CNN host Piers Morgan on Wednesday repeatedly talked over guest John Lott Jr., who was trying to present and correct several myths and misstatements about gun facts, ultimately telling him: “I’m going to keep talking so I suggest you keep quiet.”
Mr. Lott, a noted author and researcher on gun statistics, was trying to explain his points about the proposed ban on weapons in Congress. Mr. Morgan opened the show with a broadcast clip of a Sandy Hook elementary school victim’s father giving emotional testimony before Congress. Mr. Morgan said that assault weapons and “high-capacity magazines” were to blame for more than half of mass shootings between 1982 and 2012, according to a Blaze report. Mr. Lott refuted that claim — as well as another that Mr. Morgan made, that a weapons ban in Australia was successful as lowering crime rates.
Mr. Morgan then began speaking over Mr. Lott, according to The Blaze, to the point where Mr. Lott finally said, “You’ve been talking 80 percent of the time since the break.”
Mr. Morgan responded, “I’m going to keep talking, so I suggest you keep quiet.”
From there, the back-and-forth became even more heated.
On Thursday, Mr. Lott summed up the interview on his website this way: “The problems started when Piers began realizing that he was losing the debate. At that point he started raising his voice and talking over me.”
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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