MSNBC host Chris Matthews on Thursday accused Republicans of being "fanatics" who support private ownership of tanks and bazookas.
"The Republican platform protects magazines. It protects AR-15s. It protects everything that is even discussed," Matthews said on his show "Hardball."
"They haven't gotten to this bump [stock] thing yet, this thing that changes the gun into an automatic," he said. "But they clearly—when they hear something's coming their way, they put it in their platform and say, 'Leave it alone.'"
"They are fanatics. The Republican Party, as a party, is a fanatic party on guns," he added.
Matthews was horrified that the Republican platform claims the right to bear arms "precedes the Constitution" and is a "God-given right."
"I don't know how to explain it. It's a religious, essential notion to them that everybody should have any kind of gun they want, any—a bazooka, a tank. They never put a limit on it, ever," he complained.
Matthews' complaint about Republicans using the term "God-given right" in the context of gun laws came a week after his MSNBC colleague Chuck Todd said that Republican Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore "doesn't believe in the Constitution," because he believes that rights come from God.