Florida Republican goes down in flames debating CNN's Acosta on weapons of war on American streets

CNN's Jim Acosta wasn't taking it when Republican Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) tried to give excuses for why Americans need to carry around weapons of war.

"I tell you, we all want to solve this problem," Waltz claimed. "The data shows that the vast majority of gun violence, the vast majority of these crimes are committed actually with people using pistols not necessarily those weapons. But I think in the bigger picture—" Waltz said before Acosta interrupted.

"A lot of these mass shootings happen -- have involved AR-15s and those kinds of assault-style rifles," Acosta corrected.

Waltz is talking about the vast majority of "gun violence" being suicides using handguns. When it comes to mass shootings, they're overwhelmingly done by guns with high-capacity magazines and automatic weapons that allow rapid-fire shooting.

Waltz argued that the proposed legislation doesn't fix the problem, which is incorrect as the current proposals are to reinstate the assault weapons ban. Instead, the Florida man blamed "mental health" problems and said that so-called red flag laws are already in place.

Acosta cited the recent Indiana shooting in which a mass shooter had his shotguns taken away due to concerns and using the red flag law. He was then allowed to purchase another gun. Waltz excused it away, saying that in most cases, that law has worked. In his own state, in particular, the Parkland shooter's neighbors warned police about him as well, to no avail. So, clearly, those rules aren't as strict.

Waltz also didn't have any proposals for increases in mental health funding, developing a stronger mental health system with facilities that can help those with mental health problems outside of prisons.

The congressman proposed a major fix to the problem is in sharing local reports with the federal database and other state databases. He claimed 6 million more records have been shared with the database.

"So, I think we need to take a hard look at fixing the system as it exists and make it work better. But putting—" said Waltz.

"Yeah, the system's not working now," Acosta cut in.

Waltz went on to say that the vast majority of criminals are getting guns on the "black market" to circumvent laws in place. It's probably why President Joe Biden said that he wants to get rid of Ghost Guns, stop the gun show loophole, demand all gun sales be by licensed vendors, and other restrictions on 3D printed guns.

In fact, Waltz had no solution other than to enforce the laws on the books, which clearly isn't working.

The United States had it's 50th mass shooting in one month on Sunday.

See the video below:

Republican goes down in flameswww.youtube.com