Thousands sign petition to deport CNN TV host

Tens of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for British Cable News Network host Piers Morgan to be deported from the United States over his gun control views, the Associated Press reports.

Morgan has taken an aggressive stand for tighter US gun laws in the wake of the Newtown, Connecticut, school shooting. Last week, he called a gun advocate appearing on his “Piers Morgan Tonight” show an “unbelievably stupid man.”

Now, gun rights activists are fighting back. A petition created December 21 on the White House e-petition website by a user in Texas accuses Morgan of engaging in a “hostile attack against the US Constitution” by targeting the Second Amendment. It demands he be deported immediately for “exploiting his position as a national network television host to stage attacks against the rights of American citizens.”

The petition has already hit the 25,000 signature threshold to get a White House response. By Monday, it had 31,813 signatures.

Morgan seemed unfazed — and even amused — by the movement.

In a series of Twitter messages, he alternately urged his followers to sign the petition and in response to one article about the petition said “bring it on” as he appeared to track the petition’s progress.

“If I do get deported from America for wanting fewer gun murders, are there any other countries that will have me?” he wrote.