Former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly called the mass shooting at a Las Vegas music festival “the price of freedom” in a blog post on his website Monday.
“Public safety demands logical gun laws but the issue is so polarizing and emotional that little will be accomplished as there is no common ground,” O’Reilly wrote in the post. “The NRA and its supporters want easy access to weapons, while the left wants them banned.”
“This is the price of freedom,” he continued. “Violent nuts are allowed to roam free until they do damage, no matter how threatening they are.”
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O’Reilly said his experiences covering gun-related crimes showed him that “government restrictions will not stop psychopaths from harming people” because “they will find a way.”
“The Second Amendment is clear that Americans have a right to arm themselves for protection,” O’Reilly wrote. “Even the loons.”
At least 59 people were killed and more than 520 others injured in the Las Vegas shooting, making it the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.
Democrats ramped up their calls for stricter gun control laws in the wake of the shooting, with Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) calling on Congress to “get off its ass and do something” following the shooting.
But the White House said Monday that now is not the time to debate over gun laws.
“There’s a time and place for a political debate, but now is the time to unite as a country,” White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters during a press briefing.
Sanders also said “it would premature of us to discuss policy” without knowing all the facts of the shooting.