MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” hosts Willie Geist and Joe Scarborough claimed Monday that the Republican interpretation of the Second Amendment is “incorrect.”
The comments came during a discussion of the deadly mass shootings in Serbia that left seven dead and 21 injured in May. Serbia responded with a series of laws restricting the sale of new guns, heightening the punishment for illegal guns and imposing other gun control measures.
Scarborough first compared the U.S. and Serbia before arguing that a majority of Americans want gun restrictions passed.
Geist argued that Americans are “numb to just the sheer volume” of mass shootings before blaming the NRA for creating “this culture around guns.”
“The NRA is somewhat of a diminished organization now, it has just become part of the DNA of so many Republicans and so many on the right that they feel like it is their interpretation of the Second Amendment, which we know is incorrect, gives them the ability to have any kind of weapon they want, including an AR-15, a weapon of war,” Geist said.
“Their interpretation of the Second Amendment is not only incorrect, but doesn’t match up with actually what the United States Supreme Court says the Second Amendment means,” Scarborough said. “That’s who defines what the Second Amendment means. It is Scalia, it is Thomas, well not Thomas, it is Scalia and the majority of the rest of the court who don’t view the Second Amendment any more unlimited as they view the First Amendment unlimited.”
“There are always limitations for all rights and also responsibilities that go along with those rights that the United States Supreme Court recognizes and that Americans recognize, but the gun lobby and their most strict adherents do not,” he continued. “Americans are dying every day because we can’t pass sensible gun laws that 90 percent of Americans support.” (RELATED: MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough Says Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Is Responsible For Killing Children)
The Supreme Court ruled in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Keith M. Corlett that a state law requiring individuals show “proper cause” to obtain a concealed carry permit was unconstitutional.
In writing for the majority, Justice Clarence Thomas wrote: “The constitutional right to bear arms in public for self-defense is not ‘a second-class right, subject to an entirely different body of rules than the other Bill of Rights guarantees.”
The high court also made another landmark decision regarding the Second Amendment in 2008 when it ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual’s right to possess a firearm.
The Supreme Court has not ruled on the constitutionality of AR-15’s and other firearms, though there is a case, National Association for Gun Rights v. City of Naperville that could lead to the court legalizing those types of firearms in all 50 states.