Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo: ‘It’s too Easy to Get a Gun’

Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo has made his strongest gun control statement yet, saying that he thinks laws need to be changed to make it harder for Americans to buy firearms.

Wearing a t-shirt with “#MSDStrong” emblazoned on it — a reference to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the Parkland, Florida, school that suffered a mass shooting in February — Rizzo spoke to reporters about his anti-gun feelings, according to USA Today.

“In a perfect world, make it stricter, make background checks a little harder to get these guns,” the left-hander said. “I think it’s a little too easy to go in there and get a gun. I think pretty much the entire nation can agree on that. There’s a number of other things, but my biggest thing is you can make it harder to get guns.”

The 2016 World Series champion is a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and has several times stated how proud he is of the anti-gun students. Rizzo supported the “March For Our Lives,” for instance, and on March 24 tweeted his support for the Parkland teens:

My family marching for their lives. I am so proud to be from Parkland and so inspired by not only the students at MSD but every student, parent and teacher across the country who participated. #MarchForOurLives pic.twitter.com/pzZ82ozV3Z

— Anthony Rizzo (@ARizzo44) March 24, 2018

This week he reiterated that support, saying that he thinks the Parkland kids are “amazing.”

“I think it’s amazing. These kids are standing up for what they believe in,” Rizzo continued. “They’re motivating everyone to go there and register to vote, which is amazing. That’s a powerful way to get your voice heard, to go out and vote. They’re holding the throttle down on all these politicians, holding them accountable for what they believe in. It’s just unbelievable how the entire nation is rallying around (them).”

Rizzo has also said that he has talked to some of the teachers and staff at the high school.

“We’ve never seen this before in our country,” Rizzo, the 2017 winner of the Roberto Clemente award for community service, said. “We’ve never seen an 11-year-old speaking at a rally, multiple 11-year-olds, a 6-year-old. So I think the nation’s listening. I think some politicians are maybe shaking a little bit, a little nervous. But you have to keep going, got to keep fighting.”

Rizzo has not mentioned the several pro-gun students, such as Kyle Kashuv and Hunter Pollack, who have also spoken their minds after the crime they survived. The media and famous personages such as Rizzo have routinely ignored the students who support the our right to bear arms and who have cogently argued for a commonsense and a traditionally American approach to the Second Amendment.

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.