Whoopi Goldberg let loose on AR-15 owners for the second day in a row, saying during Wednesday’s broadcast of “The View” that it was time to outlaw the AR-15 and report anyone who owned one.
Goldberg began her rant by saying — as she has many times before — that the AR-15 had to go. When guest host Tara Setmayer argued that potential shooters would just use handguns – like the ones used in the Virginia Tech shooting – Goldberg appeared to suggest that would still be an improvement because handguns don’t “turn people to dust.”
Wherein Whoopi first asserts that an AR-15 can "turn people to dust" and then suggests that owning one should land you in jail. pic.twitter.com/DoeHJRhtWF
— Virginia Kruta (@VAKruta) June 1, 2022
“But the first thing you got to do is keep the guns out of –” Goldberg began.
“Listen, I understand that but it’s not as easy when you have a country that has more guns than people,” Setmayer pushed back.
“It actually is easy,” Goldberg insisted, noting that everyone on the show had met someone whose life had been changed by gun violence. She then pivoted to suggest that anyone who didn’t “see the need” to get rid of the AR-15 would also “never see the need” to help people solve mental health issues.
“And you can say, well, I wish they had more mental health check-ins, but people who don’t see the need to remove one gun, one gun, the people who don’t see a need to remove that will never see the need to make sure that people get the help.”
“Even if you remove the AR-15, they can use handguns,” Setmayer replied. “Virginia Tech, the guy used handguns.”
“Let me tell you, a handgun does not turn people to dust,” Goldberg said, prompting applause from the audience.
The conversation turned to whether or not a ban on “assault weapons” would have any impact on the number of mass shootings that occurred, and multiple co-hosts argued that a ban would work to bring the numbers down.
“It’s the guns, it’s the guns, it’s the guns,” Joy Behar repeated.
“You still had people shooting in the inner cities. It’s different than this,” Setmayer added. “It’s a complicated issue.”
“It’s one gun. We’re saying take one gun out of the plethora of guns that are out there,” Goldberg continued.
“So then what happens to the black market then?” Setmayer asked. “So we say we ban the AR-15. There are more AR-15s are the most popular weapon in this country – I’m just saying.”
“I’ll tell you what happens. The same thing that happens that is being threatened to women who decide maybe I need to go talk to somebody about an abortion, where they say, ‘Report them and we’ll put them in jail.’ That’s what,” Goldberg concluded.