• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Late Night hosts about mass shootings, is it time yet to talk about guns?

Keasar

Member
Van opened a thread about Jimmy Kimmel speaking about the mass shooting in Las Vegas, his hometown, and seeing the video he was visibly shocked, choked up and crying openly, it was devastating to see.

And I just spent the morning watching the reactions of hosts of my favourite shows go through a clearly visible frustration:
Trevor Noah.
Also Between the Scenes bit where he talks candidly about the administrations reaction to the Puerto Rico crisis and a mass shooting.

Stephen Colbert.

Seth Meyers.

These are just the ones I watch, there are many more I am sure and if people post them, I will update this post with them.
Edit:

And this is how it's been for me for the past 17 years since I first watched The Daily Show. I have seen Jon Stewart year after year come out on his show, being frustrated that another mass shooting has happened, and nothing happens. Nothing ever happens. Nothing ever changes. What is offered to the victims of a repeated crime that never stops because the lawmakers of the US. doesn't want to? "Thoughts and prayers".

Bojack fucking Horseman just a month ago in season 4 lampooned this phrase in the episode of the very same name. Regular mass shootings occured and people had reached a sort of non-caring state where they, of course to the victims, offered their "thoughts and prayers" but then just stopped caring. Cause nothing happens to respond to this, so why care? And here we are again, another mass shooting in the US. and on Twitter "thoughts and prayers" is trending, and most likely that is the only thing that is gonna happen in response to this. "Thoughts" and fucking "prayers".

And there are people who actively work against a meaningful change. There was this post in the Jimmy Kimmel thread:
Yzv6vDI.png


The young are becoming the old.
First off, fuck her. She is a goddamn cunt and always been during her "career". And this is the default response of those who work against gun legislation and gun control, "the shooters don't care". It's an oft repeated phrase I hear every goddamn time this happens. Well, seems they do though in countries, or even continents, where this does not regularly happen and we HAVE gun control. Turns out when it's a bit of a chore to commit a mass shooting, people do care.

I am no American. I am Swedish but I have family in the US. that I care deeply about and I've repeatedly visited USA and love the country, caring for the people there I've met and know are good folks despite that stereotype "hurr hurr 'muricans" that goes around the world. I sincerely hope that there will be a time where the US. politicians soon starts working for a change, hopefully before a mass shooting happens again and I have grown so numb to them that I can't give an response at all, or really care to.

If this thread seems inappropriate, please lock it. I turn to comedians to process terrible events, and when I see them all this frustrated, I feel so as well. I needed a way to vent.
 

faridmon

Member
If it helps, most of the bands I follow on Facebook (SWMRS, Sofi Tucker, Spoon, Yuksek, etc.) have been all voicing their opinion and frustration about the gun law and people are active in regards to that issue.

Hopefully more mainstream personnel also shout loud in regards to the situation.
 

Jintor

Member
If the insane or criminal don't care about laws, why do Republicans care about lawmaking at all? Why is it only in this specific area where this policy argument comes out?
 

kmax

Member
Australia dealt with its gun problems - so did the UK.

The US too will have to go down that path if it ever wishes to change its ways. Otherwise, we will continue to see stuff like this happen.

In fact, by the trend that we're seeing, it's getting even worse.
 
If the insane or criminal don't care about laws, why do Republicans care about lawmaking at all? Why is it only in this specific area where this policy argument comes out?

Good point.

We know why though.

Guns for the money, laws for the subjugation of people they don't like.
 

TBiddy

Member
While I understand the argument that the right to carry arms is protected by one of the amendments, I've yet to understand why anyone would want to carry a gun around.. or even own one.
 
You can't stand there and say "criminals don't care about the law" when you have example after example of people using guns in a mass-shooting that they acquired legally. Stephen Paddock had 23 guns on him in that hotel room, you cannot tell me with a straight face he would have been able to cause such a large loss of life if he didn't have such easy access to such weapons. You cannot claim that gun control doesn't work when it has been proven time and again that it does.

I refuse to believe the right-wing are this fucking dense, it's disingenuous horseshit. I'd rather these cunts just admit that their stupid army-man LARPing is more important to them than human lives.
 

-shadow-

Member
As much as there needs to be change, there won't be change. The GOP doesn't want there to be change, so there won't be change unfortunately. This will happen again and again and again. And we'll keep talking about it, but they'll never do anything about it.
 
People are gonna do drugs and don’t give a damn about the law so let’s get rid of them

Women are gonna get abortions regardless of the law so let’s get rid of that too.

Rich people like Trump don’t pay taxes regardless of the law so we can get rid of that too.

Let’s just get rid of the government since people are gonna do whatever they want regardless of the law so their jobs are pointless.
 

Hagi

Member
Everything is going to be laser focused on hotel security now and that will be the "answer" to gun control till the next person shoots up a bunch of people and the goal posts move yet again.
 

Dredd97

Member
The gun debate in the USA (if it was ever serious) ended with Sandy Hook

where the importance of owning a gun was more important than the lives of children...
 

The Kid

Member
Something has always bothered me about late night hosts. When the Donald Drumpf John Oliver video came out and everyone thought he destroyed Trump, I tried to get my Dad to watch it and his response was "why should I care about what some British guy has to say?" Now my dad is a Fox News conservative but not a stereotypical 'murica person (he is from the northeast, Ivy League education, successful professional, etc). I wanted to dismiss his opinion as dumb or ignorant but his dismissal of John Oliver stuck with me. What made me understand my dad's dismissal is when I was listening to a Chapo Trap House episode where the hosts joked that comedians were liberals' version of "the troops." We tend to lionize people like Oliver, Colbert, etc as sane voice in an insane world, share videos where they own trump and the GOP, and get frustrated when things don't change. But in reality, a lot of American view these late night hosts the same way OP viewed Tom Lahren. Change will not come from them. Change will come from us. Jimmy Kimmel may have brought attention to health care, but it was group like ADAPT and people calling Congressmen that killed these bills. It will take people like us electing politicians who support our causes and holding them accountable when they stray. It's gonna take time but change is going to come from us actually getting out there and doing things, not just relying on late night hosts.
 

iJack

Banned
Obviously. Will you?

I don't know. USA is a shithole right now. There's no way that I will travel to America ever again as long as you don't take responsibility to fix this madness with gun control. So I don't know if something will be done. I know what I will be doing though. Hope that the rest of the world turns their back on touristing the US to the point that they realize that they actually have a issue. A real issue.
 

Snoopycat

Banned
After the Dunblane school shooting our government immediately clamped down on gun ownership. Now we have some of the toughest laws in Europe. Anyone caught with a firearm without a licence gets an immediate 5 year prison sentence. I was amazed that after the Columbine tragedy the U.S government didn't do the same. I wonder how many more senseless tragedies it will take before the American government finally does something to protect it's people.
 
It will require people constantly talking about it and demanding it. On tv, on the internet, on the radio, in interviews and on the streets. That's the only way it will work.

So, not happening. Because same day next week, this is forgotten by most people.
 

Hjod

Banned
Murderers don't care that it's illegal to kill someone, let's make murder legal!

It such a stupid argument, something needs to change, or people will keep dying. The dude had 25 weapons in his room. I mean come on.
 

edbrat

Member
In the UK some madman shot up a kids school in Dunblane = guns banned and sentencing for illegal gun ownership gets real.

In the US some madman shot up a kids school in Sandy Hook = ....thoughts and prayers.

If a load of schoolkids getting shot doesn't cause change and becomes tacitly accepted as acceptable collateral damage for the second amendment, I honestly don't know what has to happen for the US to change. Everyone asks "how many more times" and the current, hopelessly sad answer is "many many more".
 
I wonder how many more senseless tragedies it will take before the American government finally does something to protect it's people.

It's entirely pessimistic, but the government has shown time after time that there is no line.

The president can say a KKK rally is cool and all he gets is a slap on the wrist.
 

Jombie

Member
It's hard to have a serious discussion on the matter when the GOP is bought and paid for by the NRA. All of them have blood on their hands.
 

Keasar

Member
Something has always bothered me about late night hosts. When the Donald Drumpf John Oliver video came out and everyone thought he destroyed Trump, I tried to get my Dad to watch it and his response was "why should I care about what some British guy has to say?" Now my dad is a Fox News conservative but not a stereotypical 'murica person (he is from the northeast, Ivy League education, successful professional, etc). I wanted to dismiss his opinion as dumb or ignorant but his dismissal of John Oliver stuck with me. What made me understand my dad's dismissal is when I was listening to a Chapo Trap House episode where the hosts joked that comedians were liberals' version of "the troops." We tend to lionize people like Oliver, Colbert, etc as sane voice in an insane world, share videos where they own trump and the GOP, and get frustrated when things don't change. But in reality, a lot of American view these late night hosts the same way OP viewed Tom Lahren. Change will not come from them. Change will come from us. Jimmy Kimmel may have brought attention to health care, but it was group like ADAPT and people calling Congressmen that killed these bills. It will take people like us electing politicians who support our causes and holding them accountable when they stray. It's gonna take time but change is going to come from us actually getting out there and doing things, not just relying on late night hosts.

That is a very correct assessment. It all comes down to the people forcing their chosen representatives to deal with this issue and ignore the lobbyists of the gun industry and the NRA. As I pointed out, I am not American and I don't live there, so I don't really have a finger on the pulse of the American people and what itself thinks. These are the outlets I get to hear and the reactions of the audience.

What worries me though is that there will be a time where international sympathy runs out for the US. Remember the last time every country around the world sent their condolences, their heartfelt pains, their "thoughts and prayers", to a country in the Middle East after a suicide bomb? Even the most devastating ones claiming dozens if not hundreds of lives? I don't anymore. And I think America will soon reach that stage as well. A stage where another mass shooting is just another statistic on the sideline of major news outlets that people scroll past to reach the latest sport result and people on forums posts unironically Harrison Ford's whogivesashit.gif.
 

Snoopycat

Banned
It's entirely pessimistic, but the government has shown time after time that there is no line.

The president can say a KKK rally is cool and all he gets is a slap on the wrist.

I think of the millions of Americans who don't own guns and have to believe that there will be a time when they will demand action. The one thing that surprises me is the cops over there don't seem to make a big issue out of this. I'd think that given the dangers they face they'd be the biggest supporters for gun control.
 
It's hard to have a serious discussion on the matter when the GOP is bought and paid for by the NRA. All of them have blood on their hands.
Yet people keep voting for them. So how do you change that. Even with all the facts out there, just plain common sense that a regular person does not need weapons like this - for defense and hunting, a normal pistol or rifle, maybe shotgun are all you ever need - but they still vote for the guys who advocate you need automatic weapons for.... I don't even know why.
 

iJack

Banned
That is a very correct assessment. It all comes down to the people forcing their chosen representatives to deal with this issue and ignore the lobbyists of the gun industry and the NRA. As I pointed out, I am not American and I don't live there, so I don't really have a finger on the pulse of the American people and what itself thinks. These are the outlets I get to hear and the reactions of the audience.

What worries me though is that there will be a time where international sympathy runs out for the US. Remember the last time every country around the world sent their condolences, their heartfelt pains, their "thoughts and prayers", to a country in the Middle East after a suicide bomb? Even the most devastating ones claiming dozens if not hundreds of lives? I don't anymore. And I think America will soon reach that stage as well. A stage where another mass shooting is just another statistic on the sideline of major news outlets that people scroll past to reach the latest sport result and people on forums posts unironically Harrison Ford's whogivesashit.gif.

Then maybe that's what it will take. To the point that people literally start to ignore the USA when it comes to tourism. It's easier than boycottying, and sure signalizes that the rest of the world had enough, if they haven't already.
 

djkimothy

Member
The Senate should propose a bill everyday until something gets done.

There's so many things your country does right, but there's an almost equal weight of things you guys do wrong. Gun control is just one of them.
 

holygeesus

Banned
Nothing will ever get done while the NRA is allowed to buy off politicians. You won't ever initiate changes to gun control until you remove money from politics, which will also never happen, so why even debate it?
 

Akai__

Member
It should always be the time to talk about gun laws in the USA. Late Night hosts calling this out is a good thing. Trevor (Kimmel and etc. too) is absolutely right here. The media and their usual focus on simple answers is always outstanding. Blame hotel security, blame videogames... Blame everything, just not the actual gun laws in the USA...

It's fucking crazy that people can buy weapons without problems (even automatic ones) and it's fucking crazy that they are working on a law that makes Silencers perfectly legal and easier to obtain, instead of making it harder. Gun laws are a huge problem and it's not normal and it never should be. This "our forefathers wanted us to have guns" thinking is straight up from the medieval times and it's nothing but an excuse to make more money. Common sense should be applied and laws/ammendments should be changed/adjusted, if it makes for a safer environment for everyone.

But who am I kidding... Even if a gun ban law is passed, they won't just go from house to house (and bunkers) to collect all the weapons and they certainly wouldn't find everything that people are hiding. It would take decades to fix this serious problem.

While I understand the argument that the right to carry arms is protected by one of the amendments, I've yet to understand why anyone would want to carry a gun around.. or even own one.

It's a vicious circle, because when everybody can own a gun, people give in and end up buying a gun "to protect me and my family".
 
Speaking of this, I assume someone somewhere has already done a collage of Trump’s forceful reactions to every other attack, including in foreign countries, saying something had to be done, while he just enounced platitudes on this one.
 

Slayven

Member
When the GOP didn't even blink when a bunch of white kids getting killed, folks should have realized what the score was
 
Usually YouTube comments don't bother me but fuck all those obsessed gun owning sacks of shits on the Kimmel video putting the blame somewhere else. Fuck yourself with shiny metal death device.
 
I think of the millions of Americans who don't own guns and have to believe that there will be a time when they will demand action. The one thing that surprises me is the cops over there don't seem to make a big issue out of this. I'd think that given the dangers they face they'd be the biggest supporters for gun control.
If there was gun control then they couldn’t murder black people for no reason

Can’t claim you fear for your life when guns are illegal
 

Addi

Member
I'll never understand the American obsession with the constitution. It's a religion for some people, the infallible word of god.
 
Top Bottom