Fox News strategic analyst Lt. Col. Ralph Peters recently wrote “no private citizen should own an automatic weapon or a semi-automatic weapon that can easily be modified for automatic effects,” and he defended his position to Neil Cavuto this morning.

In his column for The New York Post, Peters asked, “How can members of our Congress or state legislators put their re-election campaigns above the lives of children? How can they do that?”

He told Cavuto he’s a supporter of a Second Amendment but not “the cherry-picking of it,” adding, “I’m a gun owner. I know guns. My family’s a gun family… but these weapons, AR-15s and similar weapons, are not for sporting purposes.”

“Having those weapons in civilian hands,” he said, “is absolute madness.”

Peters invoked the Founders to ask if they ever imagined the kind of firepower accessible to people today, asking, “Why on earth should we have weapons that kill children––the AR-15 is used again and again, it’s the weapon of choice for domestic terrorists.”

Cavuto noted pushback from people who want to know if Peters wants to confiscate people’s AR-15s.

Peters chuckled and said, “It’s pathetic that we have to get to that level. It’s pathetic that we’re so wrapped up around AR-15s that we don’t want to protect children.”

“I know my position is unpopular with many Fox viewers,” he added. “But is a moral issue, it is an ethical issue! It is about dead children! About dead law-abiding citizens!”

Watch above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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