The Daily Show: Ears Edition - TDS Time Machine | John Oliver on Gun Control

Episode Date: April 14, 2025

Take a look back at a special three-part series with John Oliver, as he tests the arguments for and against gun control. After hearing from Americans why legislation could never work, he visits Australia where... it did. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to Comedy Central. Welcome back. For more on the gun debate, we're bringing you the first part of the three-part series with John Oliver. Yesterday, Americans watched in shock as even watered-down gun legislation died on the floor of the Senate. But that is exactly where it belongs, according to gun lobbyists like Philip Van Cleave of the Virginia Citizens' Defense League. The Second Amendment, you know, is sacrosanct. You hold up this sign whenever I make a suggestion that you think is infringing upon your Second Amendment rights, OK? OK.

Assault weapons ban. Boom, there it is increased background checks really yes just for just for background checks we don't do background checks for the First Amendment okay so let's just try this one okay nice and easy sure a mandatory one hour waiting period if you buy a gun why why am I even kidding me? Unless I could see a reason. No, I can't think of anything that I support.

Because at the end of the day, none of it works. Exactly. Gun control does not work. What if, hypothetically speaking, what if gun control could work? Which obviously it can't, so we know that it won't, so that's not a problem. But what if it could, due to that time that it did?

Okay, when was that? Australia. Yes, Australia. In 1996, a conservative Prime Minister, John Howard, instituted sweeping gun control laws following a mass shooting that shocked the nation. So should we be learning from this effective example? Of course not. I guess if we're going to go to planet X and say it's not the United States,

it's some other planet, different people, different everything. I don't know, yeah. But in the real world with human beings, it's not going to work, and gun control isn't going to work. Unfortunately, not only is Australia actually in the real world, even their animals can holster weapons. So, who was right about gun control?

There was only one way to find out. Confront the man responsible. Mr Prime Minister, let's begin in the formal Australian way. G'day. How do you do? Obviously, gun control doesn't work. It can't work. It can't work. It will never work.

So how was your scheme a failure? Well, my scheme was not a failure. We had a massacre at a place called Port Arthur 17 years ago, and there have been none since. Zero gun massacres? Hold on. Did gun control actually work? It stopped one thing.

That could also be a statistical anomaly. Yeah, it was just their mass shootings disappeared. But there were so few of them. Whoop-de-doo. Whoop-de-doo? Yeah. Whoop-de-doo. Yes. Mass shootings were rare anyhow.

Exactly. They probably barely had a massacre before 1996. There were about 13 in the previous 18 years. In the 18 years before Port Arthur, there were 13 mass shootings. Yes. Almost one a year. I was unaware they had that many. Mass being what, more than two people at a time?

More than four. More than four. Okay. Whoop-de-doo. But perhaps there were other non-whoop-de-doo side effects. The homicide rate involving the use of guns has declined significantly by factors of up to 50 and 60 percent. And the incidence of youth suicides involving guns has declined dramatically. Whoop-de-sh**-do. Help me out here, Philip.

Homicides with guns went down. Suicide with guns also went down. Zero mass shootings. What happened in Australia still has murders, rapes and robberies last eye check. Unless you can get rid of 100% of crime, it's not worth doing at all. Well, put it this way. It's illegal to have crack cocaine

anywhere in the United States. Do you think if somebody really wants it, they can get their hands on crack cocaine in America? So unless we can completely get rid of drugs, there's no point in having drug laws at all. ... ... Let me think about that for a minute.

Um... Well, I guess, effectively, it doesn't work. You can't argue with Philip. Even his logic is bulletproof. Well, I guess effectively, it doesn't work. You can't argue with Philip. Even his logic is bulletproof. Well, let me put it to you this way. There are more drownings in backyards where they have pools. They don't have a pool, there are no drownings in backyards.

Okay. So, the US has a very high number of guns. Therefore, there is going to be more chances for somebody to be killed with a gun. Right. Right. Right. That's my point.

Philip might think that living in a society with dramatically reduced gun violence is a whoop-de-doo and people in Australia couldn't agree with him more. Whoop-de-doo! Whoop-de-doo mate! Whoop-de-doo! Whoop-de-doo and people in Australia couldn't agree with him more. Whoop-de-doo! Whoop-de-doo mate! Whoop-de-doo! Whoop-de-doo, for whatever that means. Whoop-de-******-doo! Yeah!

Yeah! Time out of it, we'll be right back. Welcome back. So last week, as we were watching on the show, last week we learned that while our United States Senate was unable to pass even the most basic gun control measures, Australia has had a successful gun control scheme for almost two decades. John Oliver visited our cousins from across a couple of ponds to find out more in part two of our three-part series. In 1996, following a massacre, Australia's Conservative government enforced a national

buyback of semi-automatic weapons, while also heavily regulating the purchase and storage of other firearms. The result was dramatically reduced levels of gun violence. So why can't we do that here? To find out, I sat down with longtime aide to Harry Reid, Jim Manley. The NRA is still a very powerful force in this country. They have four million members who are very, very

determined to get their way. And how can a nation of 300 million compete with that? It's difficult to understand sometime, isn't it? But the fact of the matter is that you've got to think long and hard before you support gun control legislation, because taking on the NRA can be political suicide. And the Democratic Party is working tirelessly to reduce the rate of political suicide among its members.

Surely, Australian politicians weren't stupid enough to end their political lives for gun control. Well I did. What? I did. You did what? I took the stand. I was prepared to face the political consequences and we delivered gun control. Meet Rob Borbidge, former Premier of Queensland, Australia's most conservative state. In 1996, he was instrumental in enacting gun control,

knowing it would cost him his political career in the next election. We paid a high political price, but we did the right thing. Look, there are Australians alive today because we took that action. I mean, how much is a life worth? But Jim Manley knows that a true public servant has more important concerns. What makes a politician successful? Getting re-elected by his or her constituents.

Right. Yeah. That's how you judge success. OK. Well, getting legislation done. It's second. It's second, yes. That is second.

Holy s***, that is second? Uh, if I could rewind this tape, I'd say getting legislation done and getting re-elected by your constituents. But seeing as we can't rewind the tape, let's just go with the answer you gave on instinct. If you don't get re-elected, you know, you're just roadkill in the political process and you're just another loser. Tragically, not everyone understands this. What makes a politician successful?

Go. Making society a better place. No, no, no, Rob. No. Look, we can actually rewind the tape. Are we rolling? What makes a politician successful? Well, it's your responsibility to govern in the best interests of the people that you serve. Right, Rob, I mean, I'm going out on a limb here. I've already told someone else that I can't do this when I can. I hope you got a lot of tape.

True success is a lifelong politician like Harry Reid, whose watered-down gun legislation was carefully designed to protect those who needed it most. He has a responsibility as the Democratic leader to protect the caucus. Right, the caucus needs to be protected. The caucus does. They need to be protected politically. How many political careers have been tragically ended by gun control? We've lost some good folks over the years because of their views.

Right, you have a perfectly healthy political career and then bang. Just like that. Which means former Australian Prime Minister John Howard has blood on his hands. Do you ever think about the innocent victims of your gun control? There were no innocent victims of mine, there were no victims at all. Yeah, that's a photograph of Rob Borbitch. He was incredibly courageous politically in supporting our laws. But politically, he's dead.

Bang. Just like that. Well, he lost an election that we all do at some point. But Howard is not alone. His Deputy Prime Minister, Tim Fisher, also refuses to accept responsibility for these career massacres. So you don't look at these faces and feel guilt? Well they're alive and...

They're dead, they're politically dead. I hope that those who totally veto any move to bring sensible semi-automatic and automatic weapon control to the suburbs of America are also politically dead but physically alive. Not if I could help it. Never again will a political career end in a senseless act of meaningful legislation. It's just all of these, all of them are dead politically. I don't. Not physically, physically they're probably safer than they've ever been before.

The world's a very dicey thing. I mean, again, just to reiterate, physically they're absolutely fine. It really makes you think. It sure does. Unfortunately, what spending time with politically dead Australian politicians made me think about was how horribly wrong we have it in America. Thanks for speaking with me, Rob. Pleasure.

You are a great human being. Thank you. It's just by all American standards, you are a politician. And the fact that that is true is why I am now going to walk into the ocean. In America, we're told gun control is not possible, but in Australia, they've shown it is, providing a fantastic lesson for America to ignore.

And Tara Sipar! John Oliver, we'll be right back. John Oliver, we'll be right back. John Oliver, we'll be right back. Tara, welcome back! We continue tonight. Our series from Australia, John Oliver learned that following a mass shooting in Australia, the country introduced gun control and it worked. So how can America take this valuable lesson and ignore it?

John Oliver finds out in this, our final installment. Previously, I went to Australia where I learned that in 1996, their government enacted sweeping gun control laws. The result? Reduced gun violence and zero mass shootings. So are there any lessons for America here? Virginia gun advocate Philip Van Cleave has a clear answer. We're not Australia.

It's a very different culture. Different people, different everything. Right, there's no similarity with Australia. Australia is a former British colony with a wild frontier that was tamed by brave men who also wiped out almost an entire indigenous population. And we are not similar to that. Right?

Right. Right, because unlike Australia, we Americans know when the guns are taken away, tyranny inevitably follows. The founding fathers knew that governments tend to grow beyond their means. In America, we're stepping in the direction of a police state. Is that really happening, Philip, or is that some kind of crazy paranoia? We have police. They're now wearing ninja suits, if you will. I mean, you don't even know they're police necessarily.

They got the black masks on and everything. So it really isn't crazy paranoia. You're justifiably frightened about ninja police. Yeah, ninja police, yes. Yeah, ninja police. Yes, yeah. Sadly, ninja police. Yes, yeah. Sadly, without access to semi-automatic firearms, Australians wouldn't know a thing about real freedom.

Bloody oath we're free. We just sit here doing whatever we want. Everybody's just hanging out and having a good time. People don't have the same concerns anymore about getting gunned down when they're at a tourist resort. Yeah, but was that worth it? Yes. Was it worth giving up your fundamental freedoms

just to not get shot in a gun massacre? What the f*** are you talking about? Australians must now live in this well-regulated nightmare because of ex-politicians like Rob Borbich, who smugly thinks that his country has something to teach us. I hope that they would have a look at what has happened here. Why would people want to live like this? Because they might want a safer society to live in.

But it's pointless for us to study the Australian experience because their fear of gun control back then has no parallels with ours. I mean what kind of things were you hearing when you suggested gun control? That government was becoming a dictatorship. Alright, that's one. We were told that people would not have the right to defend their property and their families. Okay, that's definitely two. The democracy is at stake somehow if government decides there should be a background check.

Yeah, alright. That three, we're about to be invaded by the Indonesians. That's completely different. No one in America is afraid of Indonesians. Are they afraid of Mexicans and Muslims coming? Maybe? Sure. He claims Australians were angry, but where is the proof?

People's rights are being taken away from them. And I'm not going to give up any guns that they're going to take off me. Are you going to give yours up? No! OK, there it is. But how do those angry rural conservatives feel now? My immediate reaction was that it was an overreaction. But as time went on, the regulations were quite manageable.

So hold on. You didn't want to give up your high powered gun? No but I felt as if I had a bit of a duty to the rest of our society. And if you think that sounds bat s*** crazy, this effective gun control was enacted by conservative politicians against the will of their own base. There is no other way. There is no other way. But our politicians are different. They know that... Gun control doesn't work.

Or even if it does... It takes a long time. And to be fair, John Howard and his Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer have had since 1996 to enact their sweeping reforms. It took less than three and a half months. What? What? What? The Arthur Massacre was on the 28th of April 1996. Yep.

In a 12-week period shortly following that, bulk of legislation was devised, drafted, debated and implemented. But it doesn't work. Zero massacres since 1996. Yeah, you keep saying that, but gun control doesn't work. My head was spinning. I had to clear it the traditional Aussie way. Beer!

No, not that way. A walkabout. The second amendment is sacrosanct political suicide. Zero massacres since 1996. It's not in your list. From my cold, dead hand. Ninja police. Ninja police. It's a, it's a blue banan. You're so hungry, blue banan.

What the? What the? What the? What the? What the? What the? What the? What the?

What the? What the? What the? What the? What the? After three days in the bush with a guy in a kangaroo suit, it became clear what the real issue with gun control in America is. If guns aren't the problem, Philip, what is the problem? People. People are the problem. Yes. Do you know what? After spending this amount of time with you, Philip,

I'm starting to believe that that's partially true. Good. Good. Good. Well, I'm glad you understand that people are the problem. That is becoming just painfully obvious. After investigating the issue on opposite sides of the earth, I discovered that if Americans really do want gun control,

there is actually one thing they can do to get it. Move to Australia. He said, He's up from the lockdown on the right-wing. John Oliver, we'll be right back. Australia. Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus.