Carly Fiorina: People on the Terror Watch List Should Still Be Able to Buy Guns

By Joanna Rothkopf  |  December 3, 2015 | 2:45pm
Politics


On Thursday morning, aspiring politician Carly Fiorina appeared on Morning Joe to share some Republican talking points in the wake of the San Bernardino shooting that left 14 dead. The most striking of which was the juxtaposition between her condemnation of Islamic terrorism and her attitude that people on the terror watch list should be able to buy guns.

She began by countering the progressive rallying cry that prayers don’t seem to be helping.

“Despite the headline in the Daily News, the first thing I did was say a prayer,” she said, referring to a New York Daily News headline that read “God isn’t fixing this.”

“It was several weeks ago, before Paris,” Fiorina reminisced, “When our FBI director said the FBI was quote, ‘overwhelmed,’ by the number of suspected Islamic terrorists in this country that they cannot keep track of.”

So, obviously the Republican conclusion would be to ban suspected terrorists from purchasing firearms (even though the majority of recent mass shooters have not been Muslim). Right?

Obviously wrong. Instead, Fiorina argued that we need to prosecute people who shouldn’t have guns.

“We have lists and lists of people who shouldn’t own guns who have them,” she said, “Less than 1 percent of them are ever prosecuted.”

“I actually think it’s ideology, not common sense, that causes the left wing every time in a knee-jerk reaction to say ‘the answer here is more laws,’ when we’re not enforcing the laws we have.”

At the prodding of hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, Fiorina then shot down the proposition that background checks should be required to purchase a gun.

“That’s kind of a red herring, honestly,” Fiorina countered. “If somebody is a suspected terrorist on a watch list, they can be indicted at any time, and once you’re indicted, you cannot own a firearm.”

“If you’re on a terror watch list you can’t get on a plane but you can buy a .223?” Scarborough asked.

“You know, my best friend’s husband was on the watch list for years, it was a complete mistake. He also happened to be a gun owner. If I had utter faith in the competence of government, I might agree with that. But do you? I don’t.”

So, Fiorina’s argument: hunt down people who have obtained guns illegally (even though at least eight shooters in 14 recent high-profile mass shootings obtained their guns legally), indict everyone on the terror watch list (even her innocent friend), pray like hell.

Contact the author at [email protected].

 
Join the discussion...