France has very strict gun laws, except for terrorists': Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich criticized the system that allowed a terrorist attack in France on Thursday that took the life of a police officer. He made the comments Friday on Outnumbered on Fox News.

"There are a couple of quick observations," Newt began. "First, France has very strict gun laws, except for terrorists, who seem to always be able to get guns.

"Second, this guy shot policemen in 2001," he continued, "so to say he was radicalized, he was shooting people before he went to prison."

"And third," Gingrich added, "the idea of a watchlist may turn out to be something we all have to give up on. If you're on a watchlist, you're dangerous, and if you're dangerous why are you out on your won."

"I think we may have to rethink the whole way we approach this," he concluded. "If we want dramatically higher safety I mean, what we get today is a sloppy system, every once in a while something terrible happens, everybody feels bad for two weeks, and then we go back to business as usual."

President Trump predicted that the attack would make a big difference in the upcoming election in France where the populist Maine Le Pen is second in the polls currently, but will likely see her chances improve because of her anti-refugee rhetoric.

.@newtgingrich: "France has very strict gun laws - except for terrorists, who seem to always be able to get guns." #Outnumbered pic.twitter.com/zT3F9TRgNf

— Fox News (@FoxNews) April 21, 2017

"The question is not, 'are you willing to accept immigration,'" Newt continued. "The question is, 'are you willing to accept immigrants who refuse to join your country.' And part of this is brought on by the Europeans themselves. They were quite comfortable putting immigrants from Morocco and Algeria and elsewhere off into these little suburban places, turning them into isolated bungalows. And now they're discovering that that doesn't work."

"And I think the real debate has to be, if somebody comes to your country, do they have an obligation to assimilate into your society. Or are they allowed to be off on their own. And I think that's going to be a very major debate."

Gingrich was a stalwart supporter of Donald Trump since the primary campaign, though he has criticized him on occasion. In November Gingrich said that Trump was done with "draining the swamp," but he later retracted the comments and apologized when people took notice of his comments.