“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough on Thursday accused Republican lawmakers of permitting “crackpots” to get guns and commit mass shootings. (Watch the video below.)
In a news update about the shooter who killed two children and injured 17 other people in a Minneapolis church, Scarborough laid the blame on a GOP-led Congress standing pat on gun reform.
After the clip of a young survivor matter-of-factly describing how he and classmates practice active-shooter drills in school but not in church, the MSNBC personality drove home his point.
“This is normal?” he asked. “No, there’s nothing normal about this. And it’s not a great mystery. It’s just not a great mystery. I mean, we have laws that are on the book that continue to allow crackpots to go into gun stores, get high-powered rifles and go and shoot up schools, go shoot up churches, go shoot up country music concerts.”
“And it seems to me Washington is far too comfortable doing that, letting that happen and all these bullshit excuses and all the bullshit calls for this, that or the other.”
(Minneapolis police said the shooter, Robin Westman, purchased the weapons legally.)
The host accused conservatives of hoping and praying but not taking action.
“It keeps happening. It keeps happening,” he continued. “I mean how many mass shootings do we have? It keeps happening where crackpots get a hold of a gun and they have more power in their hand, like in Uvalde, than police officers do outside.”
“Is that really what they want?”
“This is an American problem,” Mika Brzezinski added.
Fast-forward to 2:57 for Scarborough’s commentary:
The suspect, who died by suicide in the church, shared disturbing images on social media before the massacre. Westman showed off scrawlings on ammunition and gear that read “for the children,” “kill Trump now,” “6 million was not enough.”
“I can’t wait to kill, and kill, and kill, and kill, and kill myself,” Westman whispered.
Conservatives attempted to exploit reports that Westman was born a male but identified as female to push their anti-trans agenda.