CNN analyst claps back at firearms reporter in testy exchange

CNN senior political analyst Kirsten Powers grilled firearms reporter Stephen Gutowski during a fiery discussion of mass shootings on Wednesday. (Check out the video below).

The exchanges between the two came after two high-profile mass shootings over the past week, including the Club Q shooting that killed five people in Colorado Springs, Colo. on Saturday, and another shooting that killed seven people, including The gunman was killed at Walmart in Chesapeake, Virginia on Tuesday.

Kasie Hunt, who hosted the CNN panel on Gun Violence in America, asked Gutowski if access to assault weapons or “a cultural thing” led to the mass shootings in America.

He later got into an irritated exchange with Powers, who pointed to the expiry of the federal ban on assault weapons in 2004, after he said the two recent shootings “show it’s not just about AR-15s.”

“I mean, it’s like a game you guys play,” Powers said quickly.

The amount is on track to make 2022 the year with the second-highest number of mass shootings, CNN found.