7/27/2019 The foreword to Piers Morgan's new book, SHOOTING STRAIGHT, written by Michael Moore

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Shooting

StraightGuns, Gays, God, and GeorGe Clooney

PierS Morgan

Gallery Books

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7/27/2019 The foreword to Piers Morgan's new book, SHOOTING STRAIGHT, written by Michael Moore

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Foreword

by Michael Moore

On the Saturday orning of January 8, 2011, Congresswoan Gabby Gif-

fords was holding a eet-and-greet with her constituents in the arking

lot of a grocery store in Tucson, Arizona. Without warning, one of the en

standing in line to talk to her rushed forward, cae u to the table where

she was sitting, ut a gun to her head, and ulled the trigger. Pleased withhiself and the ease with which he was able to shoot a eber of Con-

gress, he decided, for good easure, to shoot another eighteen eole, kill-

ing six of the, including a nine-year-old girl. Giffords, iraculously, lived.

In the days and weeks that followed, there was a lot of national ourn-

ing and hand-wringing and ronounceents about the strength of the

Aerican sirit to rise above such tragedies and carry on. But there were

no calls by olitical leaders to enact stricter gun laws and no such bills were

roosed or introduced. Even President Obaa reained silent about tak-

ing any easures, the kind of which ight have revented the bloodletting

in Tucson.

It was in this environent, just one week later, that the British journal-

ist and TV ersonality Piers Morgan debuted his new nightly chat show

on CNN. Entitled Piers Morgan Tonight, he took over the 9 p.m. tie slot

fro the legendary Larry King on the granddaddy of the cable news chan-

nels. Although he had served as the editor of nuerous British tabloids andhad written several books, the Aerican ublic only knew Piers Morgan

as the winner on Donald Trus Celebrity Apprentice and as a judge on

7/27/2019 The foreword to Piers Morgan's new book, SHOOTING STRAIGHT, written by Michael Moore

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viii Foreword

NBCsAmericas Got Talent. What no one saw coming was that the loudest,

clearest, most passionate voice against two other things Americans had tal-

ent orgun violence and mass shootingswas about to unleash his rageagainst this senseless barbarity in a way that would make everyone sit up

and take notice. For the next two-plus years, Piers Morgan has, week ater

week (and sometimes night ater night) taken on the National Rie As-

sociation, the United States Congress, and numerous gun lovers, gun nuts,

and gun evangelists. On one inamous show, he conrontedin his polite

but unorgiving English waythe popular radio host and deender o the

Second Amendment, Alex Jones. Jones, oended by the suggestion that

perhaps America had a problem, began screaming at Morgan and looked

as i he were about to pick up his stool and clobber this oreigner with it

(I assume he couldnt have shot him, as Time Warner security wont allow

six-shooters or gunfghts in their New York headquarters).

Angry gun owners, alarmed at the success Morgan was having in reach-

ing millions o Americans (in part, by educating them on how his native

Britain had signifcantly reduced gun violence and virtually eliminated mass

shootings ater a massacre that took place in 1996 in a schoolyard in Dun-blane, Scotland) began a campaign to remove Morgannot just rom the

airwaves, but rom the country itsel. A petition was launched on the White

House website to have Morgan deported. Over one hundred thousand

Americans pleaded with the president to put Piers Morgan on the next boat

back to England. Obama was actually orced to respond to the outcry and

did so by reminding the public that this alien, Mr. Morgan, enjoyed the

same ree speech rights as us gun-toting Americans.

Sadly, the gun violence and mass shootings continue. But ater months

o relentless badgering and rallying Americans to respond to this rom our

better side, public opinion has shited (nearly 90 percent are now in avor

o some orm o stricter gun laws) and the president sent a bill to Con-

gress to require background checks at gun shows. It ailed. But that hasnt

stopped Piers Morgan rom using his nightly bully pulpit to rail against this

madnessand (thankully) it doesnt look like hes going to give up and

return home or tea anytime soon.