CNN’s Don Lemon Mocks Sen. Hawley, Conservatives, For Thinking Criminals, Not Guns, Are The Problem

One of my all-time favorite chyrons is from CNN back in August. A reporter, covered in dust and wearing goggles and a gas mask, is standing in front of a building and parking lot that’s on fire. And the chyron reads, “Fiery but mostly peaceful protests after police shooting.”

You cannot make this up… A CNN reporter is standing in front of a building engulfed in flames and CNN’s chyron reads:

“FIERY BUT MOSTLY PEACEFUL PROTESTS AFTER POLICE SHOOTING” pic.twitter.com/4OHvKnh63u

— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) August 27, 2020

The whole city, actually multiple cities, were being destroyed and burning to the ground and costing literally billions in property damage, but the media insisted that the protests were “mostly peaceful.” It was hilarious and infuriating. Perhaps one of the greatest examples of narrative-driven reporting from the mainstream media.

But CNN’s Don Lemon just had another incredible chyron.

Are… are… criminals not the problem? https://t.co/Pse2iuhipH

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) March 25, 2021

The first accurate CNN chyron in history, folks, enjoy 🔻 https://t.co/xNR7qR7Xnv

— Kyle Becker (@kylenabecker) March 25, 2021

Yes. Exactly https://t.co/XgLXUnfRKR

— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) March 25, 2021

Are… are criminals not the problem pic.twitter.com/gh9cUtlMTl

— Joe Cunningham (@JoePCunningham) March 25, 2021

Don hilariously thinks he’s dunking on Missouri’s conservative Senator Josh Hawley for daring to suggest that guns aren’t the problem- criminals are.

Here’s Don, a liberal media elitist, sitting at his news desk mocking tens of millions of conservative Americans who believe that the criminals who make free-thinking decisions that break the laws of the land are actually the problem, not the chosen tool of those criminals.

Yes. That’s literally what we think. That’s exactly it. Tens of millions of Americans actually believe that criminals and their criminal behavior and criminal choices are the problem, not guns. Guns don’t kill people; evil people kill people.

Listen.

Almost 74% of Americans are overweight or obese, and it’s the fifth leading risk for death globally, with at least 2.8 million adults dying each year as a result of being overweight or obese. Additionally, obesity-related conditions are some of the leading causes of preventable, premature death in America and the world.

So should we ban silverware and plates because they’re making people obese?

It couldn’t possibly be free-thinking people making bad-judgement decisions that are contrary to all available health recommendations.

Surely it’s actually their chosen tools for eating that’s causing the damage, right?

According to the CDC, there are 29 motor vehicle crash deaths every single day involving an alcohol-impaired driver. 29 people every single day, dead, just from drunk drivers. If a mass shooting is considered at least 4 deaths from a single shooting incident, that’s like 7 mass shootings every single day, but from drunk drivers.

So should we ban motor vehicles and alcohol?

It couldn’t possibly be free-thinking people making bad-judgement decisions that are contrary to the laws of the land regarding driving while impaired by alcohol and ignoring all scientific data about the effects of alcohol on the brain and body, and deciding to get into the car and drive while drunk.

Surely it’s actually their chosen tools for drunk driving that are causing the damage, right?

The CDC also shows that there are about 10 drowning deaths per day not related to boating, and drowning is the fifth leading cause of unintentional injury death in the country. In terms of death statistics, your swimming pool is almost 100 times more deadly than your gun.

So should we ban swimming pools and water and swimming because they are causing so many deaths?

Did Don blame the guns and call for gun-control laws for the 769 homicides and 4,033 shootings in Chicago in 2020, a city that has some of the strictest gun laws in the nation?

Does he even consider those shootings and gun homicides news-worthy? Or does Don only care about gun violence when there is a politically advantageous narrative to spin in favor of liberal gun control initiatives?

And does Don really not recognize that criminals don’t care about gun laws? Criminals don’t care about waiting periods to buy a gun or whether you require background and mental-health checks. They aren’t going to buy the guns legally anyway, so why do they care if there are more laws? They’ll get their guns either way. But law-abiding citizens will find it harder to arm themselves against criminals who don’t care about gun laws.

As Thomas Jefferson once quoted from a translation of Cesare Beccaria’s 1764 “Essay on Crimes and Punishments,”

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms … disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes. Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed one.”