On his 700 Club show this Tuesday, Pat Robertson broke a time-honored code amongst the old Christian right and voiced support for a ban on assault weapons. Referencing the shooting at a Florida high school that killed 17 people, Robertson started out his segment by declaring that he’s an avid gun enthusiast.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I am a gun owner,” Robertson said.
“I have hunted. I have shot skeet. I have gotten awards when I was in the Marine Corps for shooting. I’ve got no opposition whatsoever to shooting, but for heaven’s sakes, I don’t think that the general population needs to have automatic weapons. It just doesn’t have to have Russian-built or Chinese-built machine guns. It just doesn’t.”
“I mean it’s one thing to defend yourself with a pistol or a shotgun to hunt with, but it’s something else to have [assault weapons],” he continued. “I think we can ban those things without too much trouble. They have what they call bump stocks, which you hit it and it would go automatic, we can stop that.
Robertson is an avid Trump supporter, which casts a slight question mark over his timing of an announcement so out of character. Early Tuesday morning, President Trump announced that he directed attorney general Jeff Sessions to propose changes that would ban bump fire stocks, according to CNN.
“Just a few moments ago I signed a memo directing the attorney general to propose regulations that ban all devices that turn legal weapons into machine guns,” Trump said at a Medal of Valor event at the White House.
“I expect these regulations to be finalized, Jeff, very soon,” he said, addressing Sessions.
Robertson follows the word of Trump more often than the word of Jesus, but regardless of the timing, let’s celebrate the fact that old Uncle Pat just said something sensible about gun control.
Watch the video below, via Right Wing Watch:
Featured image via screen grab
