Meghan McCain to "The View" co-hosts: "I'm not going to live without guns"
Meghan McCain sounded off against gun control during the season debut of "The View." The panel was discussing the deadly mass shooting in west Texas when the conservative co-host said she is "not going to live without guns" Tuesday.
During the show, co-host Whoopi Goldberg pointed out the suspect in the shooting was able to purchase his assault-style rifle through a "loophole." As co-host Sunny Hostin pinned blame on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's lack of action on any assault weapons legislation, McCain chimed in the debate as "the chick on the panel that spent most of her break shooting."
"This is a ground-level issue for me," she said, targeting 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke's mandatory buyback plan. "If you're going to be a gun-grabber, you don't get my vote, period. We got to have a different conversation."
Longtime host Joy Behar brought up the federal assault weapons ban in 1994 under former President Bill Clinton. "If you keeping rooting for Republicans, you're going to get nothing done."
"The AR-15 is by far the most popular gun in America, by far," McCain said. "I was just in the middle of nowhere Wyoming, if you're talking about taking people's guns from them, there's going to be a lot of violence."
"But they lived without them for many years during the ban," Behar replied.
"I'm not living without guns," McCain responded. "It's just that simple!"
Abby Huntsman, a friend of McCain's, wondered if they could live in an America where you could "walk in a mall and not look around, and not be nervous that someone is going to pull out a shotgun."
"None of you feel safe? I feel safe that I can protect myself," McCain said. "Alright, welcome back."
Over the weekend, a 36-year-old gunman killed seven people and wounded 22 others in Texas hours after being reportedly fired from his trucking job. He purchased his AR-style rifle from a private seller, federal law enforcement sources confirmed to CBS News, allowing him to evade a federal background check. Sources also say the gunman was previously denied a gun purchase because he was determined to be mentally unfit.