![NRA Board Member Judge Phillip Journey debates CNN's Jim Acosta on gun control [Screenshot CNN]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/Screen-Shot-2022-05-30-at-10.58.05-AM-e1653922787895.png "NRA Board Member Judge Phillip Journey debates CNN's Jim Acosta on gun control [Screenshot CNN]")
CNN’s Jim Acosta accused the National Rifle Association (NRA) Sunday of being responsible for mass shootings, prompting pushback from an NRA member who reminded the host that it wasn’t an NRA member who carried out Tuesday’s mass shooting.
Speaking on “CNN Newsroom,” Acosta pointed to the Sunday review section from The New York Times that listed mass shootings where “authorities said the gunman was able to obtain the weapon legally.”
Acosta questioned NRA board member Judge Phillip Journey about the group’s alleged responsibility for mass shootings.
“For years your group has blocked new gun safety laws and pushed for the most relaxed rules possible on firearms,” Acosta said. “Isn’t some of this blood on the NRA’s hands?”
“I don’t believe the supposition of your question is accurate,” Journey responded, noting while he’s not the official spokesperson for the NRA, he has “followed the issue closely” and said NRA organizations, along with himself while he served as a Kansas state senator, “worked to tighten the laws.”
“I think it’s important to understand,” he continued before Acosta cut him off.
“No, no, no, sir, I hope you understand, I’m going to have to cut you off when you start saying things that just aren’t true. The NRA has not worked to tighten rules. That’s just not the case. The NRA for years, for decades, has pushed for the most relaxed rules possible in this country, and that’s why we have mass shooting after mass shooting.”
“If you could answer the question I asked you in the beginning of the interview, isn’t this blood on your hands?” Acosta continued. (RELATED: 8 Examples Of People Being Incredible In The Face Of The Texas Massacre)
“I’m not the one that pulled the trigger and neither are the members of the National Rifle Association,” Journey shot back, noting that the Buffalo, New York, shooting was an example of “the alarms were going off in New York and all the officials did was hit the snooze button” even though the shooter “already threatened a mass shooting prior, and nobody did anything.”
Acosta then asked whether a “troubled young man should be able to go out and buy an AR-15 assault rifle?” He then questioned whether it was appropriate for the NRA to have held a convention in Houston just days after the Robb Elementary School shooting. The two then debated whether 18-year-olds should have access to AR-15 style rifles.
Journey then lambasted Acosta for continually putting “words in my mouth” as he tried to answer questions. Journey said he supports background checks but that it’s issues with the states that create a “flawed” system.
Acosta ended the segment by saying “it just seems to me that the NRA just has to look into its soul, and I’m sorry to say it that way, sir, but you and your other board members need to look into your souls and see what can be done for these kids, these kids who keep dying over and over again, over and over again.”