Piers Morgan demolished gun rights advocate Alan Gottlieb on Monday night, after the founder of the Second Amendment Foundation began laughing as Morgan read out a quote from Erica Lafferty, the daughter of murdered Newtown principal Dawn Hochsprung.
Gottlieb’s group had planned to hold a pro-gun protest called "Guns Save Lives Day" on December 14th, the anniversary of the massacre. As Morgan read out a quote condemning the protest as "trampling on the graves of the innocent children and educators who were murdered that day," Gottlieb began to smirk, incensing the former Mirror editor, who has become a vocal proponent of gun safety in America in recent years.
Morgan bellowed: "You plan a campaign to promote the good side of guns on the first anniversary of the worst mass shooting at a school in American history, and you have the gall to laugh when I read out a quote from one of the victim’s families?. How dare you, how dare you laugh."
Gottlieb countered that the CNN anchor had used his show to "attack" his rights. "I’ll bet you use that day to push your anti-gun agenda," said Gottlieb.
"You’re damn right I’ll use that day to promote gun safety in America,” Morgan shot back, "and I’ll do it on behalf of these families."
"We’ve seen your callous heart, Mr Gottlieb," Morgan said. "You don’t know about my heart," Gottlieb said. "That’s probably why you don’t have as many viewers as anybody else, because people have turned you off."
"Do you know the reason why so many people get killed by guns in America? Because idiots like you – and I use that word very deliberately – think it’s funny to laugh in the middle of me reading out a statement from the victim’s family at Sandy Hook," Morgan concluded.
"All your emotional rhetoric doesn’t solve any problems,” Gottlieb countered. “It’s people like you that’s politicised it. Not me."
The CNN host said Gottlieb's laughter was one of the most "disgusting things" he has ever witnessed.