Since “At Home With The Robertsons” launched last month on Facebook, Duck Dynasty’s Willie and Korie Robertson have invited family, friends, and celebrities to their home to participate in open conversations about some serious topics.
In a recent episode, the Robertsons spoke with gun-reform advocate and comedian Trae Crowder about gun restrictions and access to firearms in America.
Willie said gun control is a critical topic, especially for his family business.
“We thought this would be a great issue, one because it’s so personal to us – it’s our business,” he explained. “If you took this away, we would have a hard time feeding our families.”
Willie added, “Growing up in my household, we had numerous guns. We didn’t shoot guns for fun, it was just part of life. It was a tool just like a chainsaw can be dangerous and hurt you but it was also a very useful tool for what you need to use it for.”
Crowder stated that he has always enjoyed shooting guns but feels something needs to be done about restricting the availability for some people.
“I just get frustrated by the notion that there’s literally nothing that we can do,” he stressed. “I have young kids and it’s just so wild that they do active shooter drills at Walt Disney Elementary School – what a really weird world that we live in. It scares me.”
He said that he’d like to see the banning of assault rifles and closing the gun show loopholes.
“Having more stringent requirements on how you go about being able to obtain a gun whether that’s with more waiting periods, background checks, mental health assessments. I’d like to try something or any of those and see if it helps,” Crowder said.
Korie brought up the frightening experience her family encountered when someone recently tried to break into their home.
“I was really glad Willie had a gun hidden somewhere. I got it out and I was sitting on my bed, ready,” she explained. “He (the intruder) was trying to get in and thankfully the police were there very quickly but those moments when you’re sitting there holding your gun wondering if someone is going to bust through your door…it’s scary. In that moment when there’s an intruder in your home, I felt really thankful that I had a gun.”
Willie pointed out that there are laws in place that strive to keep people safe from gun violence but not everyone abides by them and enacting more laws isn’t necessarily the solution. He said since criminals don’t follow the laws they wouldn’t even be affected by new gun restrictions.
“If you make a law and the premise is, this will help, this is the something that we’re doing to stop something like this from happening, the very premise of what the person is doing is breaking the law.”
Crowder agreed with Willie but said implementing more steps for people to be able to acquire a gun may deter them along the way.
“Anything that makes it more difficult to execute their ultimate goal,” he said. “If they’ve decided they want to kill a bunch of people, anything that makes that a little harder for them to do and makes it more likely that they screw up along the way would help.”
The discussion concluded with Willie stating that gun violence is a major issue in America that will hopefully get resolved before long.
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