Sean Hannity and the NRA's executive director focused exclusively on two recent mass shootings committed by Muslims to blame Democrats -- and not the gun lobby -- for firearms deaths.
The Fox News host and Chris Cox, head of the NRA-ILA, blamed gun violence on foreign policy pursued by Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, his former Secretary of State.
"The truth is, we're facing a massive problem in this country," Cox said. "We're facing a crisis, and the crisis is not over the Second Amendment or guns -- the crisis is over the fact that we have radical Islamic terrorists in this country trying to kill as many Americans as they can. So the question becomes, what are we going to do about it? We can go down the path of gun control. They have every gun control law imaginable in California, but it didn't stop the terrorists in San Bernardino."
Hannity is often accused of asking "softball" questions to conservative guests, but Thursday night he assumed the role of a prosecutor making all the arguments for his star witness -- but in the form of a question.
"Does it anger you that these are the same people that gave guns to drug cartels, kidnappers (and) gangsters in 'Fast and Furious'?" Hannity asked. "Does it anger you that the same people gave $150 billion to the No. 1 state sponsor of terror, Iran? Does it bother you they gave Mohamed Morsi, a guy that referred to Israelis as descendants of apes and pigs, you know, tanks and F-16s and money? Does it bother you that these are the people that released Gitmo detainees? Because it really bothers me, the level of hypocrisy -- because those things that they did are far more dangerous than the average law-abiding citizen having a gun."
Cox agreed those things did bother him.
"What bothers me is that fact that we all know that something bad's going to happen again in this country," Cox said. "And we also know that this president and Hillary Clinton are doing nothing to keep us safe. Their policies and philosophy, this political correctness and their philosophy and their policies are getting people killed. The fact that we're not trusted to defend ourselves just defies logic and defies common sense. The American people are smarter than this, they're sick and tired of this BS coming from Congress and coming from the political elite who surround themselves with armed security but want us to be defenseless."
Hannity asked the gun lobbyist whether or not the NRA promoted gun safety.
"Sean, we've put 29 million kids through a gun avoidance program, little kids that are too young to be around guns," Cox said. "We train more people in responsible and safe gun ownership than the federal government. We train the military, we put on the police competitions. We take a back seat to no one, not only when it involves safety, but also when it comes to national security. We've had NRA members who have fought and died in this war on terror, so to suggest that we somehow want to cause a problem or have terrorists get access to firearms is not just wrong, but it really is offensive, no question about it."
Hannity seemed to recognize that not all gun owners handled their firearms safely or responsibly.
"By the way, one irresponsible person gives a bad name to the millions of responsible people," Hannity said. "Every once in awhile I get a call from somebody on my radio show, 'Oh, what kind of gun do you think I should get? I know you're into guns, Hannity.' I say, 'Well, which one do you want to get trained in the use of? That's the one you can get.'"
Watch the entire segment posted online by the NRA:
