British journalist and television host Piers Morgan angered U.S. gun advocates on Tuesday after voicing his opinion on stricter gun control laws during an interview with executive director of Gun Owners of America Larry Pratt, prompting a petition to deport the British citizen that has already reached its target signatures of 25,000.
The petition has reached over 27,000 signatures since it was posted to the White House website on Friday.
During the interview, Morgan got into a heated discussion after Pratt suggested more guns as the answer to gun violence.
“You’re an unbelievably stupid man, aren’t you?” Morgan said during the heated debate. “You have absolutely no coherent argument. You don’t actually give a damn about the gun murder rate in America.”
After the interview, a Texas journalist started a petition to deport the British journalist. It reads:
British Citizen and CNN television host Piers Morgan is engaged in a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment. We demand that Mr. Morgan be deported immediately for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens.
The issue of gun control has been a popular debate among Americans after the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting in Newtown, Conn. that killed 27 people, including 20 children by a semiautomatic Bushmaster .223 rifle.
Since the petition has reached over 25,000 signatures, the White House has to at least respond. It’s doubtful that the journalist will actually get deported, though. What kind of message would persecuting someone for voicing their opinions send to Americans? After all, doesn’t the first amendment cover the right to free speech and free press?
Just a few weeks ago, a petition passed for the U.S. government to begin building a Star Wars-inspired “Death Star.” I think the odds that Piers Morgan will get deported are about the same as the odds of the construction of a Death Star.
Morgan isn’t the least bit worried, anyway. He’s actually urging people to sign the petition on his Twitter:
Just 4821 signatures needed to take my deportation petition to the point Obama has to respond. I urge you to sign: petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/depor…
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) December 23, 2012