Lauren Wright Clashes With ‘The View’ Hosts Over Regulating Gun Makers: “This Isn’t Working”

Another episode of The View, another conflict with the show’s latest conservative guest co-host. Today, the ABC talk show welcomed political scientist and conservative commentator Lauren Wright. She quickly clashed with the panel when they began discussing the news that gun manufacturer Remington agreed to pay a $73 million settlement for the way it marketed the weapon responsible for the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary tragedy.

Wright acknowledged that Sandy Hook was a “horrific tragedy” that makes her “very upset.” However, she argued against suing gun makers when mass shootings occur.

“We can all think of so many examples where we would not want a company to be sued if someone uses their product for an illegal purpose,” she said, referring to examples like tracking devices or household products with the capacity to poison someone.

Joy Behar replied: “And we should not be allowed to sue them, in your mind?”

“Well, we would have no companies left if that was the case,” Wright said, to which Behar responded, “Well, if they’re poisoning us, good!”

As Sunny Hostin pointed out, gun manufacturers being held accountable is all too rare due to the 2005 Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act, which makes these companies largely immune to lawsuits.

Meanwhile, Sara Haines argued that the Sandy Hook settlement gave her hope, because “we just haven’t seen anything move in so long.”

“To see the power of individuals that come together and say, ‘Enough is enough’ [also] just made me feel a little better,” she said.

Wright argued that it’s dangerous to put the onus on private individuals to seek justice, referencing a recent Texas abortion law that allows private citizens to sue people who seek abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.

“[That law] puts the onus on private individuals to institute laws to be carrying out justice. And in this case, it would be the victims, and the onus would be on them,” she said, adding that “the solution… is changing the laws. It’s not suing people.”

Moderator Whoopi Goldberg fired back at Wright, asking, “What happens when the lawmakers sit and obstruct those laws from shifting?”

“You can leave people to do the right thing, but one of the reasons we have so many kinds of laws is ’cause people don’t!” Goldberg added. “I think we have to babysit people and say, ‘You’ve gotta do the right thing.'”

The View airs weekdays at 11/10c on ABC. Scroll up to watch a clip from today’s episode.

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