Rep. Mo Brooks: ‘There Are Many Times When I Went to School with a Shotgun in My Car’

(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) recalled Sunday when he would take his shotgun to school when he was younger as did other young people who were hunters at that time, and there were never any school shootings.

The congressman said that besides mental health, the difference between now and was that more children are growing up in single-parent households.

Brooks also cast doubt on the findings of a Gallup poll that found that 52 percent of Americans are in favor of stricter gun laws when it comes to the sale of firearms.

“I suggest that the polling data that you have does not really reflect the opinions of the American people. I suspect that the people who were polled by way of example were not properly explained what the purpose of the Second Amendment right to bear arms is and I use my own history as an example,” he said.

“There are many times when I went to school with a shotgun in my car. Why? Because I just got through duck hunting. There are other teenagers my age at that point in time that also brought their weapons to school, and they had been hunters too for whatever it is the hunting season was about,” the congressman said.

“Now, back when I was growing up, we didn’t have these mass killings, okay? They weren’t there. They didn’t occur. Or if they did, I certainly was not cognizant of them, and they were very, very, very rare, so rare that I cannot recall a single instance in which one of those things occurred during my youth. Today they are much more common,” Brooks said.

“What’s the big difference between when I was growing up and today? The big difference is the decline in the moral values, the decline in the respect for human life. If we teach proper moral values, if we teach respect for human life, if we properly address until mental health issues that may somehow or another be associated with all these things, then that is the way to fix the problem,” he said.

When asked whether he was blaming single mothers for school shootings, the congressman said, “Absolutely not. I blame moral values’ decline in the United States of America, and there are a lot of factors that have contributed to our moral decline. By way of example, all the studies I’ve ever seen suggest that children who are raised with just one parent around, they don’t do as well by the time they become adults. 

“Why? Because it’s almost impossible for a single parent to do the kind of job that two parents collectively can do, it’s just a numbers game, and there a lot of single parents that do an excellent job raising their kids, but they are super parents, and I thank them for the effort that they’ve put forth in producing children who later become responsible adults, but unfortunately, the data is very clear,” Brooks said.

“Those single-parent households, for whatever reason end up resulting in children who are more likely to be on welfare, who are less likely to get the kind of grades you expect to get in school, who are more likely to be involved in drugs and unfortunately are more likely to be involved in criminal conduct. That’s just the data,” he said.

“If that’s not to say that all single parents do that, okay? That is not the data. We’re talking about probabilities and tendencies and one, two, three, four, 5% greater probability. That has an effect on society,” the congressman said.

When asked whether he supports any changes to the nation’s current gun laws, the congressman said, “Let’s, for emphasis, understand what the Second Amendment is about. The second amendment is designed to help ensure that we the citizenry always have the right to take back our government should it become dictatorial.

“That was a great fear of the founding fathers and quite frankly it’s a fear today, and as long as we enjoy on un-infringed Second Amendment rights, then we don’t really have to worry that much about the government ever becoming dictatorial, but the moment that we take from our citizenry our ability to take our government back is the moment that the ability of dictatorial forces increases to the point where perhaps they will try to implement a dictatorial government at the federal level,” she said.

“So I want to protect the Second Amendment right to bear arms. The amendment is very clear. It says the right to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. If there are proposals out there that guarantee the rights of the American people to freely exercise their second amendment right to bear and keep arms, then I’ll consider them, but if you’re talking about depriving people of their Second Amendment right to bear arms, well first, it’s unconstitutional,” he said.

“So you’re going to have to address that with a constitutional amendment and we’ll see how Congress and the states react to that kind of measure, but second, it’s not the proper way to go if you want to preserve our freedoms, and I say that having been the target of an assassination attempt on a baseball field in Virginia where 170-some odd bullets were fired over about a seven minute period of time,” Brooks said.

“So I’ve been in the middle of one of these things, and I was a primary target of the assassin where he had my name, my physical description in his pocket at the time he launched this attack. What we have to do is stop the motivation that causes these criminals, these horrific individuals, to do what they do,” the congressman said.

When asked whether he would support red flag laws, Brooks said, “Under the United States Constitution, before you can do something to this kind of individual, you have to show, one, that their mind’s off a little bit, and two, that they have engaged in some kind of conduct that would warrant you’ve taken the appropriate kind of action against them, by way of example, to house them for their own protection or protection of others. 

“It might be non — mental capacity type of hearing. There are laws already on the books to take care of those types of issues,” the congressman said.

“The problem is identifying them and identifying them as opposed to the problem associated with misidentifying others, and there has to be a balance, and that’s a real challenge for our probate courts around the country and every other governmental body or person who is responsible for determining when someone becomes a risk to themselves and to others. That’s a very difficult thing to mindread,” he said.

When asked if it was fair to say he could be open to some sort of red flag law in Alabama, Brooks said, “I’m not talking about red flag laws. I’m talking about a person who is a danger to others that we already have laws for that are already on the books, okay?

“If you’ve got some kind of mental issue and you are a danger to yourself or a danger to others, then you already can be subject to court jurisdiction in the appropriate court remedies to ensure that you are no longer a danger to yourself and to others. That exists now. That’s been on the books in Alabama for decades, and I believe it’s been on the books throughout the country for decades,” the congressman said.

From CNSNews - READ ORIGINAL

Some media, including videos, may only be available to view at the original.