“More than 80 percent of Americans want Congress to do something—anything—to prevent mass shootings,” Colbert said.

On Wednesday evening, a rifle-toting gunman murdered 18 people and wounded at least 13 more in Lewiston, Maine, when he opened fire at two separate locations—a bowling alley, followed by a bar. A manhunt is still underway for 40-year-old suspect Robert Card, a trained firearms instructor with the U.S. Army Reserve who, just this summer, spent two weeks in a mental hospital after reporting that he was hearing voices and threatening to shoot up a military base.

While the other late-night talk show hosts stuck to poking fun at new Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Thursday night, Stephen Colbert took his rebuke of the Louisiana congressman to a whole other level.

“Now, we know the arguments,” Colbert said of the do-nothing response politicians generally have to tragedies such as this. “Some people are going to say this is a mental health issue. Others are going to say it’s a gun issue. But there’s no reason it can’t be both.”

  • Jeremy [Iowa]English
    1·
    11 months ago

    It should not be controversial whatsoever that we enforce laws to remove guns from these individuals until the time an independent psychiatrist clears them.

    You’re right, it shouldn’t - yet such ERPO measures tend to neglect entirely the necessary restoration of rights of an individual justifiably infringed upon, protections against abuse of such measures, the utter lack of trust in those who would - by force - apply such measures, etc.

    These things tend to be controversial because there’s only consideration for the take things aspect of it.

    This isn’t even just because of mass shootings. I’m worried about all the veterans with PTSD and depression who could commit suicide. We need to understand that taking someone’s guns when they’re in that state is helping them and could save their lives.

    Do you operate under the belief veterans, directly exposed to and often harmed by systems e.g. the VA, have any reason to trust another system?

    My veteran friends have often asked me to store their firearms during a depression episode. I don’t stigmatize them for it. I do provide whatever help I can in seeking help.

    We need to be doing more providing of help with the underlying issues and less focusing on the last-stage impact to the neglect of those issues.

    m more concerned about the mental and physical health. Guarantee the return of their guns, or even allow a trusted individual to take them – just create incredibly steep charges if the person with custody of the guns hands them over prematurely and suicide or homicides happen.

    You would effectively do nothing more than disincentivizing those individuals from accepting such risk in providing help.