Georgia Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene is facing harsh criticism after she bragged about telling a British reporter to "go back to your country" after they asked her to comment about the disparity in gun violence between the United States and the United Kingdom.
Greene shared a clip of the exchange via her official Twitter account and lambasted the British press for wanting "to argue about our God-given American rights," all the while gloating about her xenophobic retort.
You can watch it below.
The female reporter, whose identity is unclear, had noted to Greene that while there are "no guns" in the U.K., "we don’t have mass shootings either."
The reporter added that children in the U.K. "aren’t scared to go to school," a nod to the recent mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, that resulted in the deaths of 19 children and two teachers and has fueled much of the current nationwide debate about firearm usage and accessability.
Greene, who appeared at the event with other prominent House Republicans who have been vocal about their opposition toward comprehensive gun control measures, replied:
“You have mass stabbings, lady. You have all kinds of murder and you’ve got laws against that.”
When the reporter pointed out that the rate of knife crime in the U.K. is nothing like the rate of mass shootings in the U.S., Greene quickly told her to "go back to your country and worry about your no guns. We like ours here."
But Greene's words were not as well received as she might have believed, and many criticized her for her xenophobic remarks.
In the U.K., access by the general public to firearms is subject to some of the strictest control measures in the world. While the law currently permits the general public to own sporting rifles and shotguns, such ownership is subject to licensing.
While restrictions were enacted following the 1987 Hungerford killings, they became more pronounced following the Dunblane massacre, which took place at Dunblane Primary School near Stirling, Scotland, in 1996, when a lone gunman killed 16 students and one teacher and injured 15 others before killing himself.
The massacre angered and galvanized both the general public and lawmakers, sparking a public campaign known as the Snowdrop Petition that culminated in Parliament approving a series of measures that included banning private ownership of most handguns, banning semi-automatic weapons, and mandating registration for shotgun owners.
There have been only two mass shootings since, and only five mass shootings carried out by a civilian in the entire history of Great Britain.
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