Geraldo Rivera Brandishes Musket On Set to Make Stupid Point About Second Amendment

Geraldo Rivera Brandishes Musket On Set to Make Stupid Point About Second Amendment


Fox New contributor Geraldo Rivera has made what has to be one of the dumbest arguments regarding limits to the Second Amendment in quite some time.

The former daytime shock TV host-turned-semi-newsman brandished a musket during a debate segment on Fox News’ Sean Hannity program to push back against gun rights advocates who say the Constitution does not allow for legitimate limitations of which firearms Americans can own, especially when it comes to so-called “assault weapons.”

Last week, Rivera falsely claimed the “AR” in “AR-15” means “assault rifle,” when in fact, AR stands for “ArmaLite,” which is the company that originally designed and built AR-15 rifles. Besides, by definition, “assault rifles” are for the military and have some form of fully automatic function whereas AR-15s built for the general population are semi-automatic, like dozens of other rifle styles.

Hannity reminded Rivera that “AR” does not “stand for assault rifle,” to which the famously liberal contributor claimed that he merely described the AR-15 as an “assault rifle,” The Blaze reported.

“You probably have not fired one and compared and contrasted it to other weapons,” Hannity said in response. “The reality is, whether it’s a pistol, whether it’s a rifle, America’s Second Amendment is clear. The right of the people to keep and to bear arms shall not be infringed.”

The host then riffed on California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom who recently claimed the Second Amendment is a “suicide pact” after a pair of mass shootings in his state, which has the most restrictive gun laws in the country.

“He is surrounded by armed guards, Hollywood elite are surrounded by armed guards. The people that make this country great have a right to defend themselves and their family and their property. And by people trying to take away that right from them, they are denying them the very security that they, the elite, have,” said Hannity.

“Why would you support that?” Hannity asked. “What would you do if somebody broke into your home?”

As Hannity continued, Rivera spoke to someone off camera: “Give me that rifle.” He then appeared on camera with a muzzle-loading musket type of long gun.

“This is what weapons looked like,” Rivera shouted. “This is what they looked like when the Second Amendment was passed. This is what they looked like.

“I’ll let everyone in the country — you wanna own this? You can own this,” he continued. “You can load it, you can do whatever you want with it. What you don’t want, though, is to give them weapons of war that they can tear the hell out of people with.”

Again, semiautomatic rifles like the AR-15 and AK-47 available to purchase by the general public are simply not “weapons of war.” They are not built to military specifications without substantial modifications and were never intended for wartime use — unlike the musket that Rivera displayed which, at the time, was only built to one specification.


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