Fox Hosts Bolling, Gutfeld, And Perino Endorse Individual Mandate ... For Gun Ownership

From the March 12 edition of Fox News' The Five:

Previously:

UPDATED: 16 Media Myths About Proposals To Strengthen Gun Laws

Sorry Rush, Gun Violence Is A Health Care Issue

ERIC BOLLING: Check this story out. A town in Georgia has proposed a new law requiring every head of a household to possess a firearm. The town is Nelson, Georgia, population 1,000. They have only one police officer, and that guy works one eight-hour shift. So I'm on board with this.

GREG GUTFELD: Mandatory gun ownership? The next thing you know we have mandatory health care. Weird. And why is this so radical? At least the town is doing this legally, unlike Detroit and Chicago, where you have mandatory gun ownership -- it's called gang membership. Look, if an outlaw is going through the country and looking for a town to hit, he's going to drive right past this one and he'll find a gun-free zone. It's just like we talked about the theater shooter. He found a place where there were no guns.

BOLLING: Dana, 90 percent of the town agrees with this. By the way, it isn't a law yet, it has to go through the city council. It's proposed right now. I believe there will be a vote April 1st. Ninety percent of the town agrees with it and the one police officer agrees with it, too.

DANA PERINO: Yeah, so I'm for local control and for Washington to mind its own business. The local control that was tried here in New York City yesterday was about soda drinking. I think that this one -- if this town feels that this is what they need to do to protect themselves, I'm for it. Plus, if it's mandatory, people will be trained, they'll have the background checks. and all the laws will be covered.

BOLLING: And Bob, If you don't like it, if you object, if you have a conscientious objection to it, you don't have to have the gun. It sounds like a good idea.

BOB BECKEL: It sounds to me like one of the worst ideas I've heard. I mean, the idea that you're going to mandatory -- it's mandatory if you don't object and you don't have a religious problem with it or you're not -- whatever. That you have to buy a gun when you may not like guns --

BOLLING: Well, you can object --

GUTFELD: Replace that with health care, Bob.

BECKEL: Let's not talk health care. The idea -- why don't we next make it mandatory for over the have a bazooka on their roof. I mean --

GUTFELD: Or health care.

BECKEL: You know who's behind this? This is an NRA-sponsored deal. They've done this before. Georgia seems to be --

BOLLING: This has nothing to do with NRA.

GUTFELD: Replace NRA with AARP, and you have health care.

ANDREA TANTAROS: As much as I love they're doing this and I understand that the next town over has the same law on the books -- so I love the law in theory. I actually don't like being mandated to do anything. And so, that's like someone saying, OK, we mandate you to exercise your First Amendment all the time, and to exercise it you must say, 'I love Obama.'" And what if you live in a town with 90 percent of the people -- or maybe New York -- believe that way? So I try to put the shoe on other foot.

PERINO: That was all those Philadelphia counties -- Pennsylvania counties.

BOLLING: A hundred percent, right? A hundred and one percent, actually.

BECKEL: Why don't you just make it nationwide? Why doesn't everybody make it mandatory --

BOLLING: It'd be a safer country.

GUTFELD: Amen.

BOLLING: By the way, If you're a criminal, Bob -- honestly you're driving down the road, looking to rob, stick up a house -- are you going to go to the town where you know every house, every door you knock on or break into has a gun behind it? You're going to go to the next town where  --

BECKEL: I don't think, first of all, they're going to stop and read The New York Times and figure out who's got a town like that.

GUTFELD: You know, the police exist primarily to respond to crime, not to prevent it. It's up to you to prevent it.