More Than 70,000 Sign Petition To Deport Piers Morgan

The movement to deport CNN talk show host and British citizen Piers Morgan continues to gain steam, with an online petition garnering more than 70,000 signature between its Dec. 21 creation and Wednesday, Dec. 26. Morgan has been condemned by gun advocates for his on-air stance for tighter US gun laws following the shooting massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Conn. Dec. 14.

During an episode of “Piers Morgan Tonight,” Morgan lambasted second amendment advocate Larry Pratt, a guest on his show and executive director of Gun Owners for America. Morgan called Pratt an “idiot,” “dangerous” and an “unbelievably stupid man” after Pratt argued that Americans needed more guns to combat crime.

The petition calling for President Obama to deport Morgan was started by a man only identified as Kurt N. from Austin, Texas, who accused Morgan of engaging in “a hostile attack against the U.S. Constitution by targeting the Second Amendment.

We demand that Mr. Morgan be deported immediately for his effort to undermine the Bill of Rights and for exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens,” the petition on the White House’s “We the People” Web site states.

Morgan has defended his stance in his Twitter feed. As a foreign national, Morgan’s free speech is not protected by the Constitution. Any petition gaining at least 25,000 signatures within a 30-day period is guaranteed a response from the president. Not all petitions are guaranteed the response signers may hope, however. Thehill.com cites an example of a petition urging President Obama to build a “Death Star” which received the required number of signatures.

Morgan is by far not the first foreign national to face criticism and even possible deportation for expressing an unpopular opinion. History points to 1972, when then-President Richard Nixon tried to deport John Lennon for opinions he expressed against the Vietnam War. Few today would consider Lennon a threat to democracy, and as Morgan pointed on via Twitter: The NRA has 4 million members, yet the US population is 311 million. “Don’t take this murderous crap anymore.