Fox News’ host Laura Ingraham aired a segment on her show Wednesday night about the assault weapon used in the Parkland, Florida school shooting.
Throughout the segment, Ingraham spoke with her guest, Aaron Cohen, about the safety of the AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle, and repeatedly lambasted Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) for calling on lawmakers to pass legislation that would limit access to such weapons.
“Didn’t take him long to go right to gun control,” Ingraham said.
“Is this a problem with the gun or the shooter?” she added. “Let’s look at the AR-15, what makes it so popular and overwhelmingly what makes it so safe.”
Ingraham and her guest continued to highlight the benefits of the AR-15 for home defense, with Cohen noting that Murphy wasn’t “really qualified” to offer a commentary on its safety.
“This is a security issue. It’s not a weapon issue,” Cohen said. “That kid had parents. Where’s the parents?”
At least 17 people were killed on Wednesday and more than a dozen injured in the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. The suspect, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, allegedly used an AR-15 assault-style rifle and had “multiple magazines” on him, the Broward County Sheriff said.
The AR-15 was developed for the battlefield and designed to kill people as efficiently as possible. In most states, the weapon is relatively cheap and customizable to hold 60 or 100 rounds at a time.
Ingraham said the AR-15 was an “extremely popular” type of rifle. It has been used in several mass shootings, including the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre and the deadly attack on a Las Vegas music festival last year.
Murphy was elected to the Senate just before 27 people were killed in the Sandy Hook shootings. On Wednesday, he took to the Senate floor to urge his colleagues to take action and stop what he called an “epidemic of mass slaughter.”
Murphy also laid a heap of blame on Congress.
“We are responsible for a level of mass atrocity that happens in this country with zero parallel anywhere else,” he said.
Watch the full clip on Fox News.