The questions asked of beauty pageant finalists — and particularly the answers they come up with on the fly — have always been particularly lulz-worthy. So you can imagine what happened last night when the Miss USA contestant who would go on to win the whole thing had to do thirty second on the randomly selected topic of…gun control.
Here it is Asya Branch’s response:
Wait! That’s actually not too bad.
Universal availability of gun safety training? Absolutely. Why not? Let’s go back to the bygone days when basic gun safety was taught in many schools. Think of the lives that would be saved by teaching kids how to safely handle a gun and what to do if they come across one.
We’re going to differ with her pretty strenuously on the requirement that people “pass training and safety courses before they’re allowed to purchase a gun and before receiving a permit.” The Bill of Rights sets out no prerequisites for exercising any of the enumerated rights and gun ownership should be treated no differently.
Then she added this:
I think it’s important that we not ban guns, because obviously people will find a way to get what they want anyways, but I think it’s our Second Amendment right, and we just need more safety surrounding that.
We can get on board with that. Not perfect, but all in all, not a bad performance.
Some media invertebrates have, of course, come down on her, not only for her pro-gun stance, but also because she once dared to sing the national anthem at a Trump rally in Mississippi. She also attended a White House meeting with the dreaded orange man to discuss criminal justice reform (her father has been in prison for more than half her life).
So what we have here is a Southern girl who knows how to shoot and safely handle a gun. She also supports the right to keep and bear arms. We’ll agree to disagree on the whole training prerequisite and permitting thing, but on the whole, this is definitely a step in the right direction.
All hail Miss USA. Long may she reign.