Meghan McCain Warns of 'Slippery Slope' as 'The View' Debates Gun Reform After Parkland Florida Shooting

Friday's episode started with the panel discussing President Donald Trump's failure to mention gun law reform in his speech following Wednesday's horrific shooting. "Most Americans seem to want it, so why can't they start the conversation in D.C.?" asked Whoopi Goldberg.

For Joy Behar, the answer was simple: Money."

"The gun lobby is very strong. Gun sales are humungous," she said. "They have a lot of power to sell guns and that influences politics and that's what's wrong with the whole system." Sunny Hostin added she believes some politicians "care more about being re-elected" than "our country's children."

McCain said it's not just a Republican problem, mentioning that a Democrat-controlled Senate, White House and Congress failed to renew the federal Assault Weapons Ban in 2009.

"I do think this is why voting is so important, because if this is your issue, if what just happened -- which is tragic and horrific no matter what side of the aisle you are on -- gets you up and moving, this is why voting is so important," she explained. "If this is your #1 issue, go out and vote locally against it. And for Second Amendment supporters, go for people who support the NRA and support the Second Amendment."

Paula Faris believed most NRA members are "for common-sense fun laws," adding that "there's no need for these semi-automatic weapons to be out there." "It's easier to get an AR-15 in Florida than it is to get a handgun," she added.

McCain -- who is a card-carrying member of the NRA and self-described "Second Amendment person" -- admitted she's "well aware" she probably wasn't "going to change anyone's opinion in this room" about the issue, but explained her side of the aisle.

"The argument from NRA members and Second Amendment supporters is much like abortion, there's not a lot of trust on both sides for compromise," she said. "For me, I'm like, 'OK we can talk about assault weapons' -- that being said, I know people who own them that obviously aren't mass murderers, they're hunters -- and I will say it kinda is like, if you give a mouse a cookie, it's a slippery slope. Much like abortion, it's so emotional on both sides, it's hard for both sides to meet in the middle."

Goldberg, a gun owner herself, didn't see the correlation.

"This is not like abortion because people make a choice with abortion, people make really hard choices with this. We can't even get the conversation going about, 'Hey, is everybody seeing we have an issue here?'" she said. "If we're talking about the fact that this is a kid who bought it legally who should not have been able to have access to guns, why aren't we saying why don't we renew this idea that people with mental health issues maybe shouldn't be the people who should have guns? There are conversations we should be having that we don't."

McCain responded with, "I don't know one Second Amendment supporter, gun owner who is for people with mental illnesses ... there's not one person on the planet that would support that. I will say we're talking about flagging people with mental illnesses. This guy was flagged by the FBI, he was reported on social media and still nothing happened."

The conversation ended there, as it was time to head to commercial.