Piers Morgan’s Final Shot

by Gerard Emershaw

Like General Cornwallis thumbing his nose at the newly formed United States on his way back to Mother England after surrendering, fired CNN host Piers Morgan has taken one final shot at the American people on his way out the door of CNN studios. In his final episode, which aired on Friday March, 28, 2014, Morgan said:

But that’s where guns belong—on a military battlefield, in the hands of highly trained men and women fighting for democracy and freedom. Not in the hands of civilians. The scourge of gun violence is a disease that now infects every aspect of American life. Each day, on average, 35 people in this country are murdered with guns, another 50 kill themselves with guns, and 200 more are shot but survive. That’s 100,000 people a year hit by gunfire in America.

Now, I assumed that after 70 people were shot in a movie theater, and then, just a few months later, 20 first-graders were murdered with an assault rifle in an elementary school, the absurd gun laws in this country would change. But nothing has happened. The gun lobby in America, led by the NRA, has bullied this nation’s politicians into cowardly, supine silence. Even when 20 young children are blown away in their classrooms.

This is a shameful situation that has made me very angry. So angry, in fact, that some people have criticized me for being too loud, opinionated, even rude when I have debated the issue of guns. But I make no apologies for that.

As Sir Winston Churchill said: “If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.”

My point is simple: more guns doesn’t mean less crime as the NRA repeatedly says. It means more gun violence, death and profits for the gun manufacturers. And to those who claim my gun control campaigning has been “anti-American”, the reverse is true. I am so pro-American that I want more of you to stay alive.

But I’ve made my point. I’ve given it a tremendous whack. Now it’s down to you. It’s your country; these are your gun laws. And the senseless slaughter will only end when enough Americans stand together and cry: Enough!

Piers Morgan hates the natural right to liberty in general and the right to bear arms in particular. He has the right to think these things and the right to state his beliefs. He also has the right to be wrongheaded, which he most certainly is in this situation. The most important thing to focus on is Morgan’s claim that guns belong “in the hands of highly trained men and women fighting for democracy and freedom” and “[n]ot in the hands of civilians.” One could not possibly be more wrong about anything than he is wrong about this. Given that Mr. Morgan is a British subject, let us consider some examples from British history which demonstrate why the citizenry must have the right to be armed in order to prevent government tyranny. Mr. Morgan likely believes that his fellow countrymen are the most civilized human beings on the planet. Such chauvinism is natural. If so, then if civilized Brits in government can be dangerous despots, then this is certainly true of any government—including the United States government.

On April 23, 1930, British soldiers fired machine guns into a crowd of peaceful protesters at Qissa Khwani Bazaar in Peshawar, India. This resulted in the deaths of as many as 400 unarmed civilians.

On December 12, 1948, British troops in Malaya near Batang Kali killed 24 unarmed villagers.

In June 1953, 20 unarmed people were killed by British soldiers in Chuka, Kenya.

On March 3, 1959, 11 Kenyan detainees at the Hola British concentration camp were clubbed to death by British soldiers.

On January 30, 1972, in the Bogside area of Derry, Northern Ireleand, British soldiers shot 26 unarmed Irish civil rights protesters and bystanders, killing 14.

If the civilized British government is so willing to fire upon unarmed civilians, then it is clear that British subjects need to be armed in order to deter such potential murderous tyranny. If this is true of the British government, then it is also true of the American government—or any government. Human beings are human beings wherever you go. No humans wielding massive government power are immune to the lure of violent despotism.

Now that Mr. Morgan has some free time, perhaps he should spend the hour between 9:00 pm and 10:00 pm EST reading up on the blood history of his nation’s government. Maybe then he will begin to realize the necessity of the right to bear arms.