Brokaw: ‘There will be a run on guns across America’

NBC’s Tom Brokaw predicted on Tuesday’s “Morning Joe” on MSNBC that “there will be a run on guns across America” because some citizens fear a government crackdown on them.

The commentary from the former “NBC Nightly News” anchor comes after at least 59 people were killed and more than 520 were injured during a mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday night.

“I’m not encouraged it’s going to take it to a new and what we hope would be a more practical level in this country,” said Brokaw of the national conversation to follow after the shooting. “Today, there will be a run on guns across America. Everybody who is selling guns, whether it’s Cabela’s or a local shop in a community in the west, they’ll be selling out a lot of weapons and a lot of ammunition as well.”

Gunmaker stocks rose on Monday following the shooting. 

{mosads}

“People think they’re going to crack down on us. And the fact of the matter is the NRA has gone dark for the moment,” Brokaw continued. “But they were involved in trying to get silencers approved for weapons. If there was a silencer on that weapon, people wouldn’t have been aware right away about what was happening.”

Brokaw’s argument echoed that of Hillary Clinton, who tweeted out similar sentiment on Monday.

The crowd fled at the sound of gunshots.

Imagine the deaths if the shooter had a silencer, which the NRA wants to make easier to get.

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) October 2, 2017

Clinton was met with harsh criticism from conservative media members after sending out the tweet with some, including NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch, arguing that the former Democratic presidential nominee had her facts wrong. 

Hillary’s tweet on “silencers” is based in abject IGNORANCE–a silencer on an AR-15 doesn’t “silence” & would degrade the barrel.

— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) October 2, 2017 

Suppressors only reduce by a few decibels, still same decibel level as a jackhammer. https://t.co/aj0AvJMZwv

— Dana Loesch (@DLoesch) October 2, 2017

Appallingly stupid, and entirely  irrelevant, Mrs Clinton

She knows nothing about firearms,
and even worse, she doesn’t care. https://t.co/SA2dfdTax4

— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) October 2, 2017

Brokaw, 77, who appears on the MSNBC morning program periodically as a commentator, said the economic boost combined with the powerful influence of the NRA will make any changes to current gun laws a difficult task. 

“These are the issues we have to be dealing with, quite honestly, there’s an enormous economic boost going on here for people with gun shops and people who want to have the guns they have and the NRA, obviously, is one of the most effective political lobbying organizations in America however you feel about what their final result is,” Brokaw concluded. 

President Trump will be visiting Las Vegas on Wednesday.