Samantha Bee: ‘America’s Gun Obsession Is Literally Killing Us’
Samantha Bee lauded the Democratic wins this past Election Day, particularly in the swing state Virginia. Her caveat, though, was that the wins are virtually meaningless until the newly-elected officials make moves on gun control in America.
“After the week we’ve had, there is nothing more important to me than gun control,” Bee said of the Church massacre in Sutherland Springs, Texas that was the deadliest mass shooting in the state’s history. “When asked what we can do about this epidemic of killings, Republicans wasted no time releasing their comprehensive plan: ‘ ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.'”
Bee showed a montage of Republican officials and journalists responding to the shooting by stalling and dodging questions with go-to responses about “sending thoughts and prayers.” But prayer isn’t a substitute for action, Bee said, when approximately 93 Americans die as a result of gun violence every day. “America’s gun obsession is literally killing us,” she said.
New statistics show gun control is a bipartisan issue in America; 94 percent of Americans (and 93 percent of Republicans) support gun control and want universal background checks for gun buyers, Bee said. Even the majority of National Rifle Association members (74 percent) support background checks.
“The Republican party has bought into the myth that the only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” Bee said, before introducing the Harlem Gospel Choir. “In our country today, a lot more good guys are getting stopped by guns – good women, good children, good grandparents, good teachers, good country fans, good Christians.
We’ll never eliminate gun violence from our society, but there are practical steps we can take to slow it down. We just need Congress to step up. If any legislators are accidentally watching my show because they fell asleep during Big Bang Theory – America appreciates your thoughts and prayers, but we need more than that.”