On Wednesday night, Stephen Colbert pushed for more gun control on “long guns” after a sniper used a WWII-era bolt action rifle to attack a Dallas ICE facility.
Colbert was interviewing Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) when he made the comments.
Media Research Center captured the moment the interview began, with Colbert saying:
Before we get into anything else, right off the top, I just want to point out and let everybody know that you have been a tireless advocate for gun control for years now. And as you know, and I think most of the people out here know, today there was another tragic shooting, this time at an ICE facility down in Dallas. We don’t know a lot about it so far. What goes through your mind when you hear about another shooting like this?
Murphy responded by saying, in part, “It just sickens me that we have a president who instead of trying to stand up and say wherever the violence comes from, it’s unacceptable, is politicizing this moment. It’s about the victims and it’s about a mourning of a loss of a potential moment to bring this country together.”
Then Colbert went to gun control: “I mean, there really hasn’t been much movement to rein in the access to the long guns and many of the weapons used in these killings, but, I mean, hopefully, maybe there could be a political sea change in the United States.”
The gun used in a the Dallas ICE attack was a bolt action chambered in 8mm. Such a rifle is often WWII vintage and is very rudimentary.
For example, after the gun is fired the bolt must be manually lifted and pulled back, to extract the spent shell casing, then pushed forward, to grab a new cartridge, then push down, to lock the new round in battery.
What kind of gun control does Colbert propose for such firearms?
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio, a member of Gun Owners of America, and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He was a Visiting Fellow at the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal in 2010 and has a Ph.D. in Military History. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
