‘Saturday Night Live’ this weekend took aim at the guns debate in the U.S. with a fake ad parodying the country’s obsession with owning and using the deadly weapon.
“There are things we all share. Love. Family. Connection. A sense of purpose. And also: guns,” the ad entitled “Guns — We’re Here to Stay” begins.
Actress and comedian Amy Schumer, who hosted “SNL” Saturday, was featured in the ad receiving a gun as a gift over dinner. It was given to her in a box wrapped with a bow. She leaps for joy when she sees the black handgun and throws her arms around her boyfriend, played by Taran Killam. There’s another scene where a dad welcomes his newborn baby with a gun while still in the hospital room.
“When things fall apart. Or it all comes together. They unite us, comfort us, bring us joy and strength … guns — we’re here to stay,” the voiceover in the mocking ad says.
The politically-charged episode comes as the mass shooting at a community college in Oregon this month pushed gun control into the national spotlight — again. A shooter killed nine people, including himself, prompting a visibly frustrated President Obama from the White House to urge the American people to “think about how they can get our government to change these laws and to save lives.” There have been 45 school shootings in 2015 alone.
This isn’t the first time Amy Schumer has waded into the gun debate. After a shooting took place in a Louisiana movie theater last summer during a showing of her film “Trainwreck,” the star made a plea for strict background checks.
In a response to an open letter from a parent of a Sandy Hook shooting victim, the actress wrote: “Don’t worry I’m on it. You’ll see.”
Soon after, Schumer and her cousin, New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, called for tougher action on gun control.
“Preventing dangerous people from getting guns is very possible. We have common-sense solutions. We can toughen background checks and stop the sale of firearms to folks who have a violent history or history of mental illness,” the actress said in August.
Senate Democrats just last week unveiled a plan for tougher gun control reforms, which included background checks. Schumer and Sen. Debbie Stabenow, who spearheaded the proposal, called for “sensible gun reform legislation.” A recent Pew study in July found that 85% of all Americans favor universal background checks on gun sales.
Anna Brand