Late night host Jimmy Kimmel told Republicans that they should pray to God for forgiveness because their obstruction of common sense is getting innocent people murdered on a daily basis.
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Kimmel emotionally discussed the massacre in his hometown and said, “There are a lot of things we can do about it. But we don’t, which is interesting. Because when someone with a beard attacks us, we tap phones, we invoke travel bans, we build walls, we take every possible precaution to make sure it doesn’t happen again. But when an American buys a gun and kills other Americans, then there’s nothing we can do about that. And the Second Amendment, I guess, our forefathers wanted us to have AK-47s is the argument, I assume.â€
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The late-night host said that Republicans should be praying to God for forgiveness, “President Trump is visiting Las Vegas on Wednesday. He spoke this morning, he said he was praying for those who lost their lives. You know, in February, he also signed a bill that made it easier for people with severe mental illness to buy guns legally. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, a number of other lawmakers who won’t do anything about this because the NRA has their balls in a money clip, also sent their thoughts and their prayers today — which is good. They should be praying. They should be praying for God to forgive them for letting the gun lobby run this country. Because it is, it is so crazy.”
Kimmel continued to speak the truth, “We have a major problem with gun violence in this country, and I guess they don’t care. If I’m wrong on that, fine. Do something about it, because I’m sick of it. And I want this to be a comedy show. I hate talking about stuff like this. I just want to laugh about things every night, but that seems to be becoming increasingly difficult lately. It feels like someone has opened a window into hell, and what I’m talking about tonight isn’t about gun control. It’s about common sense.”
The late-night host was right on all points. The NRA and Republicans like to frame this discussion as all or nothing. Either everybody has unlimited access to guns, or nobody has access to guns. There is no room in the discussion for common sense, which says that people who are criminals or who suffer from a mental illness should not be able to buy guns with the same ease as a responsible and sane gun owner.
Common sense says that all guns shouldn’t be and can’t be banned, but that there is a middle ground on this issue that Republicans never want to discuss. Policy solutions that won’t solve all the problems, but are moderate steps in the right direction.
The next mass shooting, and the one after that, and the one after that will all have been aided by NRA owned Republicans. Republicans should pray for forgiveness because their refusal to do the right thing means that their hands are stained with the blood of innocent Americans who lost their lives to gun violence.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
