A British TV Journalist Went To Town On An American Gun Rights Campaigner During An Interview
Probably not gonna make it onto the NRA's Christmas card list.
Predictably, the announcement of tightened loopholes for gun background checks by US President Barack Obama yesterday has sparked fury from guns rights groups and right-wing commentators. Republican Presidential candidates were quick to jump on the news, while conspiracy theories started circulating online that Obama had somehow faked the tears he shed during the announcement while talking about the infamous Sandy Hook shooting of 2012.
Obama touching his eyes JUST BEFORE the tears came. He’s putting something in his eyes to create the fascist tears. pic.twitter.com/U3KBwM5L6X
— John Nolte (@NolteNC) January 5, 2016
Right-wing America’s rampant hostility to even the most modest and common-sense gun ownership restrictions is a constant source of bafflement to people in other countries (g’day to our American readers, by the way, how ya goin’). So it proved when iconic British TV presenter Jon Snow (yes, his name is like the name of the sad man with the curly hair) interviewed Armed American Radio representative and gun enthusiast Neil McCabe on Channel 4 News earlier today.
The vast gulf of cultural understanding between the two men made for some combative, confusing and extremely uncomfortable moments, like this exchange on the already-huge number of US gun violence deaths in 2016 a few minutes in:
“In [our] report we counted 125 people having died this year — that’s in five days — actually, the figure’s just gone up to 137. Are you proud of that figure?”
“I mean, I don’t know. It’s just part of life, I think –”
“No it’s part of death, Mr. McCabe. That’s death! That’s dead people, people who’ve died as a result of guns.”
Judging by the awkward silence that followed, Snow and McCabe probably aren’t going to go get a beer together if one of them happens to be in town.