To all the gun-toting Americans out there, talk show host Bill Maher has a message for you: the Second Amendment doesn’t really protect you from tyranny.
“Can we just get to — first of all — how ridiculous it is for people to think that the Second Amendment protects them from tyranny?” Maher asked on Friday.
Maher’s comments came during his HBO show ‘Real Time with Bill Maher.’ The host spoke with a panel about recent polling that revealed 44 percent of Republicans think there might be a need for an armed insurrection in the coming years.
He added that the Waco Massacre proved that even the best weaponry would not help Americans withstand a government onslaught.
“Thinking the Second Amendment can protect you from tyranny is like thinking the First Amendment protects you from Thor,” he said. “It’s ridiculous, it’s nonsensical and they never get called at it. That’s what they’re screaming about right now in Houston [at the NRA convention].”
Maher went on to say that no weapon could protect against tyranny if the U.S. government has nukes, drones and the Marine Corps. Later he stressed that Americans romanticize guns, an assertion with which guest Lawrence O’Donnell disagreed.
“Gun ownership is a minority activity,” the MSNBC host said. “The rate of gun ownership in this country is declining significantly. That’s why the NRA is pushing this so hard. And what you have, in terms of gun sales, is simply fanatic collectors.”
Conservative panelest Mattie Duppler disagreed with O’Donnell.
“I’m from Wisconsin,” she said. “This is what people do on weekends for fun.”
