The View’s Sunny Hostin found herself embroiled in a heated debate with her Republican co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin as the panel discussed the tragic shootings in Georgia.
The two women clashed on Thursday’s show when Sunny, 55, accused people of immediately jumping to the topic of “mental health” when it comes to such tragedies, while Alyssa defensively argued, “Oh, I’m not, I was talking about guns first.”
Without even looking his co-host in the eye, Sunny condescendingly retorted, “I’m not talking about you personally, I’m talking about the country,” before stating, “So the common denominator is that there’s mental health all over the world, but we seem to be the only country where 14-year-olds are 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 Wednesday morning and who was on the FBI’s radar a year before the tragedy.
“I say it every time we talk about it: People who suffer from mental illness are ten times more likely to be victims of crime – violent crime – than they are to commit crime,” Sunny continued.
The View hosts Sunny Hostin (left) and Alyssa Farah Griffin (right) clashed Thursday during the show’s coverage of the Georgia school shooting.
Joy Behar turned to Alyssa and argued that “Republicans continue to tear down mental health measures”
“I’m not saying there’s not a mental health issue here, but it seems to be the first thing that comes to mind, right? Mental health, mental health!” the mother-of-two added.
Former White House aide Alyssa commented: “It’s strange to talk about politics in light of tragedy, but this is 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 children to school and think that they might be victims of a school shooting.”
She then argued: “There are ways to address this problem and the key thing is for candidates to make it clear that they are not talking to safe, legal gun owners who would never use that gun to harm anyone else, but that they are going to address the issues that the vast majority of Americans support.
“We need to talk about solutions that make it clear that you’re not coming to arrest legitimate gun owners and you can’t separate the mental health aspect. A 14-year-old shooting up a school is not healthy. He could have hurt himself, so you have to address both of those aspects,” Alyssa said.
Comedian Joy Behar then asked, “Aren’t Republicans still rejecting mental health measures?” to which Alyssa replied, “I’m not saying the party is doing well. I’m pointing to Chris Murphy and Thom Tillis who have come together and done radical reforms, but that’s not enough, we have to address both.”
Sunny then continued, “It’s really about getting rid of these assault rifles. I think it’s about getting rid of the high-capacity magazines and if you watch the DNC and if you listen to what they said at 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 really important because if your child is killed, you can’t even sue gun owners.
Sunny (left) and former White House aide Alyssa (right) clashed as they discussed the link between gun violence and mental health
Whoopi Goldberg interrupted the panel to pay tribute to the families who lost loved ones in the horrific attack.
Police officers at the scene following the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia
“They want to increase funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and, more importantly, I think the gun violence epidemic has been deemed a public health issue and so that’s where the money will 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, then fired back, saying, “The number one cause of child death in this country is school violence, gun violence!” while Sara Haines confirmed the statistic but argued that it was “such a divisive issue.”
Moderator Whoopi Goldberg eventually interrupted the women and yelled, “Wait, everybody!” so they could take a moment to pay tribute to 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 now… we’ll talk about it more, but right now our thoughts are with the families who are going through this,” the 68-year-old actor announced before the show’s commercial break.
Following the incident, a 14-year-old student, who had been on the FBI’s radar for a year, was identified as the suspected shooter who carried out the bloody shooting, killing four people.
A freshman at the school, Colt Gray immediately surrendered when confronted by law enforcement 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 taken into custody at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center, Channel 2 Action News reported.