CNN’s Jim Acosta is pressing a National Rifle Association (NRA) board member on gun laws.
“For years your group has blocked new gun safety laws and pushed for the most relaxed rules on firearms,” Acosta said on Sunday as he pressed Judge Phillip Journey, an NRA board member.
He then asked, “Isn’t some of this blood on the NRA’s hands?”
Journey pushed back, responding, “I don’t believe the supposition of your question is accurate.” He followed by noting that he is not a “spokesperson for anybody” but claimed he and others “have worked to tighten the laws.”
Acosta interrupted, saying, “No sir… I’m going to have to cut you off when you start saying things that just aren’t true. The NRA has not worked to tighten rules. That’s just not the case.”
Watch the interview below:
“The NRA for years, for decades, has pushed for the most relaxed rules possible in this country, and that’s why we have mass shooting after mass shooting,” Acosta continued.
The CNN anchor then repeated his question, “Please if you could answer the question I asked you at the beginning of the interview, isn’t this blood on your hands?”
“I’m not the one that pulled the trigger and neither are the members of the National Rifle Association,” Journey replied, before touching on the Buffalo supermarket shooting that killed 10 people. Acosta pushed back, “If he’s a troubled young man, should he be able to go out and buy an AR-15 style assault rifle?”
Acosta turned his attention to the NRA convention held over the weekend where he showed a clip of former President Donald Trump doing a “little jig” and asked how it is “appropriate” following the mass shootings.
Journey accused Acosta of “just telling part of the story.”
The interview and NRA’s annual convention, which occurred over the weekend, came the week of the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were killed on May 24. In Buffalo, 10 people were killed in a racially motivated mass shooting on May 14.
Trump said at the convention on Friday, “The existence of evil in our world is not a reason to disarm law-abiding citizens,” per the Associated Press.
He also said, “The existence of evil is one of the very best reasons to arm law-abiding citizens.”
President Joe Biden was shouted at by a group of demonstrators when he visited Uvalde on Sunday. He was told to “do something,” to which he replied, “We will.”
