Ann Coulter Implies Minorities Are Responsible for Gun Violence
The conservative commentator objected to a high-capacity magazine ban.
Jan. 15, 2013— -- Conservative commentator Ann Coulter implied that racial minorities are the cause of the country's "gun problem" during a Monday appearance on Fox's Hannity show.
"If you compare white populations, we have the same murder rate as Belgium," she said. "So perhaps it's not a gun problem, it is a demographic problem, which liberals are the ones who are pushing, pushing, pushing."
"Let's get more Colin Fergusons...Why are they coming in to begin with?" she said.
The Jamaican-born Ferguson killed a half dozen people at a train station in New York in the early 1990s. Ferguson was able to reload once, but was stopped by passengers as he attempted to reload for the second time.
See Also: Cries for Gun Control After Shootings Yield Few Changes
Coulter's comments come as President Obama is poised to announce sweeping changes to the nation's gun laws.
Most of the recent perpetrators of mass shootings, including the ones at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, last month, an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater last summer, and a Tucson, Arizona, supermarket in early 2011, were Caucasian men.
And Latinos are actually more likely to support strict gun-control laws than whites, according to an April Pew Research Center survey. While 57 percent of whites think it's more important to protect the rights of Americans to own guns than to protect gun ownership, only 29 percent of Latinos feel the same way.
Coulter also mockingly criticized the lack of diversity among President Obama's cabinet selections, which have so far included several white men, specifically Sen. John Kerry for secretary of state, Chuck Hagel for defense secretary, and Jack Lew for treasury secretary.
"My principle objection," she said, "is that they are all white men."
"The lack of diversity just shocks me, shocks me!" she continued, feigning outrage.
Conservatives have lashed out at Democrats, such as Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California), for pushing for stricter gun control. Feinstein has proposed reintroducing an assault-weapons ban. The National Rifle Association, which has a powerful lobbying presence in Washington, has said it will oppose stricter gun laws and even suggested placing an armed officer in every school in the country.
Obama, who has said gun safety will be a priority at the beginning of his second term, tasked Vice President Joe Biden with looking at ways to improve gun safety in the wake of the Sandy Hook shooting. The president is expected to announce proposals as early as Wednesday, following recommendations from the task force.
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