‘NO DISRESPECT, DOC’

GOP Senator Embarrassed by Expert During Gun Violence Hearing

Senator John Kennedy asked an expert witness why Chicago was “America’s largest outdoor shooting range?”

GOP Senator John Kennedy (R-LA) was reminded of his own home-state statistics after a question backfired during the senate judiciary committee’s hearing on gun violence Tuesday.

Kennedy asked expert witness Dr. Megan Ranney from Yale’s School of Public Health why Chicago “has become America’s largest outdoor shooting range,” adding “do you think it’s because of Chicago citizens who have no criminal record but who have a gun in their home or perhaps for hunting or do you think it is because of a finite group of criminals who have rap sheets as long as king kong’s arm?”

Ranney clapped back saying, “Mississippi, Louisiana, and Missouri actually have higher firearm death rates.”

Kennedy interrupted and asked her again about Chicago, to which Ranney responded that she does not live in Chicago and it is not her area of expertise.

When pressed, she said she thought gun violence the city stemmed from “easy access to firearms combined with environmental conditions, lack of education.”

Ramney also cited a study that when abandoned buildings are repaired and vacant lots are replaced with trees, there is a decrease in gun violence and the stress and depression in the surrounding neighborhoods.

“No disrespect, doc, but that sounds a lot like word salad to me,” Kennedy told her.

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