Following Saturday’s shooting in Monterey Park, California, that left 10 people dead and 10 others injured, “Morning Joe” co-hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough on Monday spoke about the ongoing and historic gun violence in the United States. led a section breaking through.
Introducing the segment, Brzezinski breaks down the mass shootings by the numbers. In 2023 (in other words, in the last three weeks alone), there have been 33 mass shootings. Noting that a mass shooting is defined by at least four people being injured or killed, Brzezinski said there were 648 cases in 2022, double the number since 2018.
Saturday’s mass shooting in Monterey Park was the deadliest since the horrific school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in May 2022. Overall, citing Pew research, Brzezinski concluded that gun deaths have increased massively in recent years and seen a 49% increase. 75% growth in last five years and last 10.
“Suffice it to say,” she said, “there are developed countries that don’t have this problem, which.”
“Morning Joe” co-host Scarborough again stressed that “most” developed countries come nowhere near the US when it comes to gun violence statistics.
“If you look at the numbers and compare developed countries, western developed countries, nobody comes close to the number of people killed per 100,000 people that we have here in the US,” he said. “I mean, these numbers are unbelievable.”
Scarborough then explained, as he believed many people watching the program already knew, that he was pro-guns and declared himself a “man with guns”. But he largely blamed members of the Republican Party for their refusal to come to the table and negotiate common sense gun reform.
Scarborough said, “I don’t have to tell anyone who watches the show regularly, I don’t want to ban guns, I’m a gunslinger, I have several guns, I’m comfortable around guns.” “I grew up in gun culture, I grew up in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Florida. I get it.
“But I don’t get it,” he continued. “I don’t understand when homicides by guns go up 50% in the last five years, Republicans don’t want to do anything about it. I don’t understand when homicides by guns go up 75% in the last 10 years, So the Republicans don’t want to do anything about it.
He clarified that he generally avoids saying “Republican” and instead refers to Maga or Trump Republicans, but that “here, it’s the Republican Party that stepped aside 10 senators and actually got some in the gun.” Tried to pass meaningful, positive successes “safety laws” who are to blame.
“The proliferation of guns continues, the shootings continue,” he said.
Watch the full “Morning Joe” segment in the video above.