Twitter wingnuts respond to Pittsburgh knife attack by trolling Piers Morgan

The right believes it's wrong to exploit tragedy for political points — unless those points go against gun safety

Published April 9, 2014 8:30PM (EDT)

Piers Morgan        (Reuters/Andrew Burton)
Piers Morgan (Reuters/Andrew Burton)

A young man with a knife attacked multiple people near a Pittsburgh-area high school on Wednesday morning. He is now in custody and while some of his 20 victims remain in critical condition, all are expected to survive.

For most people, this was an awful, tragic story that was only distinguishable from other recent violent sprees because of the attacker's weapon-of-choice — a knife rather than a gun — and the related fact that it's likely to result in no actual deaths. As most Americans know all too well, public acts of mass violence in the U.S. as of late have tended to feature guns, which are far more likely than knives to kill rather than simply maim their victims.

But for some Second Amendment absolutists, gun enthusiasts and firearm fetishists, the Pittsburgh tragedy was cause for a very different response: unbridled, trolly glee.

Likely taking their cues from conspiracy theorist and all-around crank Alex Jones' Infowars website, firearm fetishists on Twitter responded to news from Pittsburgh by unleashing a barrage of snarky attacks on Piers Morgan, the former CNN host and British tabloid veteran who won the eternal hatred of the gun rights community with his strident and frequent calls for greater gun safety legislation to be enacted in the United States.

With all the wit of an especially bad "Family Guy" episode, Morgan's Twitter foes teased him by asking whether, in response to the Pittsburgh attack, he would now support "knife control." Here's just a taste of their campaign:

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So, yeah, take that, Piers! If you're so in favor of regulating weapons that are designed to kill people, then how come you're not equally in favor of regulating things that can be used as a weapon and are less liable to kill people? Seriously, dude, it's time to unskew your hypocrisy.


By Elias Isquith

Elias Isquith is a former Salon staff writer.

MORE FROM Elias Isquith


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Alex Jones Attack Blade Cnn Gun Control Gun Safety Infowars Knife Knives Piers Morgan Second Amendment Violence