Choked-Up Jimmy Kimmel Reacts to Las Vegas Concert Shooting: ICYMI
A distraught Jimmy Kimmel struggled to maintain his composure Monday night (October 2) while discussing Sunday's mass shooting in Las Vegas.
Kimmel, who hails from Las Vegas, spoke for nearly 10 minutes on Jimmy Kimmel Live! during his opening monologue, and balanced sincere sentiment and powerful calls for gun control with cynicism about how it seems unlikely anything will get done. Politicians, he noted, have historically proven in recent years that they're not willing to pass any new laws or stand up to gun lobbyists.
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 [because] the Second Amendment, I guess. Our forefathers wanted us to have AK-47s is the argument, I assume."
Whether you agree with Kimmel or not, you can't argue that's his comments are poignant. And he was by no means the only late night host to try to tackle what happened in Las Vegas. Stephen Colbert opened The Late Show by saying we can't "accept that as a new normal" and urging President Trump to do something to put an end to the shootings that are plaguing the country.
James Corden echoed the sentiment so many people felt when he spoke to his audience on The Late Late Show.
Seth Meyers also followed suit by discussing the shooting on Late Night, adding he's not sure what he can say that he hasn't already. Still, he did ask Congress if there are "no steps the country can take to prevent gun violence."
On Conan, Conan O'Brien called what happened "the reality that's staring us in the face" and expressed incredulity over how times he's had to discuss mass shootings. Things weren't like this when he started, he said.
On The Daily Show, Trevor Noah expressed his shock about how people have grown accustomed to mass shootings, and made a mockery of the idea that talking about gun control after a mass shooting is wrong (hi, conservatives).
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