Tax-funded PBS features the Amanpour & Co interview show, and the Tuesday edition featured a self-righteous gun-control rant by host Christiane Amanpour keyed to the murders at a Christian school in Nashville. Left unanswered: How would many of the proposed gun-control measures (like background checks) would have stopped this attack? Amanpour can't blame the shooter. She has to blame the gun-rights lobby. Notice there's not the slightest attempt to avoid editorializing.
How long will this remain the norm? How long before government steps in to actually save lives and anguish, like they have after such disasters in many other democratic nations? President Biden sounds exasperated.
Ahem. "Exasperated” Biden had a Democratic-led Congress for two years which was unable to pass a so-called “assault weapons” ban, and was vice-president for eight years under liberal Barack Obama. But Amanpour and company found Republicans to blame instead for…posing for photos with guns.
President Biden: I have done the full extent of my executive authority to do on my own anything about guns. The Congress, I have to add the majority of the American people think having an assault weapon is bizarre.
Amanpour nodded along to Biden's mindless formulation. (And what's an "assault weapon," anyway?)
Amanpour: Bizarre indeed. Firearms are the leading cause of death amongst American children and adolescents aged between one and 19. And in Nashville, three children were among the six slaughtered at their school. Earlier today, the Mayor, John Cooper, wrestled with the same questions that so many are asking.
Nashville Mayor Cooper: …. And when are we going to learn? And we're grieving city right now. And guns can be Second Amendment, for sure, but they can also be a little bit of a cult and let's not -- let's keep them out of the hands of people who should not be having them.
Amanpour: A bit of a cult indeed….
Amanpour interviewed Dr. Joseph Sakran of Johns Hopkins Hospital, who called for guns to be considered a “public health problem.” Amanpour once again called for her own bizarre version of “sensible gun control,” which looks a lot like the gun confiscation that occurred in Australia after a mass shooting there.
Amanpour: And do you think enough Americans who are sitting on the sidelines, not those who have lost their loved ones to these terrible wounds, but do you think people in Congress or elsewhere, local officials, people who are resisting what the majority of Americans want, which is sensible gun control, do you think they know what these bullets do to the bodies of their families? Do you think they know what it looks like to see a shot-up victim of an assault rifle that has no business being anywhere except on -- in a war zone?
(Speaking of assault rifles in “war zones,” Amanpour has made a nightly obsession of arming Ukrainians against Russian invaders.)
Amanpour liked the Nashville mayor’s “cult” description so much she repeated it, and near the end she blithely reduced the gun rights argument to hunting (note: the 2nd Amendment isn’t about hunting):
And in our last 30 seconds, other countries, this one Britain, Australia and there are many others, all gun-loving countries. They like to hunt. Australia's a meat producing country. They have had their tragedies. They have managed by -- New Zealand, bipartisan and rapid control that stops this.
A transcript is below, click "Expand" to read:
Amanpour & Co.
3/29/23
2:02 a.m. (ET)
Welcome to the program, everyone. I'm Christiane Amanpour in London. And we begin with a photograph taken by a Nashville journalist that sadly says it all, a child weeping on a school bus as she is evacuated from the scene of the latest American horror. It's one day after another mass shooting, this time at a private Christian elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee. Raising the same old yet vital unanswered questions. How long will this remain the norm? How long before government steps in to actually save lives and anguish like they have after such disasters in many other democratic nations. President Biden sounds exasperated.
JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I have done the full extent of my executive authority to do on my own anything about guns. The Congress, I have to add, the majority of the American people think having an assault weapon is bizarre.
AMANPOUR: Bizarre indeed. Firearms are the leading cause of death amongst American children and adolescents aged between one and 19. And in Nashville, three children were among the six slaughtered at their school. Earlier today, the Mayor, John Cooper, wrestled with the same questions that so many are asking.
MAYOR JOHN COOPER, NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE: Everybody that's attending every vigil in Nashville feels that there needs to be a public response to this kind of tragedy and to say enough is enough. And when are we going to learn? And we're grieving city right now. And guns can be second amendment, for sure, but they can also be a little bit of a cult and let's not -- let's keep them out of the hands of people who should not be having them.
AMANPOUR: A bit of a cult indeed. Nashville police called the attack calculated and planned. My guest tonight, Joseph Sakran is, himself, a survivor of gun violence. At 17, he survived a bullet wound to the throat. And now he's a trauma surgeon in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Sakran, welcome to the program. So, as we said, and I'm sure -- you know, you see it through your trauma rooms in the emergency rooms. Firearms are the leading cause of death between one and 19. Now, they're not all must shootings, but they're firearm deaths. What are you seeing in your trauma rooms right now?
DR. JOSEPH SAKRAN, DIRECTOR OF EMERGENCY SERVICES, JOHNS HOPKINS: Yes. Well, thanks so much for having me. And I just, you know, want to say how tragic it is that we continue to wake up day after day in America watching our children being slaughtered in schools. And you're absolutely right, for the first time in 40 years, firearm injury has eclipsed motor vehicle crashes and motor vehicle fatalities to become the leading cause of death in children and adolescents. And I just want you to think about that for a second. It's not cancer. It's not poisonings. It's not car crashes. It's gun related injury. And we're seeing this not only as you appropriately articulated in mass shootings, but we're seeing this every day in cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, Chicago. And of course, it's disproportionately impacting communities of color. It's absolutely tragic and it's preventable. And we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to tackle this public health problem in a way that allows us to prevent these kids, these babies from being killed on our streets and in our schools.
AMANPOUR: Can I just ask you because it's clear that this is a major issue for you because of what you've been through and the fact that you are a bit of an activist, trying to get a sensible, you know, sensible laws around this. And I know that you've been up all night, you had overnight duty, and so you're tired as well. Remind our viewers how you -- what was the circumstance of you getting a bullet wound to the throat and surviving.
DR. SAKRAN: Yes. So, I come to this conversation, you know, where I was a healthy high school senior. And I was hanging out after high school football game with friends, the way teenagers do. And a fight broke out that we had nothing to do with, and a guy pulled out a gun and started firing into the crowd. And I got hit in the throat with a .38 caliber bullet. And at that point in my life, you know, I was 17. I had no idea what I wanted to do in life. And that moment really inspired me. Inspired me to go into medicine and inspired me to become a trauma surgeon to honestly be able to give other people the same second chance that I was given. And what I've realized going down this path is that despite how good we may think we are as health care professionals, despite how excellent or trauma centers maybe, the best medical treatment is prevention. And that's why we have been, as health care professionals, advocating and working at this intersection of medicine, public health and public policy to really approach this as the public health problem that it is.
AMANPOUR: And do you think enough Americans who are sitting on the sidelines, not those who have lost their loved ones to these terrible wounds. But do you think people in Congress or elsewhere, local officials, people who are resisting what the majority of Americans want, which is sensible gun control, do you think they know what these bullets due to the bodies of their families? Do you think they know what it looks like to see a shot-up victim of an assault rifle that has no business being anywhere except on -- in a war zone?
DR. SAKRAN: Yes, I actually don't think that they do. And in fact, I think that this conversation right around these shootings, we've become so desensitized, right? And this aren't just shootings, these are massacres. And frankly, you know, when you think about the people that actually really understand the carnage that's happening on our streets in America, it's those children that are witness to it. It's those parents that have to identify those bodies. It's the frontline providers like law enforcement and health care professionals and medical examiners that get this unique glimpse into the devastating destruction that these weapons do. And in fact, we just finished working with an incredible team at "The Washington Post" to help kind of illustrate and outline what, you know, assault rifles and handguns do to the human body...
AMANPOUR: Well, you know, doctor, as you're speaking, it's very powerful and very sensible. And yet people who are elected to high office continue to fetishize the -- what they believe the cult, as the mayor of Nashville said, about owning and using guns. So much so that we see this picture of Representative Andy Ogles, he's the Republican from Tennessee in a Christmas photo in 2021, he posts this picture -- I hope we have it, which shows him posing with his family all carrying guns by the Christmas tree. His district is the site of the shooting yesterday. So, before I ask you what goes through your mind when that kind of picture is sent out, I'd also like to play a little bit from him when he was buttonholed by CNN's Manu Raju about this last incident, listen.
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Why not ban AR-15s?
REP. ANDY OGLES (R-TN): Why not talk about the real issue facing this country in regard to the shooting, which would be mental health?
AMANPOUR: So, a man who posts himself with his family and his children carrying guns now blames it on mental health. Clearly, there are mental health problems everywhere. Is that the real problem, doctor?
DR. SAKRAN: Yes. So, let me first say that, you know, I've seen that picture and it's just honestly incredibly sad that instead of putting books in the hands of his children, they're putting those weapons. What type of message are they trying to send to the country? And when you talk about mental health, let's be clear about something, most people with mental illness are more likely to be victims rather than perpetrators.
And so, I think we have to move away, you know, from this concept where we, you know, blame this on X, Y and Z. The reality is in America, we have easy access to firearms. And when you think about that concept, right, and you take easy access, and you add that plus hate, plus impulsivity, you know, plus, you know, fear of safety. All of those can end up in a very tragic scenario. And so, I think we really have to focus on ensuring that we're limiting the easy access of firearms so people that shouldn't have them are not able to get them.
AMANPOUR: And in our last 30 seconds, other countries, this one Britain, Australia and there are many others, all gun loving countries. They like to hunt. Australia's a meat producing country. They have had their tragedies. They have managed by -- New Zealand, bipartisan and rapid control that stops this. And it's not possible in your country for some reason.
DR. SAKRAN: Yes, and that's exactly right. I mean, we have seen, you know, time and time again, whether you think about, you know, the Port Arthur massacre or what happened in New Zealand, right? The difference is those legislators refused to simply, you know, stand by and have these types of events happen again. And I think you know the reality here is that as Americans, we have a lot more in common than we have that divide this. This is about responsible gun ownership, and we have the responsibility to put our children first.
AMANPOUR: Yes.
DR. SAKRAN: So, you know, I think we need to do better.
AMANPOUR: We hear you loud and clear. Dr. Joseph Sakran, thank you so much indeed for joining us tonight.
