ALISYN CAMEROTA (HOST): Donald Trump on the campaign trail has been saying that President Obama is coming for your guns, he hates the Second Amendment. Last night the president basically called that a conspiracy theory and he tried to tamp it down. Will Donald Trump change his rhetoric?
JEFFREY LORD: I don't think so. You know, Donald Trump isn't going to, you know, tamp down rhetoric on something like this. A lot of people are very concerned about this. And Alisyn, I'd add one other thing. After Newtown I wrote a column and did a considerable amount of research about the culture of violence in this country. One of the things that was quite noticeable last night unless I missed it, abortion was never mentioned. And there are plenty of Americans who believe that abortion, since Roe v. Wade has contributed to a culture of violence in this country.
CAMEROTA: But Jeffrey, this was a town hall on guns. I mean, yes, also the economy wasn't mentioned, what's happening in China wasn't mentioned. One topic at a time Jeffrey.
LORD: No, no, no, no, no Alisyn. There is a direct connection here, a direct connection. If we have created a culture, in the words of one Catholic Deacon Greg Kandra, where human life is treated like trash, what do we expect here? Mass shootings have increased dramatically since Roe v. Wade. There were something like 109 of them --
CAMEROTA: So you think there's a connection? You are saying there is a connection, a correlation between mass shootings and Roe v. Wade?
LORD: If we don't respect human life, people are going to take human life.
CAMEROTA: OK, go ahead. Hold on, he made his point. Van, go.
VAN JONES: Well in fact, data matters, facts matter. It's the opposite. Since Roe v. Wade, you have had a decrease in violent crime across the country in all categories. That's part of what's been remarkable about this past period. But you do have these sharp increases in the mass shootings. And we're trying to figure out how to deal with that.
