Former Fox News star Bill O’Reilly called the shooting at the Route 91 Harvest country music festival in Las Vegas “the price of freedom.”
In a blog post on his site titled “Mass Murder in Las Vegas,” O’Reilly argued on Monday that gun violence is an inevitable byproduct of freedom.
“Public safety demands logical gun laws but the issue is so polarizing and emotional that little will be accomplished as there is no common ground,” he wrote. “The NRA and its supporters want easy access to weapons, while the left wants them banned.”
“This is the price of freedom,” he added. “Violent nuts are allowed to roam free until they do damage, no matter how threatening they are.”
While many politicians, media personalities, and celebrities are calling for stricter gun laws, O’Reilly claims that “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 said the Second Amendment allows even “the loons” to have the right to arm themselves for protection. He also dismissed any efforts at passing gun control legislation because the ideological differences are so polarizing between the left and the right that little to nothing would be accomplished.
Sunday’s shooting left 59 dead and more than 500 injured. The incident marked the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history; the 2016 Pulse nightclub attack killed 49. There have been more than 1,500 mass shootings since 2013.
