Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly said Monday that the Las Vegas massacre, which unfolded Sunday night, was “the big downside of American freedom” on “gruesome display.”
“This is the price of freedom,” O’Reilly wrote on his website Monday after suspect Stephen Paddock killed at least 58 people and injured another 500 when he opened fire on the Las Vegas Strip during the Route 91 Harvest festival. “Violent nuts are allowed to roam free until they do damage, no matter how threatening they are.”
The Second Amendment is clear in that Americans have a right to bear arms for protection, O’Reilly said.
“Even the loons,” he added.
O’Reilly, who left Fox News after 21 years amid a series of sexual harassment lawsuits but has since started his own podcast, admitted that public safety did demand logical gun laws. The issue, however, has become “so polarizing and emotional” because there is “no common ground,” he said.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., for example, called on Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., to create a special commission to investigate gun violence and suggest legislative solutions.
“Having covered scores of gun-related crimes over the years, I can tell you that government restrictions will not stop psychopaths from harming people,” O’Reilly continued. “They will find a way.”
