“Don’t be afraid to talk to people, and don’t talk down to them,” Bill Clinton said of Americans with differing viewpoints on gun control meeting in the middle
Bill Clinton is sharing his thoughts on how Americans with differing viewpoints on gun control can move forward together.
The former president, 75, appeared as a guest on The Late Late Show with James Corden on Wednesday evening, where he spoke candidly about the gun problem plaguing the country.
After being asked by host James Corden why it is “so hard for Americans to come to an agreement” on gun control, Clinton explained, “The gun culture itself is sufficiently strong, that there are more people who are against doing something than for it, if it’s voting issue.”
“… A lot of gun owners are inherently suspicious of government, easy to spook and don’t want to take a chance,” he continued, before continuing to detail how people with opposing views can meet in the middle.
“Don’t be afraid to talk to people, and don’t talk down to them. … Assume that they got good sense and they’re afraid of losing what they got,” Clinton said. “And instead of telling them that they’re dumb [because] they don’t agree with you, ask for their help.”
“We need to just talk to each other again,” Clinton added to Corden, 43.
Clinton’s chat comes as negotiations are talking place on Capitol Hill to pass gun control measures following a recent series of mass shootings.
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden discussed the topic during his first in-studio late-night appearance as president while on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
“You were here in September 2019, and one of the things we talked about at length was gun violence,” Kimmel, 54, told Biden, 79. “You said we needed to do something about gun violence, particularly when it comes to schools. Halfway through this year already, and there have been what, 27 shootings at schools? Why haven’t we done anything about this?”
In response, Biden said, “I think a lot of it is intimidation by the NRA. This is not your father’s Republican Party. This is a MAGA party. It’s a very different Republican Party.”
As Kimmel countered about the state of the GOP, he said, “It seems like the party has moved hard-right, but the people maybe haven’t moved hard-right. Because people overwhelmingly believe we should have serious background checks” — to which the audience applauded.
Pointing to the assault weapons ban he sponsored in 1994, Biden said that violence and gun crime dropped in the decade it was in effect — but that things changed for the worse immediately after the Bush administration didn’t reauthorize it.
“You could own assault weapons again. And guess what? Crime went up significantly,” the president said. “There is a direct correlation between the kinds of weapons that can be had [and crime].”
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