Howard Stern Weighs In On Gun Control Following Orlando Shooting
Howard Stern chimed in today on his SiriusXM radio show about calls for gun control in the aftermath of the Orlando shooting.
On June 12, an ISIS-inspired gunman entered the Pulse nightclub in the Florida city and killed at least 49 innocent patrons and wounded many more in the deadliest mass shooting incident in U.S. history.
This atrocity immediately reopened the debate over additional gun control regulations, with politicians such as Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, along with other Democrats and lots of celebrities, insisting that more firearms restrictions would preempt future terrorist attacks.
Some former fans have accused Stern, in his current on-air iteration, of going from libertarian to liberal once he started walking the red carpet instead of mocking those celebrities who do.
But the satellite shock jock, while an avowed Hillary Clinton supporter (and also a personal friend of Donald Trump), apparently is not buying into post-Orlando gun control demands or even accepting the premise that more gun control measures would have prevented the Orlando attack.
He appears to be opposed to any regulatory efforts that, in his view, could disarm the American public.
In a rant on the subject today (listen to the clip embedded below), the self-proclaimed King of All Media seized upon a somewhat tortured analogy in which he likened the military and cops to warrior sheepdogs, terrorists and criminals to wolves, and day-to-day Americans as sheep.
“Think about this: In France, they have the tightest gun control laws on the planet. The terrorists all had AR-15s, they have Glocks, they have every kind of pistol… Now what if I went up to the sheep, and I said, ‘You wanna have a shot at the wolves? I’m going to give you a pistol. You can actually even the playing field with these wolves whose fangs are out — you can shoot them.’.. There’s not a sheepdog for every citizen, and a wolf is still eating one of you every night.”
Stern continued, arguing that the most gun-free zone is an airplane.
“What did the wolves do [on 9/11]? They said, ‘This is great. We’ll just kill the sheep with boxcutters.’ They went on the plane with boxcutters and all the sheep went, ‘Baaaa.’…The wolves are always plotting. They’ll use boxcutters. They’ll use an airplane fly it right into a building. They don’t need AR-15s.”
The SiriusXM host and former America’s Got Talent judge then alluded to the gun control measures that Adolf Hitler implemented upon taking power in Germany.
“Can you imagine if the Jews, at least when the Nazis where banging on the door, if they had a couple of pistols, AR-15s, to fight the Nazis?…Why would the sheep…hand in all our guns?…It’s a Baaaaad f*****g idea.”
Stern, who signed a five-year contract extension with SiriusXM last December, admitted that he doesn’t have a solution to the terrorism threat, but accused government officials of being out of touch with ordinary citizens when it comes to self-defense with firearms.
“I don’t like violence — I don’t like any of this stuff — but I consider myself a sheep… Guess what: Most of your politicians…have private security…so they’re okay. Those are sheep that are very well protected. You, on the other hand, you are a sitting duck…If you’re a sitting duck, do you want a fighting chance or not?…I’m just a sheep, I’ll admit it, but I’m not for taking away people’s rights.”
Longtime sidekick Robin Quivers added that the U.S. Constitution, specifically the Second Amendment, gives citizens the right to own guns, and claimed that prior weapons bans haven’t derailed previous mass shootings.
This apparently is not the first time that Stern spoke in favor of gun rights on his show. In an April 2016 exchange with producer “Bababooey,” Stern quipped that he didn’t care if a law-abiding citizen owned “300 guns” or stocked up on unlimited ammunition. In another episode that same month, Stern referred to a handgun as “the great equalizer” when it comes to personal protection.
In another departure from certain aspects of the trendy entertainment culture, Howard Stern has expressed strong support for Israel and blasted Roger Waters and other aggressive supporters of the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement against the Jewish state.
[Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images]
