Piers Morgan conducted one of his most entertaining interviews in a while on Monday night, although the term “interview” is perhaps a bit generous in describing the tirade from Alex Jones, the talk show host who started the petition to deport Morgan for advocating gun control. Jones, fresh off a confrontation with the TSA en route to his appearance, started off measured but quickly became unhinged without much input from Morgan, who got in only a couple words throughout the segment.

The video is well worth your seven minutes, but if you don’t have time, Real Clear Politics transcribed the best parts. When Jones really took off, around two minutes in, he started jabbing his finger at Morgan and yelling: “I’m here to tell you, 1776 will commence again, if you try to take our firearms! It doesn’t matter how many lemmings you get out there in the street begging for them to have their guns taken. We will not relinquish them. Do you understand?”

Later, when Morgan asked Jones if he knew how many gun homicides there were in Britain, Jones called him a “hatchet man of the new world order” and challenged him to a boxing match, in which “I’ll wear red, white, and blue, and you’ll wear your Jolly Roger.” Morgan, regrettably, did not accept.

In related news, the White House finally responded to Jones’s petition, with a statement from spokesman Jay Carney: “The White House responds to all petitions that cross the threshold and we will respond to this one. In the meantime, it is worth remembering that the freedom of expression is a bedrock principle in our society.”

Update: “He was the best advertisement for gun control you could wish for,” Morgan told Politico this morning. “That kind of vitriol, hatred, and zealotry is really quite scary. I didn’t feel threatened by him, but I’m concerned that someone like him has that level of influence. There’s got to be a level of discourse that can rise above what happened last night. It was undignified, unedifying.”