Sen. Claire McCaskill, D.-Mo., joined the Morning Joe roundtable on Thursday and responded to Wednesday’s claims at a Senate hearing on gun control that mothers need assault weapons with 30-round clips to protect their children with skepticism.
“I was raised in a hunting culture in rural Missouri and so it is very important in my state that we protect the Second Amendment,” McCaskill said. “We’ve got to get to the point that people will believe that we can love the Second Amendment but also that I don’t need to buy my new grandson’s parents a semi-automatic weapon to put in the stroller as they go around strolling my new grandson through the park. This notion that women need 30-round clips to protect their babies in their homes. I don’t know very many mothers that want a 30-round clip in their home around their babies. It is really extreme.”
Wednesday, Gayle Trotter, a lawyer and senior fellow at the conservative Independent Women’s Forum, said women need assault weapons to counter physically stronger, male attackers. She told the Senate Judiciary Committee that “guns make women safer.” AR-15s are the “weapon of choice” because “they have good handling, they’re light, they’re easy for women to hold,” and the appearance of a “scary-looking gun” might deter violent criminals in a home invasion.
But a recent study showed exactly the opposite: women living in states with more accessibility to guns are at greater risk of violent death through suicide, homicide, and unintentional gun deaths.
“It is really extreme, so we’ve got to find that moderate middle, and I want to be part of that group that finds a moderate middle instead of talking at each other from opposite ends of the spectrum,” McCaskill said.
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Jane Timm