This was a nice change of pace, watching a Republican get shot down for their fearmongering on the air: ABC Journalist Calls Out Karl Rove: ‘Stop Scaring People’ About Background Checks:
During a heated debate about gun regulations on Sunday morning, ABC News’ Terry Moran accused Karl Rove of using “Orwellian” language to scare people about background checks, noting that the federal government is not seeking to confiscate guns but rather keep them out of the hands of criminals and people who are mentally ill. [...]
The proposals currently being drafted would require a background check on all gun purchases including those by private sellers while exempting family and temporary transfers. In some of the drafts being circulated, private dealers would have to maintain records for all private sales, while other exempt non-commercial private sales from record keeping. None of the bills would maintain a national gun registry, which is already illegal under current law. But the record keeping provision is important, advocates claim, to ensure that the checks are being properly conducted.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll found that 88 percent of Americans, including 85 percent of gun owners, believe “those purchasing firearms at private sales and gun shows should undergo a background check.”
Full transcript below the fold.
STEPHANOPOULOS: We're still seeing, Karl Rove, the National Rifle Association digging in against universal background checks?
ROVE: Look, if you -- if you say should we keep the mentally ill and the -- and the criminals from getting guns, everybody would say yes. But that's not what this is about. We're talking about, in this instance, having a registry where if a grandfather wants to give a treasured shotgun to his grandson, or granddaughter, he has to register with the government and go and get approval as the government to give that gun to his grandchild.
(CROSSTALK)
ROVE: Well, I would say -- also transferring. And in addition, Senator Schumer for some reason or another, insists upon keeping a registry of guns. Now, if there's one thing that scares a lot of people who believe in the Second Amendment, is the federal government keeping a national registry of gun sales, and gun purchasers, and gun owners. And -- and -- and...
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: (Inaudible) how does the background check make any difference?
ROVE: It -- it does make a difference. You -- you -- you find out if somebody can, or cannot purchase a gun. Right now I can go into a gun store in Texas to purchase a weapon. I have to go through a background check. They have to ascertain I don't have a criminal record, and that I can purchase a gun. And -- but what we're talking about here is different than that. And -- and why it's different than that...
(CROSSTALK)
ROVE: ...and why it's different than that is politics. There could be a lot of mutual agreement found on closing some of these so-called gun show loopholes. We could probably get agreement on a -- a widespread basis of people saying, look you go to a gun show, you walk in, you get -- you -- you pass a check. You give -- you get your little stub that allows you to purchase a weapon, and that's it. But this goes far beyond that.
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: What's the answer to that?
MESSINA: Look 40 percent of all gun sales currently don't go through background checks. The background checks have stopped two million people from -- from getting guns they should not get. But we know there are loopholes all over the place. And Karl, just saying no, what the NRA and your party is doing right now, isn't moving us forward.
(CROSSTALK)
ROVE: Let -- let's be clear about this, this was prompted by the Sandy Hook murders. Those guns were legally purchased with a background check. This would not have solved something like that. Let's be very careful about quickly trampling on the rights of people who -- and look, you want to get something done? Then stop scaring people. Don't say we're going to keep a registry of all of these guns, and...
(CROSSTALK)
ROVE: ...and let's not make it so unhappy...
(CROSSTALK)
MORAN: Stop scaring people? You're scaring people with this Orwellian sense that black helicopters and the government, if we register guns, they're going to confiscate Americans guns. That kind of paranoia fuels...
(CROSSTALK)
ROVE: With all due respect, it is not paranoia.
MORAN: Who is going to confiscate all of the guns in America?
ROVE: People have a fear of this. Why do it? Why do you need it?
MORAN: Lots of things are registered in the United States of America...
ROVE: Yeah, but -- but...
MORAN: ...because they're...
(CROSSTALK)
ROVE: ...do we register that are constitutionally...
(CROSSTALK)
MORAN: The result of this is that the only votes really that have been taken since Newtown have weakened gun control in America. Some of those votes the Senate took last week to prevent the Justice Department, for example from taking a look at gun shop owners inventory to make sure there haven't been thefts, voted down by Republicans.
(CROSSTALK)
STEPHANOPOULOS: Peggy, maybe things haven't changed much after Newtown at all?
