Last night, Jon Stewart looked at the news about Chipotle banning guns inside their stores and how the pro-gun crowd has gone to extremes to try and stop the smart gun.
STEVE DOOCY (4/9/2014): Now in the middle of the night, when somebody breaks in, before I can shoot my gun, where's my bracelet?? I gotta go downstairs!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!! .... No, that does seem like an awful lot of hassle to go through before getting to shoot someone. You know, it's so onerous. Oh, what am I supposed to do, reach for my gun with this hand and use my other hand to get this other thing? I mean, it's a fucking wristband, it's not a Victorian corset! (Jon mimics putting corset on) "OK, now where's my gun?"
Video and transcript below the fold.
Guys walked into a Chipotle brandishing assault rifles. Now, we all know the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. But here's the problem with open carrying of assault rifles. No one else in that Chipotle knows you're a good guy. They just know you have a gun. And here's the thing, even if you put your gun up and go, "Don't worry, everybody, we're good guys!" — that's the type of thing a clever bad guy might say. (audience laughter)
Of course, Chipotle's assault on assault rifles is just one part of a larger attack on firearm supporters, as Maryland gun store owner Andy Raymond learned when he was targeted by extremists just for trying to sell guns.
JAN CRAWFORD (5/6/2014): One caller warned Raymond's business would be burned to the ground. Another threatened that Raymond would get what was coming to him.
ANDY RAYMOND: So anyway, obviously, I received numerous death threats today, I really fucking appreciate that, that's fucking classy.
Well, for the record, the death threats that he received were really fucking classy.
That's embossed 80-lb. paper, very thick.
Look, I support reasonable gun safety measures as much as the other 90% of all Americans, but there is no excuse for anti-gun people to threaten anybody.
NEWS REPORT (5/2/2014): The hate mail wasn't from anti-gun folks, but from gun owners accusing Andy of being a gun rights traitor for being willing to sell a weapon some owners see as a threat to the Second Amendment.
What the fuck? (audience laughter) What kind of gun is a threat to the Second Amendment? A gun that shoots other guns? A gun that goes back in time and kills amendments?
5/6/2014:
CHARLIE ROSE: A new weapon called the smart gun uses computer technology to prevent anyone other than the gun's owner from shooting.
JAN CRAWFORD: Made in Germany, it requires users to wear a radio-controlled watch to fire it.
5/5/2014:
CHRIS HAYES: Belinda Padilla leads the American division of Armatix. She met me at a Maryland gun range.
BELINDA PADILLA: So red means you are not the authorized user.
CHRIS HAYES: I'm putting the ammunition in. I can fire. (shoots gun)
Wow! That is something I never thought I would live to see — an MSNBC host at a shooting range. (audience laughter)
But this smart gun sounds good too. It protects your home, it does your kids' algebra, and it cannot be turned against you. Who wouldn't want that?
STEVE DOOCY (4/9/2014): Now in the middle of the night, when somebody breaks in, before I can shoot my gun, where's my bracelet?? I gotta go downstairs!
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!!!! Hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!! Yeah, fuck yeah!!!!!!!
No, that does seem like an awful lot of hassle to go through before getting to shoot someone. You know, it's so onerous. Oh, what am I supposed to do, reach for my gun with this hand and use my other hand to get this other thing? I mean, it's a fucking wristband, it's not a Victorian corset! (Jon mimics putting corset on) "OK, now where's my gun?"
Look, if you don't want one of these smart guns, don't buy them. How is this a Second Amendment threat?
CHRIS HAYES (5/5/2014): In 2002, New Jersey passed a law requiring that once a smart gun goes on the market anywhere in the country, gun sellers in New Jersey must move within three years to only sell smart guns, taking traditional guns off the shelves.
Whoa. Point, gun nut. Unless once that New Jersey law's sponsor realized her law was not making all guns safer, but preventing any safe gun from being sold, and she had a change of heart.
SHARON CROWLEY, FOX5 (5/12/2014): New Jersey state senate majority leader Loretta Weinberg is offering to repeal a gun law she sponsored twelve years ago, if the NRA agrees to stop its opposition to smart guns.
Yes! It's a win-win! Everybody is holding hands and singing "Gunbaya". Which is like "Kumbaya", but with shooting. Just to be clear, NRA, this is a deal where New Jersey will repeal a gun control law if in return you consent to let people sell more guns. It's like your wet dream. I mean, we all know how pro-choice you are gun-wise.
DAVID KEENE (3/27/2014): The fact is, we believe in free markets and free choice. That's what this country's about.
WAYNE LaPIERRE (3/6/2014): There is no greater freedom than the right to survive and protect our families with all the rifles, shotguns, and handguns we want.
So it's a deal!
SHARON CROWLEY, FOX5 (5/12/2014): The NRA, for its part, is not showing any signs it will back off its tough stance against smart guns.
Holy shit! Finally, the NRA's fight to protect the Second Amendment has met its match — the NRA. We'll be right back.
He then looked at ways the human race
could go extinct.
Meanwhile, Stephen talked about members of the Chinese military being accused of spying on U.S. companies before turning to the GOP's latest attacks against Hillary Clinton.
He then looked at how Europe wants to be able to force Google to hide certain stories about people who don't want others to learn about their past.
Stephen talked with Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, and Jon talked with Aneesh Chopra, which went long. Here's the unedited interview in FOUR parts.
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4