued that gun laws prevented the deaths
of the students injured by stabbing:
"You see my argument would be that far from – with respect, allowing all the students to carry guns, which I think would descend the school into total Wild West madness, isn't there an argument that this could have been a lot worse if the -- if the person carrying the knife had had a gun? I mean, they'd all be dead, these students. So although it's being used as an argument by people like yourselves in favor of more guns, I would argue it's a – it's a compelling situation where if there had been more guns, more people would have been dead."
[Video below. Audio here [1].]
In an obvious boost of Morgan's case, CNN aired tweets by Democratic strategist Greg Pinelo [2] and liberal New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof [3] saying that gun laws saved the lives of the stabbing victims. The tweets came just hours after the attack was occurring.
Morgan further questioned the safety of letting students carry guns on
campus: "I mean, do you not think if all the students are armed, though,
that the kind of day-to-day conflict which goes on on all schools and
college campuses could very quickly escalate into much more dangerous
situations if everybody had a gun?"
Below is a transcript of the segment that aired on April 9 on Piers Morgan Live at 9:09 p.m. EDT:
PIERS MORGAN: Let me turn to you, Jonathan and Jon Paul. Although you
didn't see the incident, you have quite strong views about how you think
you should be empowered to deal with this kind of thing. Tell me what
you think should happen.
JONATHAN CLAYTON, student at Lone Star College: Well, sir, I think that
-- you know that we as students, are – I mean, we are adults and the
government does not permit us to have – carry weapons even, sir, even if
you have the certificates and certification to carry a handgun. And I
think that law should be changed for protection.
MORGAN: So you basically both think that –
JON PAUL CLAYTON, student at Lone Star College: And I agree.
MORGAN: Right. You both think that you should be allowed to carry guns at school?
JON PAUL CLAYTON: Yes, sir. If you're properly trained and have the
certifications and all the legal papers, because 99.9 percent of all gun
owners are legal, abiding citizens.
MORGAN: Right. But you do have armed -- you do have armed security guards there, right?
JONATHAN CLAYTON: Yes, sir, we do. We have our own police officers here.
MORGAN: Where were they?
JONATHAN CLAYTON: They are – they are all throughout the campus, sir,
but since there's about I'm guessing around eight of them, if I remember
correctly, sir, and there's a couple hundred or to a thousand students
on campus at one time during this, so eight officers can't guard and
protect everyone on campus.
MORGAN: You see my argument would be that far from – with respect,
allowing all the students to carry guns, which I think would descend the
school into total Wild West madness, isn't there an argument that this
could have been a lot worse if the -- if the person carrying the knife
had had a gun? I mean, they'd all be dead, these students. So although
it's being used as an argument by people like yourselves in favor of
more guns, I would argue it's a – it's a compelling situation where if
there had been more guns, more people would have been dead.
JON PAUL CLAYTON: Well, I can respect your argument, Mr. Piers. Really,
this is the only places we cannot legally carry a gun if you have the
proper permits is college campuses, post offices and airports. And now
airports, you can legally carry knives and stuff, but then you can't
even carry a knife legally on a college campus? And this – this
particular incident didn't even involve a gun, but would allow us to
protect ourselves just like we can anywhere else.--
(Crosstalk)
MORGAN: Let me ask you both, don't you think -- I mean, how old are you both?
MICHAEL CHALFAN, student, Lone Star College: I'm 22, sir.
JONATHAN CLAYTON: I'm 20 years old.
JON PAUL CLAYTON: I'm 26 years old.
MORGAN: Okay. I mean, do you not think if all the students are armed,
though, that the kind of day-to-day conflict which goes on on all
schools and college campuses could very quickly escalate into much more
dangerous situations if everybody had a gun?