"The View" co-host Whoopi Goldberg said Wednesday that the AR-15 style rifle "needs to go" and said until that conversation could be had "nothing is going to happen."
"Let’s start with this, let’s start with this. The AR-15-style rifle needs to go, period. Period," Goldberg said during their discussion following the Nashville shooting.
"You cannot hunt with it. There’s nothing left after you shot it. We all know what it does. Until that conversation can be had, nothing is going to happen, that's the issue," she continued.
She repeated that the issue is "that damn rifle."
WHOOPI GOLDBERG SUGGESTS BANNING AR-15S, ARRESTING OWNERS: ‘REPORT THEM AND WE’LL PUT THEM IN JAIL'
Earlier in the segment co-host Sunny Hostin said she was sick of people claiming that this is a mental health issue.
"I have so many mentally ill people in my family. But they are more likely to be the victims of crime than be criminals. That is a fact, and it has been studied for over 60 years. I am so sick of people conveniently saying ‘this is a mental health issue’ or you can’t look at this issue without mental health. This is an AR-15-style weapon, issue," she said.
Goldberg said in 2022 that she didn't want to ban all guns but asserted she wanted AR-15s banned.
"I don't want all your guns the way you don't want to take all my rights to abortion. I don't want all your guns. I want that AR-15. I want it," Goldberg said in May 2022. "And we're going to vote it out, so it's not going to be acceptable."
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"I would like Republicans to show the same energy that they do for … regulating my uterus, I want them to show the same energy for banning guns," Goldberg said during another episode of "The View" in May 2022.
Co-host Joy Behar said during Wednesday's discussion that people should not vote for Republicans after Alyssa Farah Griffin argued that both parties should come together and "solve this."
"So then last September, 205 Republicans voted against a bill to expand school mental health services in schools. So what can we deduce from this, the Republicans are not interested in solving the problem. So how do we correct that? Don’t vote for Republicans," she said.
Behar has argued in the past that people should vote Democrat in order to pass gun legislation.
"I always say don't vote for Republicans," Behar said at the time. "Right now, I mean you can go back to it after you have gun laws."
"Get rid of these weapons of war, and it's not going to happen with Republicans in power. So I am now with you, Joy," Hostin said during the same episode. "Get rid of Republicans, get rid of the party, the party as it stands now, because it's a party of White Supremacy, it's the party of insurrectionists, it's the party of massacres at this point, you can't trust it."
