MSNBC host Michael Steele jumped all over Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Saturday morning over the majority opinion he wrote that allows so-called "bump stocks' to be sold, effectively allowing semi-automatic weapons to be converted into machine guns.
Thomas' opinion, which was harshly criticized by Justice Sonia Sotomayor was considered a major setback for opponents of allowing weapons of war to be commonplace in American homes.
Before discussing the controversial decision by the conservative-majority court with Slate's Mark Joseph Stern, the former RNC chair had a few words he directed at Justice Thomas.
"Mark, I will just cut to the quick," Steele began. "Folks really don't give a damn about the life of people when your court says, 'Yeah, you can just take this piece of equipment and latches onto your gun and just pull the trigger and have 800 rounds, 800 rounds in a minute be dispensed from that weapon.'"
"No human finger can fire 800 rounds in one minute, Clarence Thomas, but this bump stock can," he exclaimed.
"I mean Clarence Thomas thinks differently and he decides what the law is because he rules us. That is all I can really say," Stern replied. " You know, he claims that bump stocks do the work of a human with a lightning-fast trigger finger — I think that's outrageous. Bump stocks increase the rate of fire from about 180 rounds per minute at most to 800 rounds per minute as you said, they were used in the Las Vegas massacre."
"They decrease accuracy and their only use is to slaughter as many humans as possible in as short of time as possible," he added. "What Justice Thomas did was completely butcher the statutory text here. I think it's hard to overstate just how much violence he did."
Watch below or at the link.
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