Justice

Tom Brokaw Delivers a Powerful Message on the Orlando Shooting

June 13th 2016

In the wake of the Orlando mass shooting, a national discussion has perhaps finally started to emerge about guns.

Journalist Tom Brokaw spoke his mind on Sunday's "Meet the Press" about how America has a gun problem and isn't moving quickly enough to fix it.

Tom Brokaw Meet The Press Gun ViolenceNBC - mediamatters.org

Host Chuck Todd asked:

"We don't know -- hate crime, terrorism. There's a number of directions this is going to go and we know political reaction will be based on what the FBI tells us. Should it matter?"

Brokaw quickly interjected with, "no" before delivering an excellent break down.

Here's how Brokaw broke it down.

"It shouldn't matter. If it turns out to be connected to some kind of an international group, all the politicians will jump all over that and say 'we've got to do something about them.' But, let's say it's a domestic shooting, we've got to do something about that.

I'm a gun owner, I've been saying this for months now, it's time for people to come together and say 'enough.' If he had an assault weapon, if it was an AR-14, [retired U.S. Army general] Stan McChrystal has said, 'not to be in civilian hands.' It's designed to do one thing: to kill people.

We don't have any dialogue going on in America about all these mass shootings that have occurred since San Bernardino. And they've been going on around the country, three or more killed at a time.

This absolutely belongs in the political debate and it ought to be a place where both parties can talk about it in a rational fashion to dial down 'you got a problem? Get a gun.' That's what goes on now, it's got to come to an end. It's a terrible commentary."

The Gun Violence Archive reports that since the Sandy Hook shooting in 2012, there have been 998 mass shootings, according to Vox.

The Orlando shooting, which left 50 people dead and 53 injured, is now the deadliest in recent United States history. But the tragedy didn't come out of nowhere. We are living in an age where mass shootings are sadly not entirely uncommon.

Deadliest mass shootings in the U.S.Los Angeles Times - latimes.com

Which is indeed, to quote Tom Brokaw, "a terrible commentary."

You can watch the full "Meet the Press" video below.

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