In the wake of the bloodiest mass shooting in the United States, many popular personalities from the media talk about the things that most politicians are avoiding. It is still soon, and a lot of information is coming to the surface, but besides a little group of officials that includes U.S. President Barack Obama, comedians are making echo of people’s voices that say we need more regulations on guns, especially on automatic weapons.

Full Frontal with Samantha Bee was one of the most notable this week. In her weekly show on Monday, she presented herself notably moved by the events, but while most public speakers avoid the hard questions, she angrily addressed them. For example, regarding the second amendment, she asked “are people’s live worth less than sanctity of free speech, even if it’s hate speech?” and “should we restrict people’s right based on scary things they say?” She basically arguments that the current gun control law is flawed, and to do so, she showed a video where Senator Christopher Murphy from Connecticut talks about gun violence in the United States saying that in 2015, 31,672 people were shot at a given time, an outstanding 86 a day. Moreover, she used Australia as an example because in that country gun laws are very strict, and there has not been a mass shooting there since 1996.

Orlando shooting
People hold candles during a memorial service for the victims of the Orlando shooting. Credit: Telegraph UK

Jimmy Fallon also talked about the events. He called for union and acceptance. Fallon made emphasis on the fact that America was built on the fact that not everybody has the same opinion, and that is ok. He said people should be able to say or believe in whatever they want without having the fear of being arrested, bullied or attacked by a deranged person.

John Oliver talked about the mass shooting in Orlando just minutes before starting his weekly show. He started by giving his condolences and expressing how he felt by saying “it just hurts.” Then he apologized to the audience about the comedy show he was going to host as he felt it was inappropriate, but most importantly, he told people not to fall into the terrorist intentions. He said these criminals were trying to make everyone focus on one man’s horrible actions. He then showed a video of hundreds of people making a line to donate blood which ultimately proves that hate is not as popular as terrorists say, and Omar Mateen represents a vastly outnumbered group.

“People who we know have been on ISIL websites living here in the United States, U.S. citizens… And we are allowed to put them on the No-Fly List when it comes to airlines, but because of the National Rifle Association, I cannot prohibit those people from buying a gun,” said President Barack Obama in a PBS speech on June 12, 2016. One day after the shooting in Orlando.

Most politicians don’t discuss gun control

Richard Lynn “Rick” Scott has been the governor of Florida since 2011 and under his tenure, it has become much simpler to get a vary license. For instance, he signed for a law that reduced the carry license tax from $85 to $70. He also allowed tax collectors to do something called “fast track” applications for the state’s concealed carry licenses. Moreover, public records in this regard are protected by the law, which means they are legally secret.

Automatic weapons, particularly assault rifles, have been associated with more than six major mass shootings in the United States including the Sandy Hook, Aurora, and San Bernardino cases. According to the National Rifle Association, rifles like the AR-15 that are useful for hunting and home defense is what they call a “civilian version” of an AR-16, which is an assault weapon made for war. No wonder why so many organizations and governments around the world have kept assault weapons away from civilian hands.

The problem is that in the United States, the market for this kind of weapons is just too big. After the tragedy at Sandy Hook, President Obama supported by the Congress passed a severe restriction on guns with high-capacity magazines. The public responded by going to gun stores and buying as much as they could before the law passed, particularly ARs gear.

“The market is saturated. The market is flooded with them,” said Jeff Stucker, co-owner of On Target indoor shooting range and gun shop in South Asheville. “Everybody ramped up, thinking they were going to be outlawed, and lo and behold they weren’t,” he added.

A big group of people has gathered at the NRA headquarters to protest, and this time, they could manage to draw some attention. It is not only the events in Orlando but President Obama has been pressing on gun control for some time now. Hillary Clinton, who is the favorite Democrat candidate, has also said repeatedly that the law on gun control needs more restrictions.

Politicians like Trump or Rick Scott have used the tragedy to rally their political agendas. In fact, Republican Pam Bondi, the General Attorney of Florida was the protagonist of a very controversial video. In the days after the shooting, she has been showing her support to the LGBT community in public every time she can, which is not bad, but Anderson Cooper, a famous journalist, and anchor of CNN’s news show Anderson Cooper 360, confronted her on some anti-gay comments the attorney had said in the past. The video went viral yesterday and as of now, it has been watched more than 250,000 times on YouTube.

Source: Tampa Bay