It is par for the course to hear demands of gun control from the media in the aftermath coverage of a mass shooting. The leftist brigade of late night hosts’ stood in solidarity Monday night in their opposition to the Second Amendment and calls for stricter gun laws.
The night was kicked off by Trevor Noah on The Daily Show as he pushed for criminalizing the weapon rather than examining the root psychological causes of what makes mass murderers go on violent rampages:
What’s sad and frustrating about America is after every mass shooting, lawmakers want to identify the one thing that causes all mass shootings and if they can’t agree on what that thing is, nothing gets done….But there’s one thing that every mass shooting has in common, whatever motivated it has to be combined with a gun.
Jimmy Fallon echoed those sentiments on The Tonight Show with a plea of his own:
No matter what side of the political coin you land on, we all agree this is happening too much and it has to stop. So please make your voice heard. You can call your local representative. You can go to a protest march. You can donate to a charity that fights for common sense gun laws. And vote. You can vote. It all helps. It’s the only way we can make things better and we can be better, thank you.
Stephen Colbert on The Late Show was less diplomatic in his approach, placing blame upon law-abiding Republicans and suggested all Americans turn in their “assault weapons”:
I think that this point it’s clear that America’s gun culture is melting down, but the Republicans in Congress would rather maintain their power than save lives. The latest evidence- the latest- the latest evidence is the two mass shootings in less than 24 hours. One in El Paso, Texas the other in Dayton, Ohio making four mass shootings in America in the last week alone. 255 in 2019 so far. Now there are two bipartisan background check bills that have passed the House but are being blocked by Senate Majority Leader and this month’s centerfold of Corruption Monthly, Mitch McConnell. Now, that is his mating call. McConnell’s had these two bills since February but he won’t take any action. I’m sure he has his reasons. Like the 1.26 million dollars in NRA contributions he has received. Now look, you can’t put a price on a human life but that doesn’t stop Mitch from trying. After every one of these tragedies- every time this happens, we go we should have sensible gun legislation. Everyone wants sensible gun legislation and nothing happens. Well maybe it’s time for senseless gun legislation, ok? Maybe turn in your assault weapon and in exchange we’ll give you a giant pork sausage.
Jimmy Kimmel Live host Jimmy Kimmel, being the left-wing partisan zealot that he is, attacked President Trump directly and implied he should “take responsibility” for the horrific events in El Paso and Dayton:
Yeah, yeah. Yeah do more. That would be good because whatever you’ve been doing doesn’t seem to be going too great. He refuses to take any responsibility for any of this. But he did take the opportunity to point that little finger of blame at you’ll never guess who. “The media has a big responsibility to life and safety in our Country. Fake news has contributed greatly to the anger and rage that has built up over many years. News coverage has got to start being fair, balanced and unbiased, or these terrible problems will only get worse!” He blamed the fake news and later he and some other Republicans blamed video games. And of course there are zero studies that link video games to gun violence. And they play video games all over the world. This is the only place where this happens regularly. Video games have not been linked to gun violence but, you know what is linked to gun violence? Guns are linked to gun violence. The problem isn’t fake news. It’s real guns.
Seth Meyers on Late Night followed the same path as many of his peers in the media, shifting the collectivized anger away from the killer and towards President Trump:
We’d like to begin tonight by saying a few words about the horrific mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso. This was a heartbreaking weekend of unspeakable tragedy and yet one that disturbingly feels all too familiar. Of course as we all know by now there is an epidemic of gun violence and mass shootings in this country and no matter how difficult we cannot become numb to it. But it’s also not just about guns. The shooting in El Paso was an act of white supremacists, domestic terrorism, specifically targeting Hispanics. It’s a threat that is growing and real. These are facts we must look squarely in the eye. No matter how monstrous the spread of violent white supremacy has been fueled by racist vitriol, warning of invasions by immigrants, language that is frequently echoed by right wing media outlets and of course the President. And on top of that, there is of course too much easy access to weapons of war that should be outlawed. This is a moment that demands moral clarity and urgency from our political leaders…
Finally, the rarely-political James Corden began The Late Late Show with a montage of reaction monologues to past mass shootings, he followed the video with this:
And here we are again. Since we’ve started this show almost four and a half years ago, there have been 1,601 mass shootings, 1,820 deaths, and 6,890 people wounded in those incidents in America. Tonight in Ohio and Texas there are children going to bed without their parents, parents going to bed without their children. And I’m heartbroken by the very thought of everyone who never got to say goodbye to their loved ones simply because they went back to school shopping at a Walmart, or wanted to grab a drink with a friend at a bar. The sadness of it all is overwhelming. And our hearts are with all of the families affected. Until we really confront this issue and have politicians with the moral courage to face the gun epidemic, the only thing that is going to change is the location of the next mass shooting and the number of casualties. I hope so much we never have to witness such unnecessary devastation again because no matter who you are or where you are, we all want to come home to our loved ones at the end of the day…
It is easy for elitist members of the media, with personal security guards, to demonize those who have to take their safety into their own hands.
Transcripts below. Click "expand" to read more:
The Daily Show
8/5/19
11:13:12 PM
TREVOR NOAH: Now, again, this argument sounds completely logical. If someone kills a group of random strangers, they must be mentally ill, but that’s not necessarily true. In fact, a majority of mass shooters have no history of mental illness. Which is a scary thought because it means most mass shooters are killing because they want to, not because something went wrong in their brain. So, what causes mass shootings? Is it the internet? Is it video games? Is it Trump? Is it mental illness? You know, what’s sad and frustrating about America is that after every mas shooting, lawmakers want to identify the one thing that causes all mass shootings and if they can’t agree on what that thing is, nothing gets done. But the truth is when it comes to any individual shooting, the cause could be any one of those factors, if not more. But there’s one thing that every mass shooting has in common, whatever motivated it has to be combined with a gun. We’ll be right back.
The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
8/5/19
11:34:58
JIMMY FALLON: These are the hardest nights to do a show like this. We’re still grappling with what happened this weekend in El Paso and Dayton, where 31 people lost their lives. It’s tough to know what to say after something like this, there are no words that can make it easier. All we can say is that the victims and their families and everyone in Dayton and El Paso are in our hearts tonight. And to anyone whose background has made them a target of prejudice or hate or violence or anyone who feels they may not be welcome in this country, know that you are welcome. We support you and we love you and the cycle of hate needs to stop. El Paso and Dayton have both set up funds to support the victims, so if you want to help please go online and make a donation. No matter what side of the political coin you land on, we all agree this is happening too much and it has to stop. So please make your voice heard. You can call your local representative. You can go to a protest march. You can donate to a charity that fights for common sense gun laws. And vote. You can vote. It all helps. It’s the only way we can make things better and we can be better, thank you.
The Late Show With Stephen Colbert
8/5/19
11:38:24 PM
STEPHEN COLBERT:..I think at this point it’s clear that America’s gun culture is melting down, but the Republicans in Congress would rather maintain their power than save lives. The latest evidence -- [applause and cheers] --the latest -- the latest evidence is the two mass shootings in less than 24 hours. One in El Paso, Texas the other one in Dayton, Ohio making four mass shootings in America in the last week alone. 255 in 2019 so far. Now there are two bipartisan background check bills that have passed the House but are being blocked by Senate Majority Leader and this month’s centerfold of Corruption Monthly, Mitch McConnell. [Boos] Now, that is his mating call. McConnell’s had these two bills since February but he won’t take any action. I’m sure he has his reasons. Like the 1.26 million dollars in NRA contributions he has received. [Boos] Now look, you can’t put a price on a human life but that doesn’t stop Mitch from trying. After every one of these tragedies, this is -- every time this happens, we go we should have sensible gun legislation. Everybody wants sensible gun legislation and nothing happens. Well maybe it’s time for senseless gun legislation, ok? Maybe turn in your assault weapon and in exchange we’ll give you a giant pork sausage. [Cheers and applause]
Jimmy Kimmel Live
8/5/19
11:38:35
JIMMY KIMMEL: Yeah, yeah. Yeah do more. That would be good because whatever you’ve been doing doesn’t seem to be going too great. He refuses to take any responsibility for any of this. But he did take the opportunity to point that little finger of blame at you’ll never guess who. “The media has a big responsibility to life and safety in our Country. Fake news has contributed greatly to the anger and rage that has built up over many years. News coverage has got to start being fair, balanced and unbiased, or these terrible problems will only get worse!” He blamed the fake news and later he and some other Republicans blamed video games. And of course there are zero studies that link video games to gun violence. And they play video games all over the world. This is the only place where this happens regularly. Video games have not been linked to gun violence but, you know what is linked to gun violence? Guns are linked to gun violence. The problem isn’t fake news. It’s real guns. [Applause]
Late Night With Seth Meyers
8/5/19
12:37:58 AM
SETH MEYERS: We’d like to begin tonight by saying a few words about the horrific mass shootings in Dayton and El Paso. This was a heartbreaking weekend of unspeakable tragedy and yet one that disturbingly feels all too familiar. Of course as we all know by now there is an epidemic of gun violence and mass shootings in this country and no matter how difficult we cannot become numb to it. But it’s also not just about guns. The shooting in El Paso was an act of white supremacist domestic terrorism, specifically targeting Hispanics. It’s a threat that is growing and real. These are facts we must look squarely in the eye. No matter how monstrous the spread of violent white supremacy has been fueled by racist vitriol, warning of invasions by immigrants, language that is frequently echoed by right wing media outlets and of course the President. And on top of that, there is of course too much easy access to weapons of war that should be outlawed. This is a moment that demands moral clarity and urgency from our political leaders. And so now that we’re seeing the political world react, we thought we might at least try to offer a few thoughts on what’s happening. For more on this it’s time for “a closer look.”
The Late Late Show With James Corden
8/5/19
12:40:05 AM
(A montage of past monologues after mass shootings)
JAMES CORDEN: And here we are again. Since we’ve started this show almost four and a half years ago, there have been 1,601 mass shootings, 1,820 deaths, and 6,890 people wounded in those incidents in America. Tonight in Ohio and Texas there are children going to bed without their parents, parents going to bed without their children. And I’m heartbroken by the very thought of everyone who never got to say goodbye to their loved ones simply because they went back-to-school shopping at a Walmart, or wanted to grab a drink with a friend at a bar. The sadness of it all is overwhelming. And our hearts are with all of the families affected. Until we really confront this issue and have politicians with the moral courage to face the gun epidemic, the only thing that is going to change is the location of the next mass shooting and the number of casualties. I hope so much we never have to witness such unnecessary devastation again because no matter who you are or where you are, we all want to come home to our loved ones at the end of the day. And now our responsibility on this show is to try and entertain you and hopefully be a brief escape from the heaviness that comes with times like these. We hope we can do that for you tonight. This is The Late Late Show.
