Fox News host Neil Cavuto was super-impressed with “great writer and thinker” Ben Stein's opposition to gun control. “The problem is not gun control, it’s terrorism control,” Stein advised.
During a crisis, Cavuto said in his introduction, “You have to step back, look at the big picture, and simplify what’s going on. Who better to do that than Ben Stein?”
“You know him as a star of TV, great lawyer, economist, all of that. I know him as just a great writer and thinker,” Cavuto continued.
And that was all the cred needed to be a Fox News gun control expert. But don’t look for any liberals in support of gun control to get such a fawning platform on “fair and balanced” Fox any time soon.
STEIN: We have about 100 million guns floating around America. We have several tens of millions of Americans owning guns, perhaps as many as half of American adults owning guns, and the government says look, two crazy people, two psycho killers in San Bernardino killed a whole bunch of totally innocent people, so we’re going to take away your guns and take away your protection, you haven’t done anything wrong.
…A gun does not kill anyone, people kill people. A person who’s in possession of a gun who doesn’t do anything wrong with that gun should not be punished, and he should not be deemed muted of his means of defense, his self defense, even if it’s only psychological.
Apparently, part of what makes Stein such an expert is the fact that his wife was once home alone in Beverly Hills while there was a felon on the loose. Cavuto prodded Stein to relate this anecdote to the viewers at home - just in case there was someone out there who didn't think that every home needs a gun.
STEIN: She said the police were flying over our neighborhood in Beverly Hills saying there’s a felon on the loose, and everyone should lock the doors and stay inside. My wife called me and said, “Where’s the gun?” and I told her where it was, and so she got it and she could sleep at night, and I kept thinking, what if Obama or the New York Times op-ed people or editorial page people had come in and taken that gun away from her?
…The problem is not gun control, it’s terrorism control.
Cavuto “just wondered” if we might be “overreacting” or “overvigilante-ing.” He meant over-reacting to guns, not over-reacting to fear of Muslims.
STEIN: If a person has a gun in a drawer, I think if a person has a gun in a gun safe under the bed, I don’t think there’s a thing wrong with that. …We have not had much of a problem with people who are novices about guns going up and shooting up community centers. We have not had much of a problem who are novices with guns being terrorists. …Why punish people who are feeling fearful and want to have a gun in their lives? Why punish them for the acts of terrorists?
In reality, we have had plenty of problems with guns of “responsible gun owners” accidentally killing children. American children are nine times more likely to die in gun accidents than children anywhere else in the developed world. Furthermore, guns can make suicide easier. More than 60% of gun deaths are suicides. In short, owning a gun is far more likely to harm you than protect you.
But none of that information was presented to the “we report, you decide” network’s viewers.
Cavuto ended the discussion by telling Stein, “It is well put.” Then he told Fox’s Charlie Gasparino that he should be “packing heat.”
The NRA couldn’t have had a better infomercial.
(Originally posted at Newshounds.us)
