Jon Stewart Lays The Smackdown On Gun Control Opponents

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Jon Stewart devoted all of yesterday’s Daily Show to gun control opponents, systematically breaking down and mocking how abstract political paranoia and gun-rights mania has prevented fair, smart legislation to protect the safety and lives of citizens. In the two-part opener above, Stewart calls for rationality and honest discussion in this hysterically partisan debate.

Responding to right-wing claims that gun control is the first step on the way to an evil dictatorship, Stewart says, “Their paranoid fear of a possible dystopic future prevents us from addressing our actual dystopic present. We can’t even begin to discuss 30,000 gun deaths that are actually happening in reality every year because a few of us must remain vigilant against Imaginary Hitler.”

Stewart points out that key legislation and enforcement changes have greatly reduced drunk driving and argues the same could be done regarding gun violence. And he makes the valid point that refusal to even discuss gun control options is currently the biggest obstacle in working to prevent future massacres like the ones in Newtown and Aurora.