‘When We Realized Terrorists Could Use Planes as Weapons, We Did Something.’ Hear Trevor Noah’s Stirring Plea for Gun Control

The host of The Daily Show has a strong message to share: Mass shootings and guns, just like 9/11 and planes, have everything to do with each other.

On Monday night’s show, Trevor Noah took a stand for people to stop separating mass shootings and gun deaths from guns. The host dismantled a popular gun rights talking point that mass shootings have nothing to do with guns, but have to do with mental illness, or terrorism, or pretty much anything besides guns.

Noah began the lengthy opening segment talking about growing up and tripping all the time because he was “an idiot” who didn’t tie his shoes. He explained that he kept falling down and falling down, and cried every time, and his mom asked him why he kept falling. Noah realized it was the shoelaces. He didn’t blame the concrete, or anything else. It was shoelaces.

Noah then played a montage of pundits shifting blame away from the gun lobby, telling people that our epidemic of gun violence can’t be blamed on the weapons people use. The montage ends with former congressman Allen West (R – Fla.) saying that the terrorists used box cutters to hijack the planes on 9/11.

Yes, they used planes to kill thousands of people, Noah agreed.

“And as soon as we realized that they could use planes as weapons, we worked together as a society, we worked our damnedest to make it harder for them to ever do that again,” said Noah. “We locked cabin doors. We expanded the no-fly list. We even make everyone pose for x-ray nudes now.”

The host continued:

“What we didn’t do was say, ‘Oh, this has nothing to do with airplanes, it has everything to do with radical Islam.’ No, what we did instead was regulate air travel to make it harder for the terrorists to do the damage. Even when fighting ISIS itself, we fight the ideology, yes, we fight to reduce their resources, but most importantly, we attack their weapon stores. Why do we do that? Because removing their weapons dramatically reduces their ability to hurt us. Because everybody knows, ISIS without guns is just basically a blog.”

Noah’s thoughtful discourse goes on to show the irony in the gun rights debate, whereas pro gun activists don’t see a connection between terrorism and easily accessible guns, but terrorists do.

Noah shows a clip of a former al-Qaeda spokesperson talking about readily available guns in the U.S.

“America is absolutely awash in easily-obtainable firearms,” said the spokesman.

Noah continues, highlighting that the debate isn’t one or the other.

“So when people say, ‘It’s not about guns. It’s about terrorism.’ No, it’s about terrorism and it’s about guns. Because you realize there were two other incidents this weekend that didn’t involve terrorism.”

Those two incidents were when 22-year-old The Voice contestant Christina Grimmie was gunned down in Florida Friday night, and the Indiana man who was caught with assault weapons and explosives on his way to the L.A. gay pride rally in Santa Monica, California. Those incidences weren’t about “radical Islamic” terrorism. They were about terrorism and they were about guns.

“America needs to ask itself the question: Do you want to be a country that takes reasonable measures to protect its citizens, or should we tell the President to prepare [condolence] speech number 17.”

Watch the full segment above.