"The View" panelists clashed over the role mental health plays in mass shootings in the wake of yet another at a Christian elementary school in Tennessee.
A shooter killed three children and three adults Monday at Nashville's private Covenant School, and co-host Sara Haines said gun manufacturers profit handsomely from the sale of the expensive and highly efficient AR-15 rifles used in the great majority of massacres.
"The NRA is funded by these millions and D.C. is funded by the NRA," Haines said. "No one wants to talk about that conversation because it would be a reduction in profit, so I think the two conversations, you're making a good point, would be agreeing that during that time there was an AR-15 assault rifle ban gun deaths did go down."
Co-host Sunny Hostin pointed out that gun deaths went down by 40 percent in that period, which Haines agreed was a huge number, but said gun safety advocates should concede that firearms weren't the only factor in mass killings.
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"The conversation needs to come from both sides because I do think mental health is a big problem," Haines said. "I think it's harder to wrap your head around how we solve that, but I do think these assault weapons, the majority of people believe, need to go away."
Hostin and co-host Joy Behar disagreed, saying that other countries had problems with mental illness but not gun violence.
"I'm really sorry, but I have so many mentally ill people in my family," Hostin said. "They are more likely to be the victims of crime than be criminals. That is a fact, and it has been studied in this country for over 60 years. So I'm so sick of people conveniently saying this is a mental health issue or you can't look at this issue without mental health."
Conservative co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin interrupted to ask whether Hostin believed the Nashville shooter was of sound mind.
"That is not the point," Hostin said, over Griffin's objections. "The point is, if she did not have access to those weapons, those three 9-year-olds would be in school today."
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