Jon Stewart was still on fire his second night back from vacation, despite having some trouble with his voice due to a cold and he laid into the right for their staunch opposition to any new regulations or form of gun control, even though we're constantly hearing them say that "everything should be on the table" to deal with the problem.
No one was spared from NRA head Wayne LaPierre, to Fox News, to GOP politicians to you name it. After playing some footage of Fox "news" and wingnut Glenn Beck and their fearmongering on the topic, Stewart pulled out an assault rifle on the set in reaction:
STEWART: I'm not sure what happened. I'm sorry. I blacked out in the middle of that and woke up with an AK in my... I don't know... or whatever this is. I'm sure I'll get letters about what this really is, which is plastic is what it really is.
It was nice to see him get in a not so thinly veiled swipe at the wingnuts who went crazy after David Gregory held up something that appeared to be a magazine on the set of Meet the Press. There is a mile long list of why I'd like to see Gregory off of the air, but that stupidity isn't one of them.
Stewart got a shot in on LaPierre for his solution to the problem with our mental health system failing us not doing anything to actually improve taking care of those with mental health problems, but a national database of the "lunatics" out there instead. After asking what someone might have to do to be added to that list, Stewart recommended that LaPierre be put on it for this:
LAPIERRE: Americans, don't want to be added to that pile of dead people that have been left defenseless by the U.N. policies.
STEWART: LaPierre with two r's is a run.
Next up was HuckaJesus saying we don't have a gun problem, but a sin problem instead, to which Stewart responded that he didn't realize that his masturbating had risen to the level of a national crisis. He wrapped up the first segment with Fox's Eric Bolling saying it's not the right time to talk about gun control and that he'd have to wait until the next segment to continue his conversation about it.
In part two, Stewart did a great job talking about all of the other things we are willing to regulate in the United States other than guns, and the list of reasons we're given by the politicians and the talking heads for not regulating them, along with all of the legislation that's been passed to make sure that the gun manufacturers are never held liable for their products, unlike every other industry out there which manufacturers products which might harm or kill people.
After playing some of wingnut Rep. Louie Goehmert's response to that, where he said that hammers could be outlawed under the assault weapons ban because they kill massive numbers of people just like guns do, Stewart got his knocks in on him as well:
STEWART: Okay, if you want to regulate hammers, we could try that. Would it be possible also to regulate bags of hammers, or anyone as dumb as that?
After laying into all of them for their lack of common sense to even consider any form of gun control, Stewart got to the real problem with the debate out there, which is the wingnuts like the guy Fox decided to give some air time to, who was comparing Democrats to the Third Reich over a potential assault weapons ban that hasn't happened yet. And then we've got the publicity hound that CNN should have never given an ounce or air time to, Alex Jones and his little stunt this week to get himself some attention on Piers Morgan's show.
Stewart wrapped things up by stating the obvious about how that type of fearmongering is really driving the lack of a rational debate about our gun laws and regulations.
STEWART: No one's taking away all the guns. But now I get it. Now I see what’s happening. So this is what it is. Their paranoid fear of a possible dystopic future prevents us from addressing our actual dystopic present. We can't even begin to address 30,000 gun deaths that are actually, in reality, happening in this country every year because a few of us must remain vigilant against the rise of imaginary Hitler.
