Comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan discussed the prospect of taking away guns from Americans and “leaving all the power to the government.”
He said so during an episode with guest Lex Fridman when discussing the mass shooting that took place in Uvalde, Texas last week, adding that it could get to a situation where “only criminals are gonna have guns” and not “law-abiding citizens.”
Rogan expressed deep sadness over the events that took place in Uvalde, calling it a “completely f***ed up situation where a sick person got a hold of a bunch of guns and decided to go kill kids.”
“I don’t think it’s wise to take the guns away from the people and leave all the power to the government. We see how they are even with an armed populace…freedoms lost are rarely regained.” — @joerogan pic.twitter.com/lipYJ4Sb2p
— TheBlaze (@theblaze) May 30, 2022
Rogan said that it “happens in this country every now and then” and “no one knows how to stop that.”
“What is the answer?” asked Rogan. “Is the answer to take everyone’s guns? Well, they’re not gonna give their guns up. So, you’re gonna have, only criminals are gonna have guns. It’s not gonna be a good situation.”
“And is the answer to make schools these armored compounds, where you have armed guards outside of every school dressed like it’s a military?” he continued. “That’s not something we want either. But what do you do to protect the children? And how many dollars is that going to cost?”
Rogan then referenced a tweet he made that said “this country has a mental health problem disguised as a gun problem. And that’s what it is.”
“I don’t think it’s wise to take all the guns away from people and leave all the power to the government,” Rogan added. “We see how they are even with an armed populace, they still have a tendency towards totalitarianism. And the more increased power and control you have over people, the easier it is for them to do what they do.”
Fridman agreed, saying that this is “much more a mental health problem … This is a tragedy, but there’s also an element to this that it’s a tragedy the way a hurricane is a tragedy — that there are cruel things happen[ing] in this world … and it’s dangerous to generalize from those problems into something like what I hear about there’s a race war or there’s a gun control problem.”
