‘American Sniper’ widow questions Obama on gun control
President Obama fielded a question during his town hall on guns Thursday night from Taya Kyle, the widow of the late Navy SEAL Chris Kyle who was portrayed in the blockbuster film “American Sniper.”
“I think that your message of hope is something I agree with. I think it’s great. And I think that by creating new laws you do give people hope,” Taya Kyle told Obama during the town hall on CNN.
“The thing is that the laws we create don’t stop these horrific things from happening, right? And that’s a very tough pill to swallow,” Kyle added.
{mosads}She cast doubt on whether Obama’s push to expand background checks would keep guns out of the hands of criminals.
“It feels like a false sense of hope. So why not celebrate where we are? Celebrate that we’re good people, and 99.9 percent of us are never going to kill anyone?” she asked the president.
Obama praised the “extraordinary heroism” of Kyle and her late husband before acknowledging that the decrease in violent crime “is something that we don’t celebrate enough.”
The president took issue with the reason for violent crime dropping, challenging whether it was related to more people owning weapons.
Chris Kyle was the most lethal sniper in U.S. history. He died in 2013 after being shot by a troubled veteran at a shooting range.
“American Sniper” sparked controversy last year, though first lady Michelle Obama defended the movie at the time as “touching on many of the emotions and experiences” of military veterans.
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