Soledad smacks down Grassley for linking assault weapons to ‘black-on-black violence’
CNN host Soledad O’Brien on Thursday scolded Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and told him he should know better than to try to link assault weapons to “black violence on blacks” because most recent mass killings had been carried out by white men.
Following National Rifle Association chief Wayne LaPierre’s Wednesday testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he opposed universal background checks at gun shows, O’Brien asked Grassley why not support something that seemed like an obvious part of the solution.
Grassley argued that universal background checks would burden people trying to buy a gun on Sunday.
“Obviously we have some background checks, it’s how encompassing do you do it?” he explained. “Do you do it for one father selling to a son or another relative or how do you cover everything? I think that’s the issue. And also, the extent to which you have private sales on Sunday between relatives, and maybe you can’t access the system all the time and as fast as you want to do it.”
O’Brien pressed Grassley on why he opposed an assault weapons ban, when even the temporary 1994 ban had reduced the number of crimes involving those firearms by between 17 percent and 72 percent, according to a 2004 study by the University of Pennsylvania.
“I guess you can argue over numbers,” Grassley replied, adding that the Columbine High School massacre had occurred during the 1994 ban.
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