The View’s Sunny Hostin found herself in a heated debate with her Republican co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin as the panel discussed the tragic shooting in Georgia.
The two women clashed on Thursday’s show as Sunny, 55, accused people of immediately jumping to the “mental health” topic when it comes to such tragedies, while Alyssa defensively argued: “Oh, I wasn’t, I was talking about guns first.”
Without even looking her co-host in the eye, Sunny condescendingly replied, “I’m not talking about you personally, I’m talking about the country,” before stating, “So the common denominator though is that there’s mental health all over the world, but we seem to be the only country that has 14-year-olds killing people, right?
The TV host was referring to the arrest of 14-year-old Colt Gray, who is accused of carrying out the deadly mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder on Wednesday morning, and who was on the FBI’s radar a year before the tragedy.
“I say this every time we talk about this: People who suffer from mental illness are ten times more likely to be victims of crime (violent crime) than to commit it,” Sunny continued.
The View hosts Sunny Hostin (left) and Alyssa Farah Griffin (right) clashed on Thursday’s show while discussing the Georgia school shooting.
Joy Behar addressed Alyssa and argued that “Republicans continue to shoot down mental health measures.”
“I’m not saying there isn’t a mental health issue, but it seems to be the first thing that comes to mind, right? Mental health, mental health!” added the mother of two.
Former White House aide Alyssa commented: ‘It feels strange to talk about politics in light of a tragedy, but we are in a political season and voting is the way to solve problems like mass shootings that are so unique to this country.
“It’s a universal fear, whether you’re a Republican or a Democrat, to send your kids to school and think they could be victims of a school shooting.”
He then argued: “There are ways to address this and the key is for candidates to make it clear that they are not advocating for legal and safe gun owners who are never going to use that firearm to harm another person, but rather they are going to address the issues that the vast majority of Americans support.
“We need to talk about a solution that makes it clear that it’s not about taking away legal gun owners, and we certainly can’t separate the mental health aspect from it. A 14-year-old shooting up a school is not okay. He could have hurt himself, so we need to address both aspects,” Alyssa said.
Comedian Joy Behar asked, “Don’t Republicans just keep shooting down mental health measures all the time?” to which Alyssa responded, “I’m not saying the party is handling the problem. I’m pointing to Chris Murphy and Thom Tillis, who came together and implemented sweeping reforms, but it’s not enough, you have to address both issues.”
Sunny continued: “It’s really about getting rid of these assault rifles. I think it’s about getting rid of high-capacity magazines and if you look at the DNC platform and if you listen to what they were saying during the DNC, they want to ban assault weapons.
‘They want to ban high-capacity magazines, they want to end the gun industry’s immunity from liability, which I think is very important because if your child dies, you can’t even sue the gun owners.
Sunny (left) and former White House aide Alyssa (right) clashed while discussing the link between gun violence and mental health.
Whoopi Goldberg interrupted the panel to acknowledge the families who lost loved ones in the horrific attack.
Police officers on the scene after the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia
‘They want to increase funding to the office of alcohol, tobacco, and most importantly, I think the epidemic of gun violence has been deemed a public health issue and that’s where the money is going to come from.
‘The money will come from the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, so there is a way to fund research on gun violence.’
A frustrated Joy, 81, chimed in again, declaring: “The number one death of children in this country is school violence, gun violence,” while Sara Haines confirmed the statistic but argued it was “a very divisive issue.”
Moderator Whoopi Goldberg ended up interrupting the women and shouting, “Hold on, everyone!” so they could take a moment to acknowledge the families who lost loved ones in the horrific incident, which left two students and two teachers dead.
“This happened yesterday. Can we talk about it right now… we’ll talk about it more, but right now our hearts go out to the families that are going through this,” the 68-year-old actor announced before the show took a commercial break.
Following the incident, a 14-year-old student who had been on the FBI’s radar for the past year was identified as the suspected gunman who carried out the bloody shooting, killing four people.
Colt Gray, a junior at the school, immediately turned himself in when confronted by police following the violent attack at Apalachee High School, and will be charged with murder and tried as an adult.
The Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice confirmed Thursday that the suspect was booked into the Gainesville Regional Juvenile Detention Center, Channel 2 Action News reported.