Fox host blindsides NRA's Dana Loesch: 'You're not against universal background checks, right?'

A "Fox & Friends" host briefly knocked NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch off her game when he threw her a fastball when she expected a softball.

The conservative activist appeared Thursday morning on Fox News to respond to criticism she's received from gun violence survivors and elected officials in the wake of a deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

"So are you a terrorist?" asked host Steve Doocy, sarcastically referring to a charge leveled by Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy against the NRA.

Loesch took a whack at the meatball Doocy served up.

"I mean, I'm a mom, I have kids," she said. "I mean, we are dealing with homework issues late last night, maybe making my kids get all their homework done makes me some kind of terrorist. I can't take seriously anyone who says that they're coming to this conversation. I cannot take their claims in good faith genuinely or seriously at all when they decide to insult and smear millions of law-abiding Americans."

Loesch urged parents to upload videos of themselves justifying their gun ownership, and her comments showed the Parkland survivors' pointed criticism had resonated with her.

"I'm tired of people questioning mothers and fathers and saying that they love their firearms more than they love their children," she said. "One of the reasons that I have a firearm is to protect my family, is to protect my kids. Honestly, you know, guys, let's be real -- in my mind I'm like 7-foot-tall, 400 pounds. In reality I'm 5' 6 and a buck-twenty-five. I want to defend my family. I'm not going to be shamed for it by the Connecticut governor or anyone else that wants to smear me or anyone as terrorist because we disagree with him and we have a different way of protecting our family."

Then co-host Brian Kilmeade tried to sneak a fastball past her.

"You are not against universal background checks though, right?" Kilmeade asked.

Loesch was stunned into silence for a couple of seconds before taking a swing with some talking points.

"Like the ones that failed in California or the ones that have failed in Colorado?" she said. "I mean, do I believe that one of the things that we need to do is make sure that states are reporting fully and accurately, which they are not doing, all of their criminal convictions to the national crime information center for NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) to check when someone purchases a firearm. NRA and Wayne LaPierre came out strong on this, actually longer than I have been able to vote, really, to make sure this system works accurately. I want to, again, the political class could fix this tomorrow, they could fix it today."

The rest of the segment went a little easier for Loesch, and co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy even closed the appearance by reassuring her that Doocy's comment was in jest.

"Thank you, Dana," Campos-Duffy said. "You are not a terrorist."