Gingrich Blames Liberalism for Increasing Violence

April 23, 2007 — -- On Sunday former House Speaker Newt Gingrich blamed 40 years of liberalism for an increasingly violent and vicious society.

In an exclusive interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, Gingrich said young people are being dehumanized by violence in video games, and liberalism has created a "zone of not being willing to talk about any of these things."

"We don't have any discussion about what's happened to our culture because while we're restricting political free speech under McCain-Feingold, we say it's impossible to restrict vulgar and vicious and anti-human speech," Gingrich said.

The potential GOP presidential contender commended President Bush's handling of Virginia Tech and touted "legitimate concealed carry" as his solution to last Monday's massacre.

"In states where people have been allowed to have concealed weapons," Gingrich said, "there have been incidents of this kind of killer who was stopped because, in fact, people who are law-abiding, people who are rational, and people who are responsible had the ability to stop them."

Gingrich also agreed for the need for more thorough background checks in gun purchases, in reference to states like Virginia not sharing mental health records with the federal database.

"I think that a person who is certified by a psychiatrist as potentially dangerous to others, that information should come up and that should block them from acquiring weapons," Gingrich said. Though he was quick to point out that "in the great cities of this country, where you have the most gun violence, it is by people breaking the law who manage to buy an illegal gun."