Gun lobbyist: 'Healthy fear' of getting shot keeps lawmakers and Piers Morgan in line

Pro-gun lobbyist Larry Pratt outlined the role he thinks firearms should play in the U.S. system of checks and balances during a radio interview over the weekend.

The executive director of Gun Owners of America told Cincinnati talk show host Bill Cunningham that the media is biased against the Second Amendment because they understand its original intent, reported Right Wing Watch.

“Its real purpose is to serve as a restraint on government abuse, and since they want to be involved in government abuse, they kind of take it personally, I think,” Pratt said Saturday during an interview on WLW-AM.

He also suggested that the constitutional right to bear arms might somehow trump the freedom of speech that journalists enjoy under the First Amendment.

“The Second Amendment is intended for people just like them – or perhaps we could say, like Piers Morgan – those who know better than we, those who were born to rule and we were born to be ruled,” Pratt said, specifically naming an anti-gun host fired last week by CNN. “And for us to have guns kind of upsets that order of things that they think ought to be, so I think they take it very personally.”

Pratt said it wouldn’t be necessary to shoot his political opponents, because he thought the mere threat of gun violence was enough to keep them in line, based on a conversation one of his organization’s members had with a lawmaker.

“I knew the guy well enough to know that almost certainly he was mild-mannered, he was just explaining our position, and apropos of nothing, the congressman – congresswoman, actually – said, ‘You want to shoot me, don’t you,’” Pratt said.

That perception of fellow gun owners didn’t bother him at all, he said.

“That’s probably a healthy fear for them to have, although that was not the guy’s – he wasn’t saying anything like that, it wasn’t in his demeanor,” Pratt said. “But you know, I’m kind of glad that’s in the back of their minds. Hopefully they’ll behave.”

Listen to the audio clip posted online by Right Wing Watch: