For the first time in a long time, Stephen Colbert opened The Late Show Tuesday night with a solemn message about another mass shooting in the United States.
“Yesterday was another terrible day for the United States, when a gunman entered a supermarket in Boulder, Colorado, and killed ten people, including a police officer,” he began. “This story is inexplicably tragic and I can’t imagine for a moment the pain of these families.” Colbert added that “the only proper way to honor these victims is through action.” “But our government does nothing.”
Partly due to the COVID-19 shutdowns, it had been a full year since the country had seen a massive shooting in a public place like the two that have been committed in Atlanta and Boulder over the past week. “Obviously, the only solution to American armed violence is to put us all under house arrest,” he said.
From there, Colbert addressed the “predictable” responses from “apologists” like the Colorado State Shooting Association, who said in a statement, “There will be a time for the debate on gun laws. a moment for a conversation about how this could have been avoided. But today is not the time. “
“Why not?!” Colbert fired back. “It simply came to our notice then. And that’s what I say about what they say every time they say it every time it happens. “
“Another gun fetishist who weighs in on the tragedy is Colorado representative and John Wick human resources supervisor Lauren Boebert,” the host added, noting a tweet from QAnon’s friendly congresswoman who said, in part “While we are still waiting for important information and details in this case, random public shots and acts of senseless violence are never good.”
“Where do you find the courage?” Colbert asked. “Acts of senseless violence are never good,” which of course implies that intentional violence is good. You know, the kind of plans his friends have in Parler. “
But he did not end up confronting Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), who argued Tuesday that the United States does not have a gun control problem, but rather an “idiot control problem.”
“Oh, we definitely have an idiot control problem,” Colbert replied. “It’s people who don’t recognize that this country has had a gun problem for a long time, John Kennedy. So when idiots like John Kennedy refuse to do anything to get rid of the guns of idiots, it’s clear that it’s time to get rid of idiots like John Kennedy. And that means we vote them out! “
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