The "harshest of the harsh gun laws" do little to stop people with criminal or evil intentions, former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik tells
Newsmax TV.
In an interview with "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth, the author of
"From Jailer to Jailed" said the "roughest gun laws" in cities and states "really make no difference. When the bad guys want to get guns, they get them and they use them for what they want."
"I don't blame the guns," he said. "I don't blame gun owners. I don't blame the gun manufacturers. … I blame the people that use guns to commit crimes."
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Kerik said it's impossible to say if one of the Bible group members was armed at the historic black church in Charleston, S.C., where gunman
Dylann Roof fatally shot nine people, would have been able to prevent the carnage.
"He is an evil, evil person and if somebody else had a gun in the room, could it have been different?" Kerik said of Roof. "Maybe, maybe not."
The question is not whether gun laws are too lax, he asserted.
"I don't think the harshest of the harsh gun laws really stops the bad guys," he said, adding Chicago, New York and New Jersey all have the "harshest gun laws" yet still have significant numbers of shootings.
"We have to focus on … the people that use guns for bad things," he said. "I'm not one of these guys that's going after the gun companies and the gun owners. There's a Second Amendment right that we have, people … should be allowed to possess and bear arms.
But bad people that do bad things with guns, they've got to be dealt with."
Ironically, Kerick said, "something good has come out of Charleston already."
"I'm sure it's going to be a resilient community based on what I've seen already," he said.
"During [Roof's] hearing, I was brought to tears by some of the people, some of the victims' families that spoke to him, forgiving him, which I have to tell you… I don't think I'd be that forgiving."
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