Ainsley on Gun Control - from In This White House

[theirlawyer]

JOSH
You're not taking the job?

AINSLEY
No. But thank you for talking to me, instead of about me.

JOSH
Hey, I'm still back on he offered you the job... but you're not taking the job?

SAM
No, man, why participate in the process when you can get a job commenting on it?

AINSLEY
You think because I don't want to work here it's because I can get a better gig on
Geraldo? Gosh, let's see if there could possibly be any other reason why I wouldn't want
to work in this White House? This White House that feels that government is better for
children than parents are. That looks at forty years of degrading and humiliating free
lunches handed out in a spectacularly failed effort to level the playing field and says,
'Let's try forty more.' This White House that says of anyone that points that out to
them, that they are cold and mean and racist, and then accuses Republicans of using the
politics of fear. This White House that loves the Bill of Rights, all of them - except
the second one.

SAM
[looks at Josh nervously] This is the wrong place to talk about guns right now. I thought
your column was idiotic.

AINSLEY
Imagine my surprise.

SAM
[getting steadily more emotional] But for a brilliant surgical team and two centimeters
of a miracle, this guy's dead right now. From bullets fired from a gun bought legally.
They bought guns, they loaded them, they drove from Wheeling to Rosslyn, and until they
pulled the trigger they had yet to commit a crime. I am so off-the-charts tired of the
gun lobby tossing around words like 'personal freedom' and no one calling 'em on it.
[Josh moves away uncomfortably.] It's not about personal freedom, and it certainly has
nothing to do with public safety. It's just that some people like guns.

AINSLEY
Yes, they do. But you know what's more insidious than that? Your gun control position
doesn't have anything to do with public safety, and it's certainly not about personal
freedom. It's about you don't like people who do like guns. You don't like the people.
Think about that, the next time you make a joke about the South.