Continuing to provide further proof that some on the left want to ban some or all guns in the wake of Orlando, the panel on Wednesday’s Nightly Show openly advocated for the banning of the AR-15, halting all gun manufacturing, and creating a government database to track how much ammo is owned by every American.
The banter began with host Larry Wilmore and his three cohorts hailing the Senate Democrats holding a filibusters to secure gun control votes (which they probably wouldn’t have done if they were around in 2013 for Ted Cruz’s filibusters) and panelist Grace Parra gushing that she had “high hopes for this filibuster.”
Eventually, the focus turned to gun control with Wilmore blurting out: “But who needs an assault rifle? What’s your — do you need that for except to kill a lot of people. Really.”
Veep star Timothy Simmons was Wednesday’s guest panelist and lamented that even a ban on “the sale of assault weapons” would still leave “three guns for every person in the country” before Parra dropped this mind-boggling suggestion for a gun ban:
It does feel we talk about the sale and distribution of guns and not so much about the production of them. Why are we not talking about stopping the production of them? Why are we not talking about stopping the production of guns? There’s so many.
Nightly Show contributor Ricky Velez jumped in with another bizarre claim that “[t]he U.S. government is one of the biggest production companies” when it’s actually bought by gun manufacturers.
Aside from a nod by Wilmore that there were other factors in play with the Orlando terrorist, there was no discussion of radical Islam but instead on gun control and mocking gun rights supporters for “talking point[s]” about having armed security guards.
A few moments later, Velez suggested that not only should the gun shop owner who sold the Islamic terrorist ammunition be criminally charged, but everyone should be tracked for how much ammunition they own:
The gun — the guy who sold him that ammo, I think he should be held responsible. I think ammo should be regulated and see how much goes out to everybody. [APPALUSE] Listen, listen, shooting guns is fun. It is a fun thing. To go to a shooting range and to shoot a gun is a lot of fun. But you don't need more than 100 bullets at a shooting range, and you can buy more bullets at a shooting range. I don't understand why we allow just anybody to go and have as many bullet as they [EXPLEXTIVE]. It's crazy.
The panel concluded the seven-minute-plus of liberal advocacy with Simmons and Parra acting as the judge and jury over whether Americans should be able to own AR-15s:
SIMMONS: And I'm not going to take that away from a family that lives up there but you don't need AR-15 to hunt a deer. That is — you don't need anything that powerful.
PARRA: You don't need to go to Academy Sports and Outdoors to buy guns or buy AR-15s like you can. That’s — I'm from Texas where guns are very easily accessible, too, and I agree with that completely, completely.
The relevant portions of the transcript from Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore on June 15 can be found below.
Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore
June 15, 2016
11:50:37 p.m. Eastern
LARRY WILMORE: So yesterday in Washington, this was amazing, Paul Ryan called for a moment of silence in Congress. I don't know if you guys saw it, but this happened. Some people got up and walked out, saying they are tired of silence and prayers, while others stayed and literary yelled, “where's the bill!” They were talking about the gun bill that was put aside and since this taping, Senator Christopher Murray has been filibustering since 11 a.m. this morning on the Senate floor for gun control. He has been joined by over like 20 senators so far, including Cory Booker and Elizabeth Warren. Okay, I’ve never seen this kind of action. Do you think this was just for show? Or do you feel Congress is actually ready to do something about guns?
(....)
GRACE PARRA: I have high hopes for this filibuster. I love a good filibuster to begin with. I'm backstage watching C-SPAN like it's game six of the finals right now. I love it.
WILMORE: You DVR the filibuster?
PARRA: I do. I feel like there's something right now it's energy in this country is one of — of action, of activity.
(....)
PARRA: One tiny speck of optimism I have with this “No fly/no buy rule” that they’re talking about or the ban right now which is where if you're on the no-fly zone then you can't buy a gun, which is something both Obama agrees with and weirdly, Trump agrees with, too, so it feels like —
WILMORE: Amazing.
PARRA: Amazing, isn't it?
(....)
WILMORE: But who needs an assault rifle? What’s your — do you need that for except to kill a lot of people. Really.
TIMOTHY SIMMONS: But I think there is a thing, where even people that don't — like, I'm not — I don't own guns. Even people that are for gun control, guns are such a part of the fabric of our country, that even people that don't agree with them are like, well, we shouldn't get rid of all of them I don't know. I think it's hard for people to ever think that we could just get rid of them and frankly, there are so many guns in America, even we band the sale of assault weapons right now, there would still be three guns for every person in the country. Like, there's —
WILMORE: I know what you're saying.
PARRA: It does feel we talk about the sale and distribution of guns and not so much about the production of them. Why are we not talking about stopping the production of them? Why are we not talking about stopping the production of guns? There’s so many.
VELEZ: The U.S. government is one of the biggest production companies.
SIMMONS: Basically whenever this happens, anybody that opposes gun control points to something like — the lieutenant governor in Texas tweeted that terrible thing about — like a man reaps what they sow. Like there's always an excuse for why it wasn't guns and somehow these people brought it on themselves. That seems to be a talking point from them, like, “well if they didn't make these choices leading up to it.”
WILMORE: If the bouncer had a bigger gun.
SIMMONS: Right. If the bouncer had a bigger gun, but once we let Sandy Hook pass, there is nothing more innocent than a room full of children, and we couldn't even do anything about that [APPLAUSE] Like, that is why I don't — I don't hold a lot of hope, but I don't like eye don't like thinking that. I don't like waking up and thinking I don't have hope for this.
WILMORE: And I do agree that, look, we should also focus on the person who actually did the crime itself. You know, and the — I think the horrible scourge is that isn't talked about enough, homophobia —
PARRA: Yes.
WILMORE: — and where it rears its ugly head. Not just in the Middle East and that part of the world, but in so many places, you know. That's the fuel that was underneath here, but —
PARRA: I agree with that to an extent. Although, I want to know what you guys think about this. I think it kind of takes a village when it comes to a shooter like this. We're hearing today his wife knew about it.
WILMORE: You mean co–enabling this? Is that what you’re talking about.
PARRA: Yes, there's a lot of enabling, and there is institutional problems, like homophobia that you're talking about it
(....)
VELEZ: I don’t know, when buying that much ammo?
WILMORE: Yeah.
VELEZ: The gun — the guy who sold him that ammo, I think he should be held responsible. I think ammo should be regulated and see how much goes out to everybody. [APPALUSE] Listen, listen, shooting guns is fun. It is a fun thing. To go to a shooting range and to shoot a gun is a lot of fun. But you don't need more than 100 bullets at a shooting range, and you can buy more bullets at a shooting range. I don't understand why we allow just anybody to go and have as many bullet as they [EXPLEXTIVE]. It's crazy.WILMORE: Do you want to say one more thing? Or —
SIMMONS: I agree. You grew up in Maine, and I am one of those people that — this was not the case in my house — but there were plenty of families I went to school with who needed to hunt to have food for the winter. Number one, that's crazy and that's a whole other thing and that speaks to poverty and that’s a whole other thing.
(....)
SIMMONS: And I'm not going to take that away from a family that lives up there but you don't need AR-15 to hunt a deer. That is — you don't need anything that powerful.
PARRA: You don't need to go to Academy Sports and Outdoors to buy guns or buy AR-15s like you can. That’s — I'm from Texas where guns are very easily accessible, too, and I agree with that completely, completely.
