Fox News host Laura Ingraham, just hours after 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz used an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle to murder 17 people at a Florida high school, praised the weapon as “so safe.”

Ingraham and her guest, Aaron Cohen, criticized Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) for suggesting the powerful weapon is too widely available. Cohen said that Murphy was “not qualified to assess threat” or “manage risk.”

A few minutes later, Cohen explained that the AR-15 looks like an M4, a fully automatic rifle used by the military. “It looks like a menacing M4… not even close,” Cohen said, with Ingraham expressing approval.


Cohen added that the AR-15 “shoots very straight” and is “actually safer because you have a less likelihood of sporadic fire or hitting innocent people.”

“It’s actually a very safe weapon,” Cohen concluded.

The AR-15 has been used in numerous other mass murders.

It’s the same assault rifle that was used at Sandy Hook Elementary School, where Adam Lanza killed 27 people, including 20 first graders. It was used in Aurora, Colorado, where James Holmes killed 12 people in a movie theater. It was used in San Bernardino, California, where Syed Farook killed 14 people. And it was used in Las Vegas, Nevada, where Steven Paddock killed 58 people — to date, the deadliest mass shooting in United States history.

As of 2014, there were over 9 million AR-15s in the United States.