CNN is hosting a gun control town hall following mass shootings in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, over the weekend.
The network announced in a tweet on Monday that Prime Time host Chris Cuomo will lead a discussion on August 7 in the slot where his 9:00 p.m. show airs.
CNN to host a @CuomoPrimeTime town hall, AMERICA UNDER ASSAULT: The Gun Crisis on Wed., Aug. 7 from 9-10pm ET led by @ChrisCuomo.
— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) August 5, 2019
The network hosted a similar town hall after a shooter gunned down 17 people at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in February 2018. At the town hall, students asked Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.), Sen. Bill Nelson (D., Fla.), and Rep. Ted Deutch (D., Fla.) whether they would disavow the National Rifle Association and support bans on so-called "assault weapons."
Students also pressed NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch about the organization's support for firearm ownership in the United States. Someone in the crowd heckled Loesch, calling her a "monster," as Loesch said that she believes that the Parkland shooter was an "insane monster" who never should have had access to a firearm.
At one point, the CNN crowd cheered when Rubio mentioned the possibility of banning "every semiautomatic rifle sold in America." Rubio was later booed for suggesting that he would not support such a ban. The program, hosted by CNN's Jake Tapper, later won an award for helping to "advance the national conversation on gun control and violence."
President Donald Trump called for national healing after the shootings in El Paso and Dayton, calling the recent spurt of mass shootings in the United States an "evil contagion."
"In one voice, our nation must condemn racism, bigotry and white supremacy," Trump said in a speech on Monday morning. "These sinister ideologies must be defeated."
Trump also said shootings in America are a result of a "mental illness" crisis.