hello and welcome to press tv. hashimi, thanks so much for being with us, well in a country which was founded on violence, and one were currently there are more guns than people. it should not be a surprise that once again the united states has witnessed political violence. former us president donald trump was shot in the ear during assassination attempt. this is a country where almost 10% of the presidents have been assassinated in more attempted assassinations. but why? stay with us as we

look at all of this and what it means on the spotlight. i'd like to welcome my guests to the program, out of rochester, new york, david k. johnson, investigative journalist, author and founder of dcr report.org out of tampa, florida, neil mccape, conservative political commentator and national political reporter for redstate.com. thank you both for. being with me, i like to start this off uh with david in rochester, um, let's look a statement made by us president joe biden regarding the assassination of tip, and he said that there's there's not a place for this kind of violence in america, your thoughts about this statement and and what exactly does it mean when in the us, i mean there are at least 44,00 americans that are killed every year by guns. "well, i think the

number killed is 24,000, not 44,000, and that's homicides, um, kill by guns means homicides and suicides, so all together, but go ahead, yeah, but not all homicides are by gun and not all suicides are by gun, but these are by gun, sorry to interrupt you, i just want to be exact because it's really important as a journalist, when i was researching this, it was considered homicides and suicides by gun, but but go ahead, okay, without a question, there is way too much gun violence in the world." "there is modern uh mature economy in the world, no democracy in the world, anywhere near the level of the united states when it comes to gun violence, and it is the goal of uh donald trump and many of his supporters that there be no rules whatsoever about carrying guns. um, the the second amendment of the american constitution doesn't refer to guns, it refers to arms and i have written in the past that if you want to be an' absolutest about the second

amendment, uh, we now have nuclear weapons will fit in the backpack, and i want a personal nuclear weapon because nobody will mess with me if i'm carrying one around. clearly we have a problem in the us with people having weapons like the one used in attempt to kill donald trump, that are intended to be military weapons used on the field of battle, don't belong in the civilian arena, but in america you can walk into a restaurant, a movie theater, department store and you will see people carrying not just guns on their hips, but assault rifles slung over their shoulder. yeah, that's pretty frightening. well, neil, i mean, let's talk about this in general, because what you say that the united states is just in general very violent society. i mean, we remember even the violence that took place, let's say on january 6, 2021, do you think that americans in general uh? to feel that by

taking up guns, i mean it's more of an american tradition. david just talked about the second amendment and and the roots may lie there, but i mean your overall assessment. "well, i think uh, humans are violent people, and in america, people are free to be humans, and there are less controls that we see in other countries, and the founding fathers and for the last 250 plus years, we've basically made the decision that we would rather have freedom than too much government control, and i i want to remind you that the american revolution started at lexington and..." conquered because king george and his troops were sent to get the guns from the farmers that they were storing in in lexington, and so it's uh, it's it's really interwoven into the american story, into the american dna, that to have a free society to have a free country that

americans have the freedom be armed, not everybody wants to be armed, not everybody is armed, but for the people who want to protect themselves, their families, their farms, their livelihood, "well, that should be their right, and certainly when the mob is marching down the street, looking to attack and looking burn down buildings, when there's a failure of the government to preserve tranquility, what other choice do americans have, and let's talk about, let's talk about that, buse, isn't that the responsibility of any government actually to make sure that their society is secure, not the individual, not the individual citizens, what happens, so what happens like we saw. los angeles, what 20, 30 years ago, when there were the la riots and the police literally abandoned the korean neighborhoods, there was zero protection as there was as there was mayhem and chaos in that neighborhood, the korean americans had to go to the rooftops to

protect their neighborhoods, we saw it evaldi in texas, we saw it in the nightclub shootings and then we see another failure in butler, pennsylvania just because... law enforcement fails doesn't mean you take away the rights of americans, because the americans want that right in case government fails, it's a circular argument that does not help people make them safe. right, right, it's actually quite mind-boggling, can i say? well, david, um, when the united states was actually, um, founded on violence, and currently there are more guns than there are people, are you surprised by this event? by this assassination attempt? no, i mean, we don't know much about the young man, a republican who shot at donald trump, and i hope you find out much more, but let me point out that we have always had gun controls in the united states, including in the british colonial area, under the first american

republic, which only lasted seven years and under the constitution in dodge city, kansas, now that is the iconic image town for the frontier old west, you were required at the city limits. to holster your weapon and to go to the sheriff's office and to turn it in, you're not allowed to go down the street, go to a bar, to do anything armed with a gun, and the idea that individual americans are better off with all these guns, i think is this proven by the fact that other uh democratic or modern country allows this and nobody else has the level of gun deaths that we do in america uh, so i i i reject totally your other guess. argument that david, david, let's be honest, okay, david, when you're driving through washington dc, david, when you're driving through, david, when you're driving through trenton, new jersey, you're you don't want to be armed, are you crazy? i go to trenton, new jersey fairly often, and

also i don't interrupt people, to have some manners, trop being aggressive, i go to harlem, i go to many places and i'm somebody who has personally hunted down murderers. and confronted them and gotten them arrested, so yes, i have no problem with that, i live five blocks outside of one of the cities that has one of the highest rates in america, but it turns out, all the excuse me, it turns out that almost all the crime occurs in three of 40 zip coats, it's highly concentrated, and what you're spewing is just classic, also, okay, stay with me, neil, stay with me, neil. would have a conversation, he's just ranting and i'm never going to get a word, yeah, you you, it's your turn now, go ahead, go ahead, neil, your first of all, i just want to address the quick point that the united states was was created out of violence, i virtually every country was created by an act of violence, i mean they just happened like

it's a revolution if the rebels win, it's a civil war if the government wins, it was, it was also a genocide of the native americans, let's let's remember what's the roots of that, we're talking about major genocide. let's deal with the united states, let's deal the united states in the context of other countries rather than comparing us with candyland, first of all, second of all, americans are not... feeling safe, we do not feel protected by our government, we do not feel protected by law enforcement, and when government fails, americans want the right to protect themselves, and that's the bottom line. the vast majority of american government gun owners wish to god that they did not have to have a gun, but this is a this, this is decision forced upon them by the failure of the government to create a tranquil society. what we saw in butler pennsylvania was a failure of law enforcement, what we saw at uvaldi was a

failure, what we saw at these school shooting is a failure where law enforcement will literally wait for the victims to bleed out rather than to seek to seek the killer and take him down, and so what are we supposed to do? honestly, you can say he he's he doesn't feel, he feels david feels safe going through harlem, he feels safe going through trenton, he feels safe. going through these neighborhoods in washington dc, god bless them because in washington dc, sodomor, the just supreme court justice united states was carjacked like a week ago, i mean, so if you have a supreme court justice who isn't safe in washington dc, then where are we? so wouldn't you say then that the problem, there's something more fundamental here with the problem, that the people, the individual people have to protect themselves, i mean it's not the old west, we're talking about 2024, there are systems. are in place throughout the world, that societies are safe, so what is it about the united states

that is not safe? well, maybe we should stop hugging the thugs and put them in jail and keep them in jail, maybe we need to expand the death penalty so that so that families of victims understand that what they went through is valuable to society, and so that criminals understand that they will be held accountable. criminals do not feel like they will be held accountable in this country. "they go to jail where they are treated very well and they are pampered, they get their master's degree, the the victims, the children of their victims can't go to college, but the murderers get their master's degree in college. it's an absurd system that we have in this country. well, david, um, i mean, there is a long history of violence and politics in the us, if we look at the 60s and 70s where several people were assassinated from president john f kennedy to martin with the king, malcolm x." robert kennedy and others and of course in the 80s we had president ronald reagan and attempted

assassination that was shot, so political violence is not foreign to this society. i want your assessment overall of this and and why is this the case in your perspective? well, a political alliance absolutely has been endemic to american society from the beginning, whether it was, as you pointed out uh the uh taking of land from the indigenous peoples here uh right up to the shooting yesterday of mr. trump and the unfortunate supporter of his who was killed. gun violence begets gun violence, more guns equals more killling. the simple fact is the us is an outlier in the world in terms of its gun violence, the amount of guns it has, and i take it that your other guest, unlike me has not spent a great deal of his life with. enforcement and talking to people who are criminals, prisons, putting people in prison

simply breeds more crime, it doesn't address the reasons that we have crime. now uh, i'm sure that your other guest won't agree with that whatsoever, but look at canada, australia, new zealand, england, france, italy, they don't have any level of crime like we do in america, and we don't have any level of homicides by gun as in the united'. states, there is no reason for a civilian to carry assault rifle, a weapon specifically designed to kill as many people as possible, as quickly as possible in a military battlefield. okay, well - neil, um, republican congressman mike kelly from pennsylvania says the blame lies somewhere in the psychee of america. your thoughts on that statement, what do you think he meant by that? i ' it it boggles my mind that he would say something so stupid, it's uh, i can't read the congressman's mind, and doubt very

much that he can read the mind of america. uh, i think that uh, the the bottom line is that uh, if americans, if americans feel threatened, they should have the right to arm themselves and if someone's, it's uh, if someone's going to tell me that i can't protect my family, i can't protect myself, my business, the people i care about, and... then i'm really offended and the idea that you're just, i'm supposed to just take my chances because of some stupid ideal that somebody cooked up academia or wherever it came from, it's absurd, in the real world. "in the real world, most americans who own guns wish they didn't have to own a gun, but they do it out of necessity, and they don't do, they do it out of love, love for them for themselves, their family, their livelihood and their community. the people who walk around their communities, with with who are armed, they are like shepherds amongst us,

okay a best case scenario for pop showing up a shooting is 10 or 15 minutes, okay, and by the time the cops show up, they're just putting yellow tape around the crime scene and taking statements. if someone is armed and at the scene, they can take down the threat in seconds and that that saves lives and we there are no statistics for all of the crimes and all the lives saved because americans are armed, but i would guess it's probably million a year of these things that go on and i i it's never happened to me personally, but i know number of people who have saved their own... lives and the lives of others just by brandishing a weapon and getting themselves out of very dangerous situation, but the guess the alter your alternative for them would be put your weapon down, get shot and in 15 minutes a police officer will show up and take crime pictures. yeah, can can i just say, mean this is very interesting conversation for me as an american uh, growing up in the united states

and living in iran now, a country where as i a woman, i can actually in this major city of tehran, i don't, 10 million people, that i can actually go out and walk at two o'clock in the morning by myself and not expect to get shot, so so so it's it's really mindbondling why the united states with its uh sophistication, technology um being the uh the hejamon of the world, why it cannot keep its own people safe? i mean, i guess this is the main question at hand, but but let me let me just go on, i mean um, that in iran they don't let the criminals out of jail, i think that the the justice system in iran is swift and appropriate, and if somebody rapes and murders a child, i imagine they don't get three years with probation, in iran, that's for sure if someone rapes a murder child, that is definitely for sure that is the case, well david, i mean um, let's talk about um,

this whole situation, because i don't, sitting here, it it seems somewhat ironic that we have trump. and also biden, both individuals, let me just say, who have allowed and ordered assassinations of other people, but now there's such outrage, um, because i mean, this is, i'm so sorry, but this is what we see from united states, whether we're talking about under donald trump that he assassinated, of course we no lieutenant colonel um solimani who was in another country who had fought the terrorists, the daish terrorists, and trump ordered the assassination. in another country, even though he was invited by iraq and bragged about it, or we're talking about biden who is supporting right now, a genocide in gaza of palestinian babies who've been cut to pieces, so it's amazing the outrage, i mean, your take, david, well, the world is look a very complicated place, and unlike neil, un who just said he was speaking for

millions of americans, but the congressman doesn't know the mind of americans, i'm not going to try to do that. uh, the fact is that the president of the united states, because the us is de facto empire, uh, whoever it is, is going to end up using his position as commander and chief to order killings of people, and some of those are going to be really bad decisions, as with the iranian military officer, where it provoked unnecessary responses, uh, it is one thing to uh shoot a sniper, it's another thing to pick up political target as donald trump did, and part of the reason for that is donald, who i've known for 36 years, have written three bestselling books about him, and i was the first person to write that he might become president of the united states in 1988, 36 years ago. donald doesn't know anything. if you ask donald, what's the difference between a sunni and a shia, he would have no idea,

and i don't expect most americans to know that, but the president of the united states better know that very well. so there are always contradictions in the world. i think the issue about violence in america needs to be addressed is that we have over 390 million guns in this country, other country has a gun ownership rate anything like that. we allow any kind of gun, you have to show identification to buy certain kinds of medicine if you have a cold at the drug store, but not if you buy an assault rifle and the bullets that go in it, and that's the... more of the problem here, and combined with that, we get things like neil, making up history, and not recognizing that we've always had gun controls in america, as my example showed with dodge city, kansas. well neil, though there has been called for national unity, i have been monitoring social media after this assassination attempt, how likely is this to cause greater division in

the country as there are many questions still surrounding the overall assassination attempt, well because of our political system, especially as you get closer and closer to the election and then very much during the election with actual voting, this system is uh forces people. into a binary choice, which is why there's always talk of third party candidates in fact abraham was a third party candidate, but in the end it's black or it's white, and that's it, and so there's going to be division because our system forces you to make decision, in effect there's no middle ground, you either pick the republican or you pick the democrat, but to go back to your really, i think the point of this conversation is political. in the united states, i do want to point out that the leader of the republican party who got more than 70 million votes in 2020, there was a

there was an attempt to kill him, and yet no cities were burned, nobody was tearing down any statues, no police stations were, and so at least on the republican side, which you was often the smurched to sort of the party of so called insurrectionistts, no political violence in response to this assassination attempt on president trump, i don't know if you could say the same if it happened to someone on the left. i suspect since uh it's been my experience as a reporter uh covering antipa and democratic politics uh even in massachusetts with the carpeners union uh that political violence is is very much a part of left-wing politics. okay david, any final comment? you have 30 seconds. well, i think we need to recognize that violence in america is a long endemic problem, that donald trump has repeatedly made public calls

for violence. he's told people to beat up people in his audience and he'd pay their legal bills, which he would never do, and donald trump is a man of violence, he's called for the executions of people even get trials like the central park five who later exonerated, and you have to see him in that context. he's not a politician, he's a conartist to his. declared he wants to be our dictator, something i said in 2015 and wrote in 2016 would be his plan, he would never peacefully leave the white house, and that's what we saw with his failed coup three years ago. okay, all right, and on that note, i think both of you for being with me. david k. johnson, investigative journalist, author and founder of dc report.org out of rochester, new york, neil mccape, conser political commentator, national political reporter for redstate.com out of tample florida. and thank you viewers for being with us on another spotlight, i'm marsia hashimi, hope to see you right here next time, goodbye.

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israel military pushes ahead with hside of palestinian. civilians in the gaza strip as the death though from the israely onslot near 38,600 since october 7. and the germany army carries out new anti-israely operations hitting an israeli ship and the regime's military targets with drawn symbolistic missiles.