Comedian Stephen Colbert encouraged Americans Tuesday night to vote out Republican Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy over his comments on gun control following the Boulder grocery store shooting.
A lone gunman opened fire in a supermarket Monday, killing 10 people. One victim was a police officer, as previously reported.
“The only suitable way to honor these victims is with action, but our government continues to do nothing,” Colbert stated during Tuesday night’s episode of his show. Colbert went on to show a clip from a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing where Kennedy compared mass shootings to drunk driving.
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“I do think we ought to keep this in perspective,” Kennedy said in the clip. “What has happened in the last few days, what’s happened in the last years is, of course, tragic. I’m not trying to perfectly equate these two but… we have a lot of drunk drivers in America that kill a lot of people, we ought to try to combat that too.” (RELATED: Video Shows Boulder Shooting Suspect Cuffed And Marched To Stretcher, Bleeding And Shirtless)
“OK, I’ll take that deal,” Colbert said during his show after the clip. “Let’s regulate guns the way we regulate alcohol and cars. You got to be 21, got to pass a test to get a license, you got to have registration and insurance for your gun. If you move to a new state, you’ve got to do the whole damn thing over again, and you can’t go out loaded.”
Colbert then showed another clip from the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
“I don’t believe we have a gun control problem in America,” Kennedy said. “I believe we have an idiot control problem.”
“Oh, we definitely have an idiot control problem,” Colbert said after showing the clip. “It’s people who don’t recognize that this country has long had a gun problem, John Kennedy!”
“So when idiots like John Kennedy refuse to do anything about getting rid of idiot’s guns, it’s clearly time to get rid of idiots like John Kennedy — and that means voting them out,” the comedian added.