Cross posted to the MRC's NewsBusters blog
Over the weekend, as CNN host Jake Tapper interviewed Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese on State of the Union, he did what American journalists frequently do when speaking with Australian political leaders -- invite them to criticize the U.S. for not imposing strict gun control after mass shootings. The CNN host also fretted that proposed environmental regulations would not go far enough to impact global warming.
Introducing the interview, Tapper alluded to recent flooding in Kentucky to bring up the subject of regulations:
The death toll in Kentucky's flooding rising again this morning. The number now is 26 dead. As the effects of the climate crisis continue to wreak havoc around the world, in Australia the new prime minister has pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but is the rest of the world on board?
After bringing aboard Albanese -- a left-leaning Labor Party member -- the CNN host assumed that there is a "climate crisis" as he posed his first question: "The climate crisis is here, and I guess the question I have: By the time world leaders -- including India and China and the United States -- all get together and agree to do something significant, won't it be too late?"
After the two discussed the environment, Tapper brought up the 1996 mass shooting that left 35 dead in Australia, recalling the gun control that was then enacted:
In 1996, after 35 Australians were killed in a mass shooting, your country's government took immediate action. You implemented a gun buyback, you banned semi-automatic rifles, you passed strict gun regulations. What has it been like to watch the United States struggle to address our all-too-frequent mass shootings and gun deaths from an outsider's perspective? Especially given your country's experience.
Right-leaning crime researcher John Lott has pointed out that liberals in the U.S. often exaggerate the effects of Australia's gun reforms.
Tapper allowed his liberal guest to falsely claim that more gun control had put an end to "massacres" in his country even though there have continued to be mass killings in Australia over the past 25 years. Here's Albanese:
Well, every one of those tragedies is heartbreaking, and every one of those tragedies keeps reinforcing, as an outsider, the fortune of the position Australia is in of having the strong gun controls and the tragedy to the families affected by these crimes. in Australia we had a bipartisan response to the Port Arthur massacre, and we haven't had one since. And I just say that people should look at our experience. ... the truth is that Australia's experience shows that less guns -- particularly less automatic weapons -- the less crime occurs and the less tragedy occurs.
This episode of CNN's State of the Union was sponsored in part by The Farmer's Dog. Ther contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
CNN's State of the Union
July 31, 2022
9:53 a.m. Eastern
JAKE TAPPER: The death toll in Kentucky's flooding rising again this morning. The number now is 26 dead. As the effects of the climate crisis continue to wreak havoc around the world, in Australia the new prime minister has pledged to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050, but is the rest of the world on board? Joining me now, the prime minister of Australia, Anthony Albanese. Thank you so much for joining me. The climate crisis is here, and I guess the question I have: By the time world leaders -- including India and China and the United States -- all get together and agree to do something significant, won't it be too late?
(...)
In 1996, after 35 Australians were killed in a mass shooting, your country's government took immediate action. You implemented a gun buyback, you banned semi-automatic rifles, you passed strict gun regulations. What has it been like to watch the United States struggle to address our all-too-frequent mass shootings and gun deaths from an outsider's perspective? Especially given your country's experience.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA: Well, every one of those tragedies is heartbreaking, and every one of those tragedies keeps reinforcing, as an outsider, the fortune of the position Australia is in of having the strong gun controls and the tragedy to the families affected by these crimes. in Australia we had a bipartisan response to the Port Arthur massacre, and we haven't had one since.
And I just say that people should look at our experience. It's up to the United States as a sovereign nation what direction it takes, of course, but the truth is that Australia's experience shows that less guns -- particularly less automatic weapons -- the less crime occurs and the less tragedy occurs.