Democrat Mayor Says Gun Owners Should Be ‘Ashamed’

Democratic Mayor David LaGrand of Grand Rapids, Michigan, claimed during a Monday community forum that people should start “shaming” gun owners.

LaGrand’s comments came during a regularly-scheduled “Mayor Monday“ forum that took place after the deadly police shooting of Da-Quain Johnson on Wednesday, Fox 17, a Grand Rapids-based outlet, reported. During the forum, LaGrand weighed in not only on firearms ownership, in which he said that gun owners should feel “ashamed,“ but also on policies involving the pursuit of suspects and police use of dogs.

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“Nobody gardens with a gun, right? Nobody changes their tire with a gun. What they’re for is killing human beings and so it’s really hard. I think as a community we have to start having some shaming around gun possession,” LaGrand said in video posted to Facebook by Fox 17 reporter Josh Berry. “I think that I think if you’ve got a gun, you should be ashamed of yourself. I really do.”

“Now, I’m sorry, that’s gonna be the soundbite of the night, and the NRA, the NRA is gonna be mad at me, but like, you know, I, I get that we got a Second Amendment, I get it,” LaGrand continued. “But, you know, you also should be ashamed of yourself if you smoke. That’s not against the law. I think if you own a gun, you should be ashamed of yourself, and you should really do some self-reflection. And I think that’s, I, I just see so much more harm just like cigarettes. I see so much harm, more harm done than benefit.”

During the event, LaGrand also criticized the police department’s use of a dog to help pursue and subdue suspects.

“It is time that we ask, what are dogs good for. Like if you need a dog to find someone in the woods, go get a hound dog,” LaGrand said. “If you need to chase somebody in [a] backyard why couldn’t you do that with a drone? If my dog did what I saw in that video, I’d put my dog down.”