Univision’s Sunday talker Al Punto, hosted by Jorge Ramos, is a known disseminator of gun control tropes and talking points, which are clearly aimed at eroding the rights of lawful gun owners. A recent segment suggests that the show might be taking a new approach: anti-gun activism under the guise of comedy and song.
Here’s how comedian César Muñoz (A.K.A.Tan Tan), whose segment occupies the last two or three minutes of any given Al Punto broadcast, misrepresented gun owners and smeared politicians who support the right to keep and bear arms:
CESAR MUNOZ: What would the problem be if a new law was made that finally regulated arms sales?
-The problem is obvious. It's strange you don't know. Without gun sales who pays for the campaigns?
-Well, do you think it’s ok for people to walk around armed?
-Of course, it’s a right, one of the most fundamental.
-Even when someone has mental problems?
-Without the option it would be discrimination.
Tan Tan has occupied the final segment of Al Punto for some time now. His work serves a double role. First, the news of the day is reduced to satirical song. Second, Tan Tan relieves Ramos of the burden of having to do a full show.
In a matter of seconds, Al Punto manages to levy multiple smears against lawful gun owners: Namely, that gun manufacturers directly finance campaigns, and that gun owners support the sale of firearms to those who have been adjudicated mentally deficient. Both of those are patently false, and are the latest iteration of what Jon Stewart used to call “clown nose on-clown nose off”- the use of comedy as a means of shielding certain policy discussions from honest debate and criticism.
It is worth noting that this segment is a reaction to the church shooting in Southerland Springs, Texas. Ramos introduced the segment by saying,
President Donald Trump said this week that the Texas massacre where 26 people died wasn’t a gun issue but a mental health issue. The White House sure doesn’t like to talk about gun control, but Cesar Muñoz sure likes to sing about it.
By the way, Al Punto doesn’t often book advocates for the right to keep and bear arms because they chew Ramos up in a matter of seconds- the latest instance being Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma, who answered a gun control question before talking about his immigration proposals...in a prior segment!
What this segment proves, more than anything else, is that no one on Al Punto seems to be able to handle serious and honest debate on guns. In the alternative, we get comedy.
Cowards.
