Piers Morgan should be deported, demands petition
A petition calling for TV host Piers Morgan to be deported from the US following his outspoken comments on gun control attracts more than 33,000 signatures.
The CNN host provoked the fury of gun rights activists when he interviewed Gun Owners of America executive director Larry Pratt, following the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, and said to him: “You’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?
“You have absolutely no coherent argument. You don’t actually give a damn about the gun murder rate in America.”
Following the interview, a petition was posted on the White House website claiming that Morgan, 47, “is engaged in a hostile attack against the US Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment”.
More than 31,600 people have signed the petition, which hit the 25,000-signature threshold to get a White House response.
Morgan, a former editor of the Daily Mirror and the News of the World, joked on Twitter: “If I do get deported from America for wanting fewer gun murders, are there any other countries that will have me?”
If I do get deported from America for wanting fewer gun murders, are there any other countries that will have me? #havebaggagewilltravel
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 24, 2012
Many Americans follow a literal interpretation of the second amendment, which enshrines the “right to bear arms” in the US constitution.
Mr Morgan insists America can outlaw military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines without infringing on people’s constitutional rights, and says he has no quarrel with the second amendment.