The View hosts Sunny Hostin and Alyssa Farrah Griffin get into fiery clash over Georgia school shooting

The View’s Sunny Hostin got into a heated debate with Republican host Alyssa Farah Griffin as the panel discussed the tragic shooting in Georgia.

The two women clashed on Thursday’s show when Sunny, 55, accused people of jumping to the topic of “mental health” in the face of such tragedies. Alyssa responded defensively: “I didn’t, I talked about guns first.”

Without looking at her co-host, Sunny condescendingly replied, “I’m not talking about you personally, I’m talking about the country,” before adding, “The common denominator is that there are mental health issues all over the world, but we’re the only country where 14-year-olds are killing people, right?”

The TV host was referring to the arrest of 14-year-old Colt Gray, who is accused of carrying out the deadly mass shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder on Wednesday morning and who had been on the FBI’s radar for a year before the tragedy.

“I say it every time we talk about this: People who suffer from mental illness are ten times more likely to be victims of crime — violent crime — than to commit it,” Sunny continued.

The View hosts Sunny Hostin (left) and Alyssa Farah Griffin (right) clashed on Thursday’s show when discussing the Georgia school shooting

Joy Behar turned to Alyssa and argued that ‘Republicans keep dismantling mental health measures’

“So I’m not saying there isn’t a mental health issue here, but that seems to be the first thing we jump to, right? Mental health, mental health!” the mother of two added.

Alyssa, the former White House aide, noted, “It feels strange to talk about politics in the face of tragedy, but we are in the middle of a political season and voting is the way to solve problems like mass shootings that are unique to this country.

“It’s a universal fear, whether you’re Republican or Democrat, to send your kids to school and think they could be the victims of a school shooting.”

She then argued, “There are ways to address this, and the most important thing is for candidates to make it clear that they are not standing up for safe, legal gun owners who will never use their firearms to harm others, but that they are going to address the issues that the vast majority of Americans support.

“You have to talk about solutions that make it clear that you’re not coming to get legal gun owners and by the way, you can’t separate the mental health aspect. A 14-year-old shooting up a school is not good. He could be harming himself, so you have to address both,” Alyssa asserted.

Comedian Joy Behar then said, “Don’t Republicans keep dismantling mental health policies all the time?” Alyssa countered, “I’m not saying the party is addressing it. I’ll point to Chris Murphy and Thom Tillis coming together and passing sweeping reforms, but that’s not enough, you have to address both.”

Sunny continued, “It’s really about getting rid of these assault rifles. I think it’s about getting rid of high-capacity magazines, and if you look at the DNC platform and if you listen to what they said at the DNC, they want to ban assault rifles.

“They want to ban high-capacity magazines, and they want to end the gun industry’s immunity from liability. I think that’s really important, because if your child is murdered, you can’t even sue the gun owners.

Sunny (left) and former White House aide Alyssa (right) clashed when discussing the link between gun violence and mental health

Whoopi Goldberg interrupted the panel to acknowledge the families who lost their loved ones in the horrific attack

Police officers on scene after the shooting at Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia

“They want to increase funding for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and more importantly, the gun violence epidemic is seen as a public health problem, so that’s where the money should come from.

“The money comes from the CDC and the National Institutes of Health, so there is a way to fund research into gun violence.”

A frustrated Joy, 81, chimed in again, stating, “The leading cause of death of children in this country is school violence, gun violence!” Sara Haines confirmed the statistic, but said it was “such a divisive issue.”

Host Whoopi Goldberg interrupted the women, shouting, “Hold on, everybody!” as they took a moment to reflect on the families who lost loved ones in the horrific incident, which left two students and two teachers dead.

“This happened yesterday. Can we just… we’ll talk more about it, but right now our hearts are with the families going through this,” the 68-year-old actor announced before the show went to a commercial break.

Following the incident, a 14-year-old high school student who had been on the FBI’s radar for the past year was identified as the suspected gunman who carried out a bloody shooting spree that killed four people.

Colt Gray, a third-grader, immediately surrendered when confronted by police after the violent shooting at Apalachee High School. He is charged with murder and will be tried as an adult.

The Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice confirmed Thursday that the suspect was arrested at the Gainesville Regional Youth Detention Center, Channel 2 Action News reported.