Late-Night Lately: The Hosts Take on Gun Control, the NRA and Olympics

The Parkland, Fla. high school students advocating for gun control in the wake of a shooting at their school that left 17 dead suffered a legislative defeat on Tuesday, when the Florida State House rejected a motion to consider a bill to ban assault rifles. But their efforts to establish stricter U.S. laws have won the praise of late-night hosts, several of whom dedicated segments of their shows to the students on Tuesday night.

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert said that the one group that gave him hope that “we can protect the children” in the wake of the tragedy was the children themselves. Citing inaction on gun control from legislators, Colbert said with a straight face, “I think we need to change the voting age. Until we do something about guns, you can’t vote if you’re over 18.”

Noting that students at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school had been present at the Florida State House on Tuesday, Colbert added, “I hope these kids don’t give up. Because this is their lives and their future. Someone else may be in power, but this country belongs to them. And there is reason for hope.” Citing the “Me Too” movement and how it brought down men in power, Colbert added, “This is an election year. If you want to see change you have to go to the polls and tell the people who will not protect you that their time is up.”

Later in the show, Colbert sat down with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and asked why a reform hasn’t been put in place regarding gun control.

“This is unfathomable how many deaths we’ve had to see over and over and over again and Congress has done nothing,” Gillibrand began explaining. “The silence is literally deafening and they don’t get anything done because the NRA has a chokehold on Congress. The NRA is concerned only with gun sales. It’s all about money. It’s all about greed. It has nothing to do with the second amendment. And we’ve seen death after death after death and it has to stop.”

Colbert then pressed what exactly was the “chokehold” NRA has held on Congress, with Gillibrand explaining that they have a power of instilling fear. “They have so much power that nothing was done after Aurora. Nothing was done after Sandy Hook… And nothing is done now. It’s the power of money. It’s the power of communications. It’s the fear they instill in members and it’s wrong. It’s morally wrong.”

Gillibrand also praised students who have spoken out after the shooting, demanding a change be implemented from Congress. “They’re now starting a movement and taking this into their own hands and speaking truth to power… The solution to this problem, Stephen, is listening to those kids and hearing their pain, frustration and their anger and doing something about it.”

The senator then mentioned that she banned Corporate Pac checks, with several of her colleagues already following suit. “We have to start taking the money out of politics, because it undermines our democracy. Money is not speech,” Gillibrand said. The senator then referred to the NRA as “one of the worst offenders” to Congress.

Over on The Daily Show, Trevor Noah described the reaction to the mass shooting in Parkland as “the same old story” of warring gun-control factions after the tragedy except for one thing: “Those meddling kids.”

After playing footage of Marjory Parkman students speaking on national TV, Noah said, “This also just goes to show how upside-down everything becomes when guns are involved. Right now, kids are acting like adults and adults are acting like children.”

Play-acting the roles of parents and children, Noah said, “Because you’ve got senators like, ‘You’re taking away my favorite toys! This is so unfair!’ And the kids are like, ‘You can’t have them if you’re not responsible enough to handle them.'”

A half-hour later, on The Opposition, Jordan Klepper invited two student gun-control advocates from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on his show.

Senior Delaney Tarr argued against the idea that the students wanted to infringe on Americans’ liberties with their call for stricter laws. “We’re not taking away your liberty, actually, and that’s something we’ve tried to make clear time and time again,” Tarr said. “Our goal is of course to let our younger siblings, to let our cousins, to let all the younger people that we know in our lives to go to school without that school being shot up. Ultimately that is our goal, to make the world safer, to make our country safer, because this is an American issue.”

When Klepper asked, playing the devil’s advocate, whether arming teachers might not be the answer instead of gun control, senior Carly Novell quipped, “That’s going to school in a prison and having teachers be your prison guards.”

“When I came to America, three years ago, to take this job, I could have never imagined that as a late-night host, I’d be talking about mass shootings and talking about so many of them,” James Corden said as he opened The Late Late Show. “I may not be American, but I have experience of what happened in my country when a mass shooting happened and I also have children who are American and they go to school here. And, like any parent, I want my kids to be safe.”

The late-night host proceeded to reference a graph that assessed the ratio of mass shootings in a country to the amount of guns available for access. The United States surpassed every other country, with countries such as Japan and Australia having already passed strict gun laws to prevent mass shootings from occurring. Corden then took a moment to call for gun control that could follow suit with other countries.

“We’ve done this too many times. I’ll be honest with you, after the mass shootings of the past few years in America, I’ve felt exactly the same as you. I’ve felt angry and confused and frustrated that nothing would be done to try to avoid these massacres… something has changed after the shooting in Parkland. This time, children seem to be using their voices louder.”

Corden praised the Parkland students for speaking out and declaring their demands for a change to be implemented in gun control. “When I see these kids talking, it makes me feel hopeful. It isn’t foreign late-night hosts you need to listen to… But you can listen to America’s children. And it fills me with optimism that maybe Americans will be able to come together and put aside their differences to make a sensible change for those kids, for our kids and for all Americans. 

The Parkland, Fla. high school students advocating for gun control in the wake of a shooting at their school that left 17 dead suffered a legislative defeat on Tuesday, when the Florida State House rejected a motion to consider a bill to ban assault rifles. But their efforts to establish stricter U.S. laws have won the praise of late-night hosts, several of whom dedicated segments of their shows to the students on Tuesday night.

On The Late Show, Stephen Colbert said that the one group that gave him hope that “we can protect the children” in the wake of the tragedy was the children themselves. Citing inaction on gun control from legislators, Colbert said with a straight face, “I think we need to change the voting age. Until we do something about guns, you can’t vote if you’re over 18.”

Noting that students at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school had been present at the Florida State House on Tuesday, Colbert added, “I hope these kids don’t give up. Because this is their lives and their future. Someone else may be in power, but this country belongs to them. And there is reason for hope.” Citing the “Me Too” movement and how it brought down men in power, Colbert added, “This is an election year. If you want to see change you have to go to the polls and tell the people who will not protect you that their time is up.”

Later in the show, Colbert sat down with Senator Kirsten Gillibrand and asked why a reform hasn’t been put in place regarding gun control.

“This is unfathomable how many deaths we’ve had to see over and over and over again and Congress has done nothing,” Gillibrand began explaining. “The silence is literally deafening and they don’t get anything done because the NRA has a chokehold on Congress. The NRA is concerned only with gun sales. It’s all about money. It’s all about greed. It has nothing to do with the second amendment. And we’ve seen death after death after death and it has to stop.”

Colbert then pressed what exactly was the “chokehold” NRA has held on Congress, with Gillibrand explaining that they have a power of instilling fear. “They have so much power that nothing was done after Aurora. Nothing was done after Sandy Hook… And nothing is done now. It’s the power of money. It’s the power of communications. It’s the fear they instill in members and it’s wrong. It’s morally wrong.”Gillibrand also praised students who have spoken out after the shooting, demanding a change be implemented from Congress. “They’re now starting a movement and taking this into their own hands and speaking truth to power… The solution to this problem, Stephen, is listening to those kids and hearing their pain, frustration and their anger and doing something about it.”

The senator then mentioned that she banned Corporate Pac checks, with several of her colleagues already following suit. “We have to start taking the money out of politics, because it undermines our democracy. Money is not speech,” Gillibrand said. The senator then referred to the NRA as “one of the worst offenders” to Congress.

Over on The Daily Show, Trevor Noah described the reaction to the mass shooting in Parkland as “the same old story” of warring gun-control factions after the tragedy except for one thing: “Those meddling kids.”

After playing footage of Marjory Parkman students speaking on national TV, Noah said, “This also just goes to show how upside-down everything becomes when guns are involved. Right now, kids are acting like adults and adults are acting like children.”

Play-acting the roles of parents and children, Noah said, “Because you’ve got senators like, ‘You’re taking away my favorite toys! This is so unfair!’ And the kids are like, ‘You can’t have them if you’re not responsible enough to handle them.'”

A half-hour later, on The Opposition, Jordan Klepper invited two student gun-control advocates from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on his show.

Senior Delaney Tarr argued against the idea that the students wanted to infringe on Americans’ liberties with their call for stricter laws. “We’re not taking away your liberty, actually, and that’s something we’ve tried to make clear time and time again,” Tarr said. “Our goal is of course to let our younger siblings, to let our cousins, to let all the younger people that we know in our lives to go to school without that school being shot up. Ultimately that is our goal, to make the world safer, to make our country safer, because this is an American issue.”

When Klepper asked, playing the devil’s advocate, whether arming teachers might not be the answer instead of gun control, senior Carly Novell quipped, “That’s going to school in a prison and having teachers be your prison guards.”

“When I came to America, three years ago, to take this job, I could have never imagined that as a late-night host, I’d be talking about mass shootings and talking about so many of them,” James Corden said as he opened The Late Late Show. “I may not be American, but I have experience of what happened in my country when a mass shooting happened and I also have children who are American and they go to school here. And, like any parent, I want my kids to be safe.”

The late-night host proceeded to reference a graph that assessed the ratio of mass shootings in a country to the amount of guns available for access. The United States surpassed every other country, with countries such as Japan and Australia having already passed strict gun laws to prevent mass shootings from occurring. Corden then took a moment to call for gun control that could follow suit with other countries.

“We’ve done this too many times. I’ll be honest with you, after the mass shootings of the past few years in America, I’ve felt exactly the same as you. I’ve felt angry and confused and frustrated that nothing would be done to try to avoid these massacres… something has changed after the shooting in Parkland. This time, children seem to be using their voices louder.”

Corden praised the Parkland students for speaking out and declaring their demands for a change to be implemented in gun control. “When I see these kids talking, it makes me feel hopeful. It isn’t foreign late-night hosts you need to listen to… But you can listen to America’s children. And it fills me with optimism that maybe Americans will be able to come together and put aside their differences to make a sensible change for those kids, for our kids and for all Americans.