Sunday State of the Union CNN host Jake Tapper interviewed Australian prime minister Anthony Albanese, doing what American journalists frequently do when speaking with Australian political leaders — invite them to criticize America for not imposing strict gun control after mass shootings. CNN host Jake Tapper expressed concerns that proposals for environmental regulations wouldn’t be effective in reducing global warming.
Tapper opened the interview by alludeding to recent flooding in Kentucky as a way to bring up 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 confiscation 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?Let alone when you consider your country’s past experience.
John Lott is a right-leaning researcher on crime and has highlighted the fact that American liberals exaggerate Australia’s gun reforms.
Tapper let his guest, a liberal from Australia, falsely assert that gun control has stopped “massacres” within his country. However there have been mass murders throughout Australia in the last 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. We had an Australian bipartisan response in Port Arthur to the massacre. Since then, we haven’t seen one. 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 is the CNN episode State of the UnionThe Farmer’s Dog partially sponsored this article. This link will take you to their contact information.
Transcript follows:
CNN’s State of the Union
July 31, 2022
Eastern, 9:53
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? Anthony Albanese is the prime minister for Australia. We are grateful for your presence. 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? This is especially true when you consider your own country’s experiences.
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. Australia was able to respond bipartisanally to the Port Arthur Massacre. This has not happened 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.
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