The mass shooting which left at least 58 dead and 515 injured in Las Vegas on Sunday night has reignited the debate over gun control in the United States.
There are those who are in favor of Congress enacting stricter gun laws in the wake of the nation’s deadliest mass shooting and those who are opposed to any new limitations on firearms.
And then, there is Bill O’Reilly.
The disgraced Fox News host weighed in on the national tragedy Monday with a blog post in which he commented on the massacre by stating: ‘This is the price of freedom.’
O’Reilly, 68, then went on to say that gunman Stephen Paddock and others who have perpetrated mass shootings in this country have every right to ‘arm themselves’ with weapons ‘no matter how threatening they are.’
Speaking out: Bill O’Reilly (above) shared his thoughts on the mass shooting that took the lives of at least 58 people and injured 515 in Las Vegas on Sunday night
Change in tune: In June 2016, O’Reilly made a strong call for stricter gun control laws after Muslim Omar Mateen (left) killed 49 people in Orlando (Vegas shooter Stephen Paddock on right)
‘Once again, the big downside of American freedom is on gruesome display,’ said O’Reilly at the top of his post before going on to describe Paddock as a ‘psychotic gunman.’
O’Reilly then tossed off a few facts about the case, including the number who were killed and injured as well as some personal details about Paddock and how the crime unfolded from the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay Resort.
He glossed over the fact that Paddock had stockpiled 20 rifles however, and that these weapons may have been modified to fire off a steady stream of bullets into the helpless crowd of 22,000 people enjoying the Route 91 Harvest Festival.
‘The murderer had a number of deadly weapons in his room and you can count on the gun control debate to ramp up,’ wrote O’Reilly.
‘But having covered scores of gun-related crimes over the years, I can tell you that government restrictions will not stop psychopaths from harming people.’
O’Reilly then said that ‘psychopaths’ would always be able to ‘find a way’ to carry out horrible attacks like the one that unfolded Sunday, before adding that the ‘polarizing’ nature of the gun control debate made any chance of a compromise impossible as ‘there is no common ground.’
It was at that point in his piece that O’Reilly fired off the two lines that have enraged many of his detractors, a technique he has been putting to good use ever since he debuted on Fox News two decades ago.
‘This is the price of freedom. Violent nuts are allowed to roam free until they do damage, no matter how threatening they are,’ said O’Reilly.
‘The Second Amendment is clear that Americans have a right to arm themselves for protection. Even the loons.’
Twitter erupted with comments almost immediately after O’Reilly posted his piece, with some doing their best to not engage.
‘”Not today, Satan. Not today…”‘ wrote columnist and author Charles M. Blow.
Others were less successful in their attempt to ignore O’Reilly’s opinion on the tragedy, with Justin G writing: ‘Bill O’Reilly can eat s***. His sexually harassing opinion is worthless. He should be a registered sex offender.’
Columnist and author David Rothkopf offered his own slant of O’Reilly’s opinion, stating: ‘No, Bill O’Reilly, having to listen to you is the (high) price of freedom. Gun massacres are the price of weak gun laws.’
And, of course, there were those who referenced the sexual harassment scandal which led to O’Reilly’s departure from Fox News back in April while going after the divorced father-of-two.
After seeing that O’Reilly had said the shooting was ‘the price of freedom,’ writer Elon Green tweeted: ‘by coincidence, bill o’reilly also feels that way about sexual harassment.’
O’Reilly’s slant on the mass shooting was a bit of a surprise, especially since he had begun stating his belief that there should be stricter gun control laws towards the end of his tenure at Fox News.
‘There is too much gun crime in the USA, and high-powered weaponry is too easy to get,’ O’Reilly said back in June of last year.
‘That’s the fact. So let’s deal with it. We all have the right to bear arms, but we don’t have the right to buy and maintain mortars. Even if you feel threatened by gangsters or a New World Order. No bazookas, no Sherman tanks, no hand grenades.’
These comments came in the wake of the Pulse nightclub shooting, which was carried out by American-born Muslim Omar Mateen and had previously been the deadliest shooting in US history.
His then-Fox News colleague Gretchen Carlson also had a change of heart in the wake of that tragedy as well, stating: ‘Every time we have a mass shooting we talk about guns. Right? Yes. The Orlando massacre was terror. But there’s no doubt that Omar Mateen was able to kill so many people because he was firing an AR-15, a military-style assault weapon, a weapon easier to buy in the state of Florida than buying a handgun.’
O’Reilly ultimately declared that new laws were ‘definitely needed.’
That rhetoric was nowhere to be found however in his post on Monday.