CNN anchor doesn't know what an automatic weapon is, but he's pretty sure you can buy one anywhere

In the good old days, you could count on CNN's Piers Morgan to be the network's gun control standard bearer. His quest to limit firearm ownership may have been riddled with inaccuracies, half-truths, and cognitive dissonance, but that didn't stop him. Night after night he kept beating the anti-gun drum. ...Until he embarrassed himself right out of a job.

Now, CNN anchor Don Lemon seems to be carrying on Piers' proud tradition of demanding gun control while simultaneously knowing little or nothing about guns. Last night he was involved in a discussion with conservative talk radio host Ben Ferguson. The subject turned to guns. Lemon, who has a long history of pro gun control rhetoric, said that in the wake of the Aurora, Colorado mass shooting he was able to easily purchase an automatic weapon. His guest wasn't buying it.

---

"The gun law says that you and I can't just go out and buy an automatic weapon, so let's deal with the facts here," Ferguson said. "A semi-automatic weapon is a gun that you and I are allowed to own, and in different places they have different rules. But to imply that anyone can walk out and buy an automatic weapon is just not true, Don." ...That's when Lemon doubled down and things got good.

"I have maybe shot a gun three, four times in my life — I don't even live in Colorado. I think most people can go out and buy an automatic weapon. I don't understand your argument there. It took me 20 minutes."

So, either Lemon was admitting to having committed a crime by purchasing an illegal weapon (or illegally altering a legal one), or he just didn't know what he was talking about. Fortunately, Ferguson interrupted him and asked him to define what, exactly, he thought an automatic weapon was. His answer is spectacularly wrong:

"For me, an automatic weapon is anything that you can shoot off a number of rounds very quickly. I was able to buy an AR-15 in 20 minutes."

Yep. Lemon has his own definition of "automatic" and he thinks that "shooting quickly" is the determining factor in whether a gun falls into that category. "With all due respect, you don't know what you're talking about," Ferguson said. "An automatic weapon is when you pull the trigger one time and it continually shoots off one after another, after another." This, Lemon said is simply "semantics."

"Let me finish, Ben. But listen. I think you are getting into semantics. Regardless of what you want to call it, an automatic or a semi-automatic weapon."

"It's a big deal," Ferguson again interrupted. "It's the difference between breaking the law and not breaking the law." Lemon claimed that "no one is saying you should take away anyone's Second Amendment right," but - of course - that's exactly what gun control advocates want. People like Lemon love to say that they're only interested in limiting access to the "really really scary" types of firearms but it's just a foot-in-the-door argument. Their eventual goal is to eliminate the sale of all guns. Near the end of the video, Lemon even admits that it doesn't really matter whether the guns in question are automatic or semi-automatic. Either way, the owner would have the "capacity to harm someone's life in an instant." If that's the new standard for gun control, clearly they're targeting every firearm. ...and knives. ...and cars. ...and baseball bats. ...and foods that pose a choking hazard. The fact is that he doesn't care about the difference between an auto and a semi-auto because to him there is no difference.