The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Trevor Shuts Down Conservatives' Excuses for Gun Violence

Episode Date: August 24, 2023

Trevor takes a closer look at the roles that anti-immigrant rhetoric, violent video games, internet hate groups and mental illness play in the U.S.’s gun violence epidemic – and, of course, the guns themselves. And Michael Kosta asks tourists, how do we stop mass shootings in America? For some Republican lawmakers, the solution involves everything but actual gun control. The answer is even; fewer doors. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Survivor 47 is here, which means we're bringing you a brand new season of the only official survivor podcast on fire. And this season we are joined by fan favorite and Survivor 46 runner-up, Charlie, Charlie, I'm excited to do this together. Thanks, Jeff. So excited to be here, and I can't wait to bring you inside the mind of a survivor player for season 47. Listen to On Fire the official survivor podcast starting September 18th wherever you get your podcast. You're listening to Comedy Central. Mass shootings. Over the past few years they have become as regular in America as Star Wars movies and just as Star Wars movies.

And just like Star Wars movies, people have started paying less and less attention. But this weekend, something happened. The nation mourns the victims of two shooting massacres just 13 hours apart. The massacres in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio, happened in startling proximity for a country already too familiar with gun violence. Twenty-nine people were killed in the two shooting rampages just 13 hours apart. Yes, in the span of two days, 13 hours in fact, 84 people were shot and currently 31 people

have been killed in two deadly mass shootings. And like even though most of America has gotten used to dealing with mass shootings, having them happen back to back has forced people to take notice. In fact, this weekend's tragedy has garnered so much attention that President Trump couldn't respond with his usual sad tweet. Instead, he had to come out and give a formal address to the nation this morning where he condemned white supremacy and domestic terrorism. Unfortunately, he also offered condolences to the people of Toledo,

which is not one of the cities that had a mass shooting. So that was basically the mass shooting equivalent of saying the wrong person's name in bed. But these two tragedies didn't happen in a vacuum. They're part of a rise in mass shootings in recent years. And now, news anchors, pundits, p alike, they're all trying to figure out the root cause of what has become a national epidemic. And they've been pinning the blame on a lot of different things, starting with the internet. And on the controversial website Achan, extremists seem to have found a home. At least three mass shootings this year alone have been announced on the site. The dark corners of the internet, where these people breed hate and division.

The perils of the internet and social media cannot be ignored, and they will not be ignored. We must recognize that the internet has provided a dangerous avenue to radicalize, disturbed minds and perform demented acts. Yes, many people, including the president, are saying that the internet is to blame for radicalizing these domestic terrorists. Because giving them a community and a platform is helping them share their ideas. It's the same way the internet has given a platform to people who eat laundry detergent, right? Yeah, back in the day you can only share your feelings with the people at poison control. Now you have a community. So now some people are saying we need

to tighten regulation of the internet. And I'll be honest with you, I'm all for it. Yeah, especially after I got catfish last week. I thought I was talking to a lonely middle-aged man who needed my social security number. Turns out it was some beautiful woman who wanted to date me. What the hell? I get what these people are saying, though.

The internet is a powerful tool that can be used to radicalize wannabe to be mass shooters. You know, maybe that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's that's why we don't have a mass shooting epidemic in Africa. Our internet is shit and the power keeps cutting. Yeah, right now there's some guy in Nigeria who's like, I want to be radicalized, but this Wi-Fi is so slow. You're so lucky, this video is buffering, huh? You're so lucky.

I'll just have to stick to sending emails. Dear sir, I have lost some money. Now, while some people argue that this epidemic is being caused by the internet, another argument is that it's something more precise. Because everyone uses the internet in America, but most of these shooters are young white men. And what do young white men all have in common? Video games. The idea of these video games to dehumanize individuals to have a game of shooting individuals and others.

I've always felt that is a problem for future generations and others. First shooter games would desensitize folks to the violence. When you see it through a screen and you don't relate to it in person, it makes it seem like it's more accessible. What's changed in this country? We've always had guns, we've always had evil, but what's changed where we see this rash of shooting? And I see a video game industry that teaches young people to kill. Okay, on the surface that sounds like a pretty good argument. America has always had guns. America has always had evil. But mass shootings have only taken off over the past, what, 20 years? And what has been new in the past 20 years? Violent video games? Although

by that logic, anything that's been invented in the last 20 years could have contributed to mass shootings, like Crocks were invented over the last 20 years could have contributed to mass shootings. Like, Crocs were invented over the last 20 years. And I know they inspire anger and me. Here's another thing, though. If video games are responsible for shootings, how do you explain countries like South Korea or Japan? They play the same games at a higher rate than the US, but neither of these countries have a mass shooting epidemic. The worst thing Japan is dealing with right now is a karaoke epidemic. The only thing getting murdered there is Maria Kerry songs.

So some people blame the internet and others say it's video games. But for many, if the president wants to find the real cause of what's happening, he should go and look in the bathroom mirror. The 21-year-old white male said the attack was in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas, adding that his ideology predates President Trump, and that blaming the president would be the equivalency of fake news. This is language the president has used since his campaign began. A lot of people are taking issue with the explosive rhetoric he has used, rhetoric that mirrors

the screed written by the El Paso murderer. Just three months ago, this scene at a rally in Panama City Beach, Florida. President Trump at first laughing when a supporter in the crowd suggested shooting immigrants. But how do you stop these people? You can't. There's no... That's only in the panhandle you can get away with that statement. Yeah, they might have been a joke at that rally.

But clearly there are people out there who could take the president's words seriously. I know it's crazy to take Trump's words seriously, but some people do. In fact, as we've learned, there, there, there, there, there, there, there, there, there, there, there, the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their thetake the president's words seriously. I know it's crazy to take Trump's words seriously, but some people do. In fact, as we've learned, the mass shooter in El Paso left behind a manifesto that included the same phrases Trump uses every day, fake news, emigrant invasions. Like, the only reason you know that it wasn't written by Trump

is because the grammar was correct. And here's the thing, here's the thing. Although there is a chance, Donald Trump has emboldened racist mass shooters. We also cannot say that he's the overall cause because there were racist mass shooters before Donald Trump. It's the same way you can't blame stuffed crust pizzas for the obesity epidemic in America.

You can't admit that adding a pizza to the edge of a pizza is not going to help people lose weight, but it's not the cause. So some people blame the internet, some say it's video games, others blame President Trump. But the thing we're hearing the most after these mass shootings is that the real cause is all in the head. Mental health is a large contributor to any type of violence or shooting violence. There's so many different factors you don't know. I mean, maybe a child's born with, you know, something, mental illness. This was a sick person. The person in Dayton was a sick person.

No politician is to blame for that. You cannot be a white supremacist and be normal in the head. These are sick people. Now, again, this argument sounds completely logical. If someone kills a group of random strangers, they must be mentally ill. But that's not necessarily true. In fact, a majority of mass shooters have no history of mental illness, which is a scary thought, because it means most mass shooters are killing because they want to, not because something went wrong in their brain.

So what causes mass shootings? Is it the internet? Is it video games? Is it true? Is it mental illness? You know what's sad and frustrating about America is that after every mass shooting? Lawmakers want to identify the one thing that causes all mass shootings? And if they can't agree on what that thing is, thi thi thi tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho tho thi thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, tho tho tho, th- because th- because th- because th- because th- because thi, th- because thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, thi, thi, th. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi thi th identify the one thing that causes all mass shootings. And if they can't agree on what that thing is, nothing gets done.

But the truth is, when it comes to any individual shooting, the cause could be any one of those factors, if not more. But there's one thing that every mass shooting has in common. Whatever motivated it has to be combined with a gun. We'll be right back. The candidates for November are set. I know Donald Trump's type. Between now and election day. We are not going back.

A campaign season unfolding faster. Kamela Harris is not getting a promotion. Then any in recent history. Make America great again. Follow it all with new episodes every weekday on the NPR Politics podcast. Once again, America is reeling from mass shootings. All the way from Buffalo, New York, to Yvaldi, Texas. People are asking how long can this keep going on. And here's the good news.

In response, a major bill has been announced, which would ban the new sales of handguns and allow the government to forcefully buy back assault rifles in Canada. Yeah, this is completely real. Canada saw what happened here and they're shutting down guns there. Yeah, at this point, America is basically a scared, straight program that gets other countries on the right path. It's like, you ever smell someone so bad, you know, that you decide that you need to take a shower? That's what America is with gun laws now to other countries. They're like, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th th th th th th th th this, th this, th this, th this, th this is, thus, thus, thus, thus, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, tho, thus thus thi, thi, thi, this is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is th is thi thi thi thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that that that that that that that that thate that that, th you decide that you need to take a shower? That's what America is with gun laws now to other countries.

They're like, we need to do something about guns. And while most Americans, liberals and conservatives, are open to common sense restrictions on guns to keep Americans safe, there is still a small yet powerful group of gun-fix who believe the problem with gun violence is not because of guns. No, it's because of everything else. Part of the problem is how this generation of kids exists mostly online. They see actual violence as is portrayed in the movies they watched, the music they listened to, and the games, the video games they play.

When I played war growing up, my friends, the boys were allowed to be boys. I said to my friend Andy bang, you're the, the, the, the, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, th, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the the, the, the the, the the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the boys were allowed to be boys. I said to my friend Andy, bang, you're dead. But the difference is we knew it was fake. And Andy got up afterwards. And we went and jumped in the fire hydrant, or whoever had a pool. What? First of all, why do I feel like Andy's fake? And second of all, what is this loser talking about?

Kids know that games are fake, my man. No one is turning off Grand Theft Auto like, shit, I just ran over 80 pedestrians. Should I get a lawyer? Oh my god, I'm too young for jail. What am I going to do? The argument that American music and video games the argument that American video games totally falls apart when have nowhere the same level of America's mass shootings.

And don't get a twist it. It's the same music. It's the same twest. It's the same music, why they're not getting the same results. It's not like in Sweden there, Snoop Dogg is like, Rat-T-T-Tah-Tah-T, and I never, they don't just want to ban video games and music. No, no, no, it's going further. They also want to replace those things with what they say are some lost values. The only solution is Christ Jesus and being able to get some type of spirituality and prayer back into our schools. Right now today, we live in a country where our millennials participation rate for churches is under 30% in a lot of

locations. This is the lowest church participation we've ever had as a nation. And so it just shows you why you see so much chaos in our streets. Yeah, I mean that could be one solution. We need to bring Jesus into our schools. I mean, I don't know how Jesus would feel about that. Yeah, because if I was Jesus, I'd be like, yo, forget that.

Look at what you guys did to me with nails. I'm not coming back when there's guns. Got air 15? Shit, I learned my lesson. But again, if you think gun violence in America is high, thi the same gun violence in Europe? Because there, nobody goes to church. It's like a thing that's done now. If you go to church in Germany, you'll be the only one there.

Even the preacher will be like, ah! Oh, geez, you scared the shit out of me. Nobody comes in here anymore. I even forgot there was a door. Oh, oh my God, that was crazy. The point is, gun lovers have been blaming the same causes over and over again for decades, although this time, to their credit, they've come up with a new thing to blame. It's not the guns, it's the books. We stop teaching values in so many of our schools.

Now we're teaching woken our children with things like CRT. Yeah, that's right. That's how evil critical race theory is. It's only been around for like a year, and it's already caused three decades of school shootings. It's really tough. It goes back in time. It's so powerful. Look, man, I know you guys want to blame anything but guns, but it still has to make sense. Can we agree on that? You can't just blame stuff that you are already mad at. These guys are like, maybe there wouldn't be so many, you know, violence shootings in schools if my wife would stop flirting with the landscaper. I mean, is it just me? They're making it sound like they used to be a lesson that was about the importance of not shooting people, but they never got to it because they spent too long on teac-a, the their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, to be, their, their, to be, their, their, their, their, to be, to be, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, toeoluuiiiiiiiiiioluillipliph.vvvueuilliph. siioluilliph. their, their, their, their, their, their, their, too long on teaching slavery. This doesn't make any sense. And if it's not religion, and if it's not video games,

and it's not the music, what else could it be? Well, according to some gun lovers, maybe it was the school's fault. One of the things that everyone agreed is don't have all of these unlocked back doors, have one door into and out of the school. I would like to see this a national push toward instead of parents buying their kids all these tools and toys and games, invest in the classroom to make it safer. They have blankets that you can put up on the wall that are colorful and beautiful, but

they're ballistic blankets. We need to install man traps a series of interlocking doors at the school entrance that are triggered by a trip wire. The trip wire can be a gunshot, broken glass, a manual switch tossed by a school employee, and it traps the shooter like a rat. Are these people hearing themselves? You think kids can't tell fantasy from reality, but your suggestions are like, how about we make a school with steel doors that slam and windows that turn into concrete or even better the whole school becomes a transformer? So that way when the school shooter comes, the whole school can run away from it.

Not to mention, have you guys ever been in a school? You realize the fire alarm gets pulled as a prank like once a week? You think the jocks aren't going to be constantly tossing nerds into the man trap? Do you listen to yourselves? And even if those ideas don't work? Even if they don't, there's one solution that conservatives love to come back to time and time again. And over the weekend, it was proposed yet again by none other than Donald Jarhead Trump. What we need now is a top-to-bottom security overhaul at schools all across our country. And above all, from this day forward, every school in America should have a police officer or an armed resource officer on duty at all times.

Yeah, yeah, you know, you always hear people saying this after a school shooting. What we need is armed police officers in the school. What's amazing about the debate this time is that they're still saying it, even though in the shooting that just happened, there was an armed police officer and it didn't help. Yeah, classic Trump proposing a solution after it already failed. I mean, he would have been a lot of fun in the lifeboats after the Titanic. Next time we should just rammed that iceberg really hard. What's the worst that could happen? What do you think, Jack? What do you think? And as we've all heard by now, there wasn't just an armed resource officer

on the scene. There was a whole platoon of police officers who responded to the shooting, but didn't do shit to stop it while it was still going on. And I'm willing to guess it's because they were also shit scared of a gunman armed with an AR-15. I feel like that's what we have to ask ourselves. As a society, do we want to live in a world where anyone can legally buy weapons that the police are scared of? Huh? And just by the way, just by the way, for me, it's been to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. And thi. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And to, to, to, to, to, to to to, to to to toe. And to, toe. And th. And the. And th. And th. And th. And th. And? And just by the way, just by the way, for me, it's been amazing to see how some people love guns so much that they've gone from Blue Lives Matter to screw these bitch-ass cops. If they're not here to get shot, then what's the point of having them around?

F. The police. Oh, now you don't care about the cops' lives? Like, I don't know. Maybe it's just me. I would rather say get rid of the AR-15s and make these officers jobs a lot more safe. Maybe it's just me. It's wild how people flip. You just flip whenever you feel like it. It's also crazy how the cops didn't do anything. Right? They shoot people because they think they have a gun. And then now they're like, they know it's a gun. their. their. their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their their their toomorrow, toomorrow, toomorrow, the.e. their, their, their, their, their, their, their, the have a gun. And then now they're like, they know it's a gun. They're like, well, can't shoot them. If it's a wallet, maybe, but I mean. So look, I know that America is never going to do what Canada is doing.

I don't even expect that. There's a gun culture in this country that is far too ingto stop gun violence altogether. I'm not naive. But I would hope, I would just hope, that after a tragedy like this, Americans could agree that losing some of these is worth it to prevent losing more of these. We'll be right back. The candidates for November are set. I know Donald Trump's type. Between now and Election Day. We are not going back.

A campaign season unfolding faster. Kamela Harris is not getting a promotion. Then any in recent history. Make America great again. Follow it all with new episodes every weekday on the NPR Politics Podcast. On May 14th, a man armed with an AR-15 style rifle shot up a supermarket in Buffalo. Ten days later, another man with an AR-15 style rifle shot up a school in Texas. And just yesterday, a man with an AR-15 style rifle shot up a school in Texas. And just yesterday, a man with an AR-15 style rifle shot up a medical building in Tulsa,

Oklahoma. Now, you might think the problem here is all the AR-15 style rifles. But that just shows how little you know, because the real problem, according to some, is all the doors. Have one door into and out of the school and have that one door armed police officers at that door. There should be one entrance in and one entrance out and all of our elementary and all of our middle schools are small enough to do that. It is about the single point of entry. If the

school was on lockdown could have been locked where he couldn't have gotten in. Classroom doors should be hardened to make them lockable from the inside and close to intruders from the outside. That's right. America has a doors problem. In fact, some doors are totally unhinged and yet politicians are doing nothing. And since we know other countries don't have America's mass shooting problem, that clearly means that they know something about doors that we don't.

So we asked Michael Costa to hit the streets and find out how other countries deal with their doors. In the day since Uvaldi, we've had 11 more mass shooting. Hold on. Shit, another one. In the day since Uvaldee, we've had 12 more mass hold on news alert. Thirteen. Shit.

Fourteen mass shootings. Jesus. But for some reason, mass shootings are the one part of American culture that isn't popular in other countries. How often are you having mass shootings in India? Is it weekly? Since zero, none. In our 30 years, never.

Never. I've never heard of mass shootings in Ireland. Wow. So what are they doing differently than us? Mass shootings in America. Everyone knows what's causing them. No one's really saying it. It's the elephant in the room.

Let's say it together. America has too many... Guns! Wait, what did you say? The one thing America can do to prevent mass shootings is to limit each school to one or even better, zero doors. I disagree. Why? That doesn't make sense. One door, how's that going to work? It's like one door for the entire school? It's like a jail. How are you going to get out of fire? Let's say we're in a school together with no doors and we're in a fire. That's why the kids should have guns.

You shoot out a circle. I'll grab your hand. It'll be like, I saw it in an action movie once. And then we go out or we shoot out the window. Why are they alive to go? Do you know what? Well, what have guns have to our nation. Doors. How did the Polish government defeat the door lobby?

They don't. They just let people have doors. Okay. And how many shootings have there been? None. Exactly. What? What?

No. the old days. With the old doors, the big wooden heavy doors, it was real difficult to open. You know, these are new modern doors, like even a kid can open them. There's so many heartless manufacturers like Smith and West, no, like crate and barrel. They make doors. It doesn't have to do with the doors. Hey, I realize doors are a hot button issue, but just keep your cool. I'm not saying anything crazy. I'm just saying you should have a license to buy a door. You should have a background check to buy a door. If you have committed a violent crime in the last five years, maybe there's a waiting period for you to buy a door.

So you say that buying a gun should be easier than buying any door? But what a guns have to do with it? Guns are what keep us safe. Foreigners like to say that Americans are obsessed with guns. Yet when it comes to preventing mass shootings, all they wanted to talk about was guns. Now who's obsessed. Do you think it would help to ban revolvers? Yeah.

You know the doors that go around like that? Oh, I thought you're bombs. Right. Oh you were thinking of guns? No guns in the UK. No shootings. But what about your constitutional right to have a gun? No constitutional right. Whoa! Does it suck over there? We have a law? You can't buy a gun just like that. You have to have to have permission to have a gun. Yeah, a license? You can't go in the shop and have a gun. It's complicated. But let me tell you what's simple. One door. You keep coming back to these guns. People are coming through the doors to do dangerous stuff. Well, they have to have something dangerous with them, like a gun. And the doors, I don't know, you walk through the doors. I can't see the right. I'm sorry. I their. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I their. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. their. their. their. their. their. their. the doors, I don't know, you walk through the doors. I can't see the right, I'm sorry, I can't understand. I appreciate you apologizing, I apologize and apology accepted.

Maybe one day these foreigners will have some actual advice and how to stop mass shootings in America. But until then, our door is open. We'll figure it out, Michael. Explore more shows from the Daily Show Podcast Universe by searching the Daily Show, wherever you get your podcasts. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast.

The candidates for November are set. I know Donald Trump's type. Between now and Election Day. We are not going back. A campaign season unfolding faster. Kamela Harris is not getting a promotion. Then any in recent history. Make America great again.

Follow it all with new episodes every weekday on the NPR Politics podcast.