Mike Pence defends Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis shootings as response to 'crime wave'

Former Vice President Mike Pence suggested two men who shot people because they mistakenly went to the wrong home were simply responding to "fear" of a "crime wave."

During an interview on CBS, correspondent Robert Costa confronted Pence about a "spate of gun violence in recent weeks."

"And it's at times legal gun owners shooting people who come up to their door, on a driveway, in a parking lot," Costa said, referring to the shootings of Ralph Yarl and Kaylin Gillis.

"Well, our hearts go out to the families of lost loved ones and the incidents in Kansas City and in upstate New York," Pence replied. "I just can't imagine the pain that they're enduring in that tragedy."

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"But tragedy should not require us to forfeit our liberty," he continued. "And the right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms is enshrined in the Constitution of the United States."

Pence speculated about why two innocent people were shot for going to the wrong house.

"I can't imagine the circumstances that I read about in the press in either of those cases," he remarked. "But at the end of the day, I just wonder, I wonder if it is some reflection of the fear the American people feel about the crime wave that's impacting our country, literally from coast to coast."

Watch the video below from CBS or at the link.