In a monologue lamenting the lack of political action in response to mass shootings, late-night host Stephen Colbert unwittingly made the case for more expansive gun ownership.
On “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” Monday night, the comedian compared inaction after the Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, Texas, shootings to a prehistoric human tribe doing nothing in response to persistent tiger attacks.
“Doing nothing, as I’ve said before, is unacceptable,” Mr. Colbert said. “But it’s ― it’s unnatural. It’s inhuman. It just goes against our nature. We want to fix things. You want to respond to something terrible like this.
“Not just now, but at any time in human history,” he continued. “Five thousand years ago, if your village had a tiger coming into it every day and was eating people, you wouldn’t do nothing. You would move the village, you would build a fence or you would kill the tiger. You wouldn’t say, ’Well, I guess, you know, someone’s going to get eaten every day, because the price of liberty is tigers.’ You’d take some action.”
Users on social media suggested a few ways to thwart tiger attacks:
I’d shoot it.
— Sean Agnew (@seanagnew) November 8, 2017
You’d shoot it. https://t.co/c7CNPpfsXN
— Charles C. W. Cooke (@charlescwcooke) November 8, 2017
Legislate a tiger ban, which the tigers would ignore.
— Wes79 (@Gogata1354) November 9, 2017
So you’d what…. ban tigers?
— Christopher R Taylor (@KestrelArts) November 9, 2017
You’d shoot the tiger, that’s what you’d do. #Silly
If the first person had a gun the tiger wouldn’t have eaten anyone.
— Tripp (@TrippHardin) November 9, 2017
That’s why we have tiger control laws
— Jordan Stauber (@JordanStauber) November 9, 2017
I would shoot the tiger then cut it up with my new chainsaw attachment… then I would eat a tiger steak while I dreamed of my new tiger coat.
— Ryan (@frankthetank918) November 8, 2017
• Bradford Richardson can be reached at brichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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