BUCK: They definitely want to take some of your guns, not quite at the level yet in the discussions where they’re going to have a freeze, say, on all handguns as they have up in Canada now, courtesy of Justin Trudeau — who is among the most unintentionally comical world leaders on the entire scene, I think you could argue. The great country of Canada is worthy of much better than Justin Trudeau on a whole range of issues. You could point to so many things.

But I digress. What are we facing here in this country? Right now, we’ve got a push for what they’re saying are bipartisan discussions on red flag laws. CBS News just reporting on this today, saying they’re making progress in the Senate on red flag laws. NPR: “Red flag laws, not gun control are the way to stop mass shootings.” CNBC: “House Democrats looking to pass gun control legislation by early June,” and of course, Vox and other left-wing propaganda sites saying everybody in America wants gun control?

Really? ‘Cause they don’t. But they keep saying they do to hope they can break us down with the relentless propaganda. Clay, one thing that I’ve always found fascinating about the gun control discussion — and by the way, the term “gun reform” which also gets used sometimes. I’m like, that just sounds like now we’re… Are we modifying? Do I get to put a better rail system?

They’re going to put a suppressor on? Gun reform? That sounds like that might be fun. But, of course, they just use that as a poll-tested term. That seems less aggressive in terms of Second Amendment violation than gun control. But guns is the only issue I can think of where it does not matter… If you’re a Democrat, it doesn’t matter how imprecise you are, top to bottom, from the president all the way down to the anti-gun activists out there.

You can say things that are absurd. You can say you want to ban chainsaw bayonets, and automatic cannon pistol machine laser guns, and there are people are gonna say, “Yeah, that’s right! You gotta get rid of all of those chainsaw bayonets,” which some of you don’t recall. This was a real thing, USA Today, ’cause it looked scary. Clay, before I go into Whoopi Goldberg’s call for the revocation of your AR-15 out of your hands?

USA Today was running all the different modifications you could make to so-called assault rifles, and they actually had a drawing, you know, an official drawing on the front page of the dreaded chainsaw bayonet, which all this did was for enthusiasts, they said, “Wow, you could actually get a little chain saw you can put on your rail system!” But then people started putting sharks with lasers on their heads on the guns. It turns into memes. They don’t care how little they know about this. They insist that they have the answers about very specific policy when it comes to guns, even though the libs know nothing about guns. It’s remarkable.

CLAY: I just wish we could have a real honest debate, because the goal is the repeal of the Second Amendment. Right?

BUCK: Yes.

CLAY: That’s what the goal is. So this is why I respect… I was having this conversation recently with some other people, people got fired up sometimes at me because I said, “Hey, I’m a history buff.” We talk about that all the time on the show. You are as well. But growing up in the South, the idea of tearing down Civil War statues to me is an awful historical precedent to be setting in America because — and Trump was 100% right about this — the goal is never to just tear down a few statues and then people are going to say, “Hey, you know what? We’re good now,” right?

In the same way, Buck, one I used to like to use is which mascots are offensive? If you told me let’s have a rational, reasonable discussion I’ll sit across the table from you and I will give up the Cleveland Indians mascot if you guarantee me that the Kansas City Chiefs and the Atlanta Braves are not going to have time go. We’ll also give Redskins, and we’ll be done with this forever. Let’s end the debate on mascot names once and for all.

That wouldn’t work because the goal is you always have to find a new one. And this is where Trump was right, right? We started off saying, “Hey, gotta tear down that Robert E. Lee statue. That Stonewall Jackson statue is unacceptable.” And where did it lead? Eventually Ulysses S. Grant statues were getting torn down, Abraham Lincoln. If you were an old white guy who had a statue — Andrew Jackson — you were in danger of having your statue torn down.

What’s really going on here is — and I wish Joe Biden would just come out and say it. He says, “Oh, I don’t want to ban handguns.” Yes, he does, or at least his party does. They want to ban guns. They want to do what Canada has done. That’s the goal, right? That’s what they want. That’s the real debate that they should have because that’s what their ultimate goal is.

BUCK: And if you don’t ban handguns, let’s just be very clear, your gun control approach doesn’t even touch about 96%, give or take, of actual gun violence in the country.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: So the focus on assault rifles — and people say there’s no such thing as an assault rifle. I know, but there are states that have now codified what they consider to be an assault rifle, and it varies, right? Semiautomatic rifle with usually certain cosmetic characteristics like a folding stock, like a magazine that has I think it’s more than 10 rounds, has a forward grip on it, things like that.

Anyway, there is so much about this, though, that is really just emotion, and it’s gun control pushed by emotion instead of the actual results that specific policies would create, right? Like, “What would actually happen if you did the following?” Whoopi Goldberg, she’s on The View, we talk about The View on here sometimes, she’s seemingly certain that your AR-15 has to go. But, Clay, she is quite clear that you can keep your, quote, “yee-haw guns.”

CLAY: (laughing)

“This AR-15’s got to go,” Whoopi demanded. Falsely implying the 2nd Amendment is only for hunting, she declares, “The AR-15 is not a hunting gun.”
Speaking to law-abiding gun owners, she screeches: “You can’t have it anymore!” pic.twitter.com/FrEntcO9jc

— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) May 31, 2022

BUCK: I got a couple things for you. First of all, yes, we can and we’re going to continue to have it. But beyond that, Clay, couple things. First of all, I think we need to institute a rule where — left or right, doesn’t matter — if you start talking about hunting when we’re talking about the Second Amendment you have to actually go read some books and learn something about what we’re talking about, because it has nothing…

No one’s sitting around saying, “Oh, my gosh. You’re gonna take away my 20-gauge pheasant shotgun!” This is about defense and a defense against tyranny and a defense of the individual in their home but beyond that, you’re from Tennessee. I grew up in New York City; so I don’t know. What is a yee-haw gun? I’m just wondering, I mean, seems to me like there’s lot of open territory there.

CLAY: It’s the kind of gun that people in red states have, Buck. It’s the kind of gun that people who would go to an SEC football game would have.

BUCK: Is it a six-shooter, though, or is it like a —

CLAY: Maybe we should put out an official request to Whoopi to come on the show. As big fans of The View that you and I are both are, maybe she would come on. Here’s the thing that I think is so interesting, to build on your point, Buck. The same people who are demanding that guns be pulled out of America are also simultaneously demanding that we send as many guns as possible to Ukraine, right? What’s the first thing that happened when Russia invaded Ukraine?

They started passing out guns to everyone to defend their homes. And what’s the first thing that happened? Left wingers put up the Ukraine flag and they said, “Oh, my goodness. We have to give as many weapons as possible to Ukrainians so they can defend their homeland.” Well, that’s kind of the idea behind the Second Amendment historically, right? And so I think what you get into is, it’s not even really a gun debate. It’s a culture debate.

BUCK: Yep.

CLAY: Right? So much of what we have today… I think the yee-haw gun thing is kind of funny because there is — and I think you saw it in covid, I think you see it in virtually every issue that’s going on today, certainly in the way that Hillary Clinton talked about the deplorables, in the way that Obama said that people cling to their gods and their guns or whatever it was that he said back then, there is — and it’s a remarkable transition.

The Democrat Party used to represent a working across individual. If you were in a factory, if you were fighting to legitimately, as Joe Biden likes to talk about all the time, pay your bills at the kitchen table, you were more likely to be a member of the Democrat Party. Now they look down their nose at anyone who would ever be interested in going to a college football game, who would have a truck, who would say, “Hey, you know what?

“My kids don’t need to wear masks,” and that all ties in as well with the guns. You said yesterday, Buck — I thought it was good — what are the odds that people with their pronouns, Ukraine flags, and mask photos would all overwhelmingly come together and you could basically go three-for-three if people are criticizing you and me, I would bet almost every dollar that I own that at some point they’ve had either the Ukraine flag, multiple mask photos, or their pronouns in their bio. That’s a culture thing. They feel like they need to attack us. That is the way that they define themselves.

BUCK: They are trained by the apparatus. They are people who respond to what the next thing is that they’re told they must care so much about and that they must obey if they’re gonna be one of the good smart people, one of the Democrats, one of the libs. But yet on the gun issue, what’s so fascinating to me is that it’s not just — ’cause I know people could say, “Okay, Buck, fine. Whoopi Goldberg her heart’s in the right place, and she doesn’t know a lot about guns.”

Put that aside for a second, although I did think just the concept of a yee-haw gun… I mean, Clay, when we go to the range in Tennessee together this fall, we’re busting out some yee-haw guns. I’m just saying. But beyond that, Joe Biden, the commander-in-chief, the president of the United States, he doesn’t know what the heck he’s talking about. Here he is on Monday, essentially… I mean, just listen to this, everybody, listen to what he said about guns on Monday.

Joe Biden: “The 9mm bullet blows the lung out of the body.. The idea that these high caliber weapons…. There’s simply no rational basis for it in terms of self-protection.”

9mm is the most popular caliber used in handguns — NOT in AR-15s..pic.twitter.com/2DgaDWJLpt

— Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson) May 31, 2022

BUCK: No rational… There was so much wrong in that one. I know the audio wasn’t great. Just so everyone can understand, that was Joe Biden who’s calling for imminent action on guns who is saying a 9mm blows the lung out of the body! I don’t know what he thinks he’s saying but he’s calling a 9mm which is the most common round in this country. It’s also the round that NATO uses as their standard round.

It’s the most common round in America, certainly for any home defense or personal defense reasons. He’s calling it a high-velocity round, Clay, and then he starts talking about hunting. So just… What you can take from this is, Joe Biden has no idea what the heck he’s talking about when it comes to the guns, zero. And he’s a lawyer on top of all this, not just president.

CLAY: Well, not only a lawyer, he’s been in Congress for over 40 years, and you would think that you would familiarize yourself with the gun control debate at some point so that you can talk coherently about what’s going on. This is a good question for you, Buck. I want to play a clip when we come back. But what do Republicans talk about with as little basic knowledge — is there anything — as the average Democrat talks about guns?

I don’t need an answer right now. You guys can also send tweets to us. I’m just curious because the foundational knowledge of just basic gun-related issues in order to talk about them intelligently, what would Republicans understand as poorly as the clips that we’re playing of Democrats talking about guns? And, by the way, make it clear, I’m not, like, a gun expert.

I grew up in Tennessee where everybody has guns. I’m a in a red state. I’m not terrified of guns by any stretch of the imagination. But I haven’t served in the military. I haven’t obviously worked in a field where I would have a gun used on a regular basis. But if I were a politician who was talking about trying to ban something that is a constitutional right, I at least would do my research.

BUCK: I think if you’re going to infringe on the Constitution, you should at least know what you’re talking about.

CLAY: The basics.

BUCK: Yeah, that’s table stakes.

CLAY: So just think about it. Is there anything that Republicans…? Maybe it’s not even Republicans. Is there anything that people are less clueless about that is talked about more in politics than gun control and gun regulation? I just think it’s kind of a fascinating question for everybody out there to think about and I want to play a clip for you when we get back that I think you’re going to understand the emotion that gets brought in to bear with all these stories.