On last night’s episode of Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Bee took on the issue of gun violence after this weekend’s mass shootings. It’s a topic Bee has touched on in previous segments, but last night’s entry was a brilliantly succinct and clear call-out to the actual issue: the guns themselves.
Bee made a simple plea to gun lovers everywhere saying, “stop trying to make this problem more complex than it is: we know what causes mass shootings, and you do too: it’s the guns, stupid.”
As our country reels from another week of horrific gun violence, the predictable news cycle begins again. Democrats and advocacy groups call for sensible gun legislation, while FOX News and Republicans continue to blame everyone and everything BUT the guns themselves. Popular scapegoats include: violent video games, mental illness, action movies, rock music, “not letting boys be boys”, and of course, not enough “good guys with guns”.
And if you think those excuses are bad, wait til you hear Ohio Rep. Candice Keller‘s bonkers blame list, which includes (among other things) “drag queen advocates”, marijuana, Obama, and Colin Kaepernick.
Bee goes on to debunk the usual suspects that Republicans trot out with her signature blend of facts and humor. Mental illness doesn’t cause gun violence and is a harmful and reductive stereotype. Video games have been proven not to cause gun violence or be as influential as people think, or as Bee put it, “My college boyfriend played Mortal Kombat all the time and he never learned how to finish me!”
Bee zeroes in on the real culprit, namely Senate leader Mitch McConnell and his refusal to allow a vote on background checks in the Senate, which the House has already passed. She also calls out the overwhelming popularity of background checks, which a whopping 92 percent of Republicans support.
Yet with all this support behind gun control, our government is held hostage by the NRA, which Bee notes has only 5 million members (and not all agree with their hardline no background check stance!) which is only 1.5 percent of the country’s population forcing their violent agenda on the rest of us. Sam sums up how absurd the power balance is, saying “by comparison, 12 million Americans own Kenny G’s “Breathless” album, and we don’t let those assholes tell the rest of us what to do!”
Bee highlights an infuriating pattern in American government, where a small zealous brand of extremists continue to exert their power and influence over the rest of the country. And she reminds us that there’s only one solution: vote Republicans out of office and McConnell out of power.
(via TBS, image:TBS)
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