Maya Angelou admits to using guns for protection

Obama's favorite poet at odds with president's gun control proposals?

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," April 4, 2013. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.

GREG GUTFELD, CO-HOST: They have to tell you when the show starts. I should have been doing -- I could have been doing something horrible. I usually am.

All right. So even President Obama's favorite poet hates gun free zones. Maya Angelou tells Time magazine why she has guns in her house.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYA ANGELOU, AMERICAN POET: If somebody is coming into my house and I have not put out the welcome mat, I want to stop them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: When asked if she had fired a gun, she said, of course. She tells a story of this intruder entering her North Carolina home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELOU: I heard -- the rhythm of someone walking on the leaves. They came to my door. And somebody actually turned the knob. I said, "Stand back. Stand four feet back because I am going to shoot now." Boom. Boom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: Oh, I love her.

The police arrived and informed her that the shots came from inside the house. They were right. The shots came from inside the house, the White House, for Angelou isn't just a star, she's President Obama's bestie, which once again shows that there are different rules for the cool club than for you and me.

Last week, we saw Jim Carrey cruelly mock Americans and the late Chuck Heston for their views on guns, but then calmly defend his own right to have armed security.

Sorry, Jim, Chuck was fighting for Maya's rights to protect herself, because unlike you she has no bodyguard.

And that's when guns really matter. Protecting those who need protection -- children, women, minorities in rough parts of town, old folks living in places where cops aren't nearby. Guns are true empowerment for the powerless, which raises a final question -- why do left wing tools like Robert Redford never, never mind illegal weapons in the hands of domestic terrorists like the Weather Underground, but condemn law abiding gun owners like yourselves? I guess you are not cool enough, cool enough for a movie.

I'd say take a tip from Maya Angelou. She knows why the caged bird shoots, because sometimes she has to. Shouldn't you be able to do the same thing even if you aren't the president's favorite poet?

So, Bob, I have a quiz for you, a test question I wrote.

BOB BECKEL, CO-HOST: Yes, please.

GUTFELD: If your mom was living in a house in the woods, what sticker would you rather have on her doorway? One that says gun-free zone, or one that says, I don't fire warning shots?

BECKEL: I would say -- I would add to that, I don't fire warning shots and I have a tank inside my living room.

Look, this issue about gun control taking guns, it's over. It's not an issue anymore. The question is what is it within this legislation that can be preserved?

And I think the background checks are still a viable possibility and should be. I think there is an outside shot you could get the number of bullets and clips. But outside of that I don't think anybody believes this thing is going anywhere. So nobody has to worry.

GUTFELD: I don't -- you were about to say something, Dana?

DANA PERINO, CO-HOST: Yes, on background checks. I was thinking about this today. OK, you might find enough people to agree on some sort of language for background checks, but the whole purpose of this legislative push was about Newtown, Connecticut.

GUTFELD: Right.

PERINO: The background check would not have prevented what happened in Newtown. I think that's one of the reasons that public opinion has continued to move away from the president, because you start teasing it out, you think, well, you are not solving the problem that you set out to solve.

GUTFELD: Symbolic action.

BOLLING: We have background checks.

PERINO: Yes.

BOLLING: Why are we -- there are background checks. There are background checks at most gun shows.

I mean, literally, if you are getting down to I want a background check for my 14-year-old son because I want to give him a shotgun you're out of your mind. That's going nowhere.

BECKEL: No, that's not going to go anywhere. But the guy at Virginia Tech, for example, when he brought that gun, had they done a background check on it, they would have found out he was undergoing psychiatric care and he probably wouldn't have gotten the gun.

PERINO: But you can always find an exception for that.

BOLLING: But they still get guns even if they bend --

GUILFOYLE: They'll find a way.

PERINO: That was the point in Fast and Furious for why that it didn't -- Fast and Furious didn't matter because criminals could get guns if they wanted them.

GUTFELD: But I will say this, I'm open for that discussion that Bob is talking about. I think that it's worth having a discussion. The problem is they went for symbolic actions first. A rifle that looks like an assault rifle was more important than seeking out the crazies and sentencing laws.

GUILFOYLE: They're blaming it on the guns and they are missing the point.

GUTFELD: Yes.

GUILFOYLE: I mean, why should you then deprive people of their constitutional Second Amendment right to bear arms, to have weapons to protect themselves in their homes, just like Ms. Angelou was saying? Why do you say put the criminals at an advantage? They will find a way to get the weapon. Why can't I have one in my house to protect my family?

GUTFELD: The ultimate feminist weapon, talk about restoration hardware.

BOLLING: You know who wish they had the gun that Ms. Angelou had? The two prosecutors in Texas. Had they had that, there's a good chance those prosecutors are alive in Texas.

BECKEL: Just to correct this one thing, it is not about -- the background checks are not about the guns, they're about the people who buy the guns.

GUTFELD: Right.

BECKEL: And that's a difference. And I think there are a number of situations where people got guns, and they have been subject to background checks and there are not a lot of background checks in a lot of places, then maybe we could have stopped one or two of these.

BOLLING: But, Bob, look at the mass murders. Look at Aurora, Colorado, look at Newtown, look at the other -- do you think they wouldn't have occurred if we had extensive background checks as part of a law? Are you saying that once we get background checks there won't be more mass murders?

BECKEL: No, I'm not saying that. Some of them will be deterred? And if that's --

BOLLING: How? I'm a bad guy, I want to kill people. It doesn't matter if I pass or fail a background check. I'll get my hands on the gun.

GUTFELD: But, Eric, there was a background check.

GUILFOYLE: They will take the weapon from their mom's house who has it legally.

GUTFELD: The background check was the Aurora killer checking the theaters if they were gun-free. That was the only background check.

I want to move in quickly. There was a lead sponsor in the House on gun legislation. Her name is Diane DeGette, I think that's it. She has been in the forefront of gun control for awhile here, but she doesn't seem to know how guns work.

This is a clip when asked how a ban on magazine holding more than 15 rounds would be effect in reducing gun violence.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DIANA DEGETTE (D), COLORADO: This is ammunition, they are bullets. So, the people who have those now, they are going to shoot them.

So, if you ban them in the future, the number of these high capacity magazines is going to decrease dramatically over time because the bullets will have been shot and there won't be anymore available.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: See? This is the real problem with the gun control debate, is that a lot of people doing the debating have no clue.

GUILFOYLE: Ignorant.

GUTFELD: They don't know anybody with guns.

BOLLING: Can I pot out something? Diane DeGette, obviously, doesn't get it, because does she have -- for her that have an opinion and push legislation forward about high capacity magazines and not realizing that once you shoot those bullets out of that magazine, you can reload them and they are no, they will not go away going forward, Ms. DeGette. They will be there and you can still reload them. This is scary that's the expert on the left.

BECKEL: Well, can we assume then that your position is the NRA position, just don't do anything?

BOLLING: No, it's not the NRA position.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLLING: In fact, my position very day after Newtown, Connecticut, it was a solemn day here. So, Bolling, what do you want to do? And I said, I think we should arm our schools? We should have someone in every school that is trained and able to handle a handgun, a gun.

GUTFELD: I want to bring Dana to this. DeGette was also at this forum. A guy was asking about if you outlaw large capacity magazines, that would leave him at a disadvantage, if he faced a well-armed intruder. This is what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Representative DeGette, what about me?

DEGETTE: The good news for you, you live in Denver, the DPD would be there in minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd be dead by then.

(LAUGHTER)

DEGETTE: You'd probably be dead, anyway. If they had that kind of firepower.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GUTFELD: So, that bottom -- they don't take -- this is the problem, when you argue gun control, they don't take you seriously, do you?

PERINO: No, it doesn't matter because your life is thought that important.

GUTFELD: Imagine if you said that to her.

PERINO: Congresswoman DeGette, I could imagine -- I can see where she is coming from. She has to do these forums and she thinks she can achieve something because Congress is so reactionary. It's the do something of legislating.

I truly admit -- I don't know the difference between all the different types of guns and magazines and clips. I have learned a lot in the past six weeks, but I'm also not the sponsor of legislation that is about to -- that would change significant laws as she should have done a lot more homework.

GUILFOYLE: Yes, I mean, she is the leading, you know, foreperson on these draconian laws, yet she is completely ignorant on the subject matter.

She doesn't know what she is talking about, which is she's dangerous.

Putting out misinformation there, trying to push tough words (ph), she loses all credibility. I think this is a major setback for the gun control lobby and for the Democratic Party.

BECKEL: You know, there's some of us who believe kind of strongly in gun control and this is the most gun intensive country in the world, has more guns than has citizens. Now, the fact is --

PERINO: Oh, that's not true.

BECKEL: It is true.

PERINO: No, I have a document.

BOLLING: It is actually not --

BECKEL: Sure it is.

BOLLING: It's close.

BECKEL: It's close.

PERINO: Two hundred seventy.

BECKEL: It's one to one. I mean, that includes every child and everything else.

I mean, I just -- we're not going to win this debate. I recognize that. You're going to win it and this bill is going to be defeated except maybe background checks and it's too bad.

PERINO: Why not spend anytime and energy on things like what Campbell Brown wrote about in "The Wall Street Journal" today, like on videogames.

You would think that -- and whether or not it has an impact. They give Hollywood a pass while hurting rural America.

BECKEL: I think they should do things --

GUTFELD: I got to point out, I -- one of the many things I respect about Bob is that he does not hide -- you don't hide your beliefs about guns. You believe that there should be a complete ban on guns and you say it, handguns.

BECKEL: Handguns.

GUTFELD: Handguns, and there's a lot of people agree with you.

President Obama says he is not taking guns away. He doesn't want to take guns away and he says we are ginning up that fear. However, he does act like he doesn't like gun owners, right?

BOLLING: Can I point something about your number? Your 270 million guns in America, 308 million Americans, also of the lowest murder rate by gun in the world also. So, more guns equals a lower murder rate.

(CROSSTALK)

BECKEL: The lowest murder rate?

BOLLING: There is four per 100,000 in America. The number is multiple in some other countries around the world.

PERINO: Most of them in Latin America.

BECKEL: Well, that's -- how about in England?

GUTFELD: England is weird, though, because England doesn't have as many metropolitan centers. So, there is not as many, there's not gang crime. But they see that we have.

PERINO: Still none of what we are talking about would have addressed the problem of a mentally ill teenager in a home with a lot of guns, playing video games all day, with the mental health problem and mother not knowing what to do about it, and then 20 children --

GUTFELD: The solution --

BECKEL: I contend it would have mattered in Virginia Tech. If this guy had a gun in the gun store and there had been a background check, that he wouldn't have been able to get a gun. Now, maybe he would have gotten the gun another way, I don't know. But at least the possibility exists that he wouldn't have gotten the gun and maybe those people wouldn't have been shot.

GUTFELD: I think the solution is you focus on the mentally ill. You got to keep guns away and the media has to stop talking about it, because the more you talk about it, the more you make immortality possible for these losers.

GUILFOYLE: If you think someone has a mental problem, that is a danger to others, report it. Then don't sit back and do nothing and feel bad about it later.

GUTFELD: Are you saying are you going to report me?

GUILFOYLE: Well, I have done it. They haven't come to get you, but I suspect shortly they will.

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