Bizarrely, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota suggested that gun store owners test the mental health of customers before selling them guns, apparently under the impression that they’re also psychologists. She said:
“Why donât we go to gun shop owners and say, âDo you think that this 21-year-old who comes in and wants an AR-15-style weapon, do you think he looks like heâs going hunting with this weapon?â Did you ask him, âBy the way, do you ever think that people are chasing you? Do you ever hear voices saying that people are coming for you?â Do they ever ask questions like that? Because this guy, it sounds like … would have answered yes. How onerous would it be to have a gun shop owner just say, ‘By the way, are you hearing voices? Do you think people are chasing you? Do you think everybodyâs watching you?’ … It would have weeded out, possibly, this guy.”
As you can imagine, this almost comically ignorant comment produced a savage reaction. Here’s a small sampling of it.
Two things:
1) Maybe we have a mental health crisis in this country because people like Camerota broad brush all mental illness in this ridiculous way, thus stigmatizing it
2) Shop owners can and do deny. Why not ask the family if youâre going to ask shop owners? https://t.co/uDfu1Fna9Q
— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) March 24, 2021
Most TV hosts clearly have never bought guns or gone through the background check process. And it shows in clips like this.
Embarrassing. https://t.co/QKpJxwrY7H
— Gabriella Hoffman (@Gabby_Hoffman) March 24, 2021
This is one of the dumbest things I've ever heard. https://t.co/7WD8S1Spcd
— Pradheep J. Shanker (@Neoavatara) March 24, 2021
Because people will totally be honest if a complete stranger selling them a gun asks if theyâre hearing voices. lol
— ULTRAđ°FOO (@PolitiBunny) March 24, 2021
So, if we want gun owners to play Sigmund Freud because their products can be dangerous, are we going to be doing this with other merchants? Cars? Knives? Rat Poison? Are you going to be quizzed about whether or not you’re a pyromaniac before you’re allowed to fill up your tank at the gas station? Also, as “The Foo” notes, why would anyone believe people would tell the truth
Are gun shop owners qualified to evaluate anyone’s mental health? This is such a comically ignorant concept that it should be prompting people to question whether Alisyn Camerota is competent enough to be on TV, but of course, in 2021, it doesn’t work that way. If anything, that moronic segment probably got more people talking about the show and CNN probably considers that to be a big win.
To little surprise, CNN’s ratings are in the tank. The network has bled 45% of its prime time audience in the past five weeks, and according to Nielsen Media Research, the Fox News obsessed Brian Stelter just saw his show experience its lowest-rated week of the year. We can only be surprised that the ratings didn’t fall more.
John Hawkins is the author of 101 Things All Young Adults Should Know. His website is Linkiest and you can follow him on Parler here.
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