Several talk show hosts took time out of their programs to condemn the Orlando mass shooting.
“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert opened his broadcast urging viewers to love in the wake of the nation’s deadliest shooting, telling his audience, “Despair is a victory for hate.”
“Love does not despair. Love makes us strong. Love gives us the courage to act. Love gives us hope that change is possible. Loves allows us to change the script,” Colbert said. “So love your country. Love your family, love the families and the victims and the people of Orlando, but remember that love is a verb and to love means to do something.”
Jimmy Fallon opened the Tonight Show with a monologue posing some poignant questions. “I, as a new father, am thinking, ‘What do I tell my kids? What do I tell them about this? What can we learn from this? What if my kids are gay? What do I tell them?’” Fallon said. “Maybe there’s a lesson from all this. A lesson in tolerance. We need to support each other’s differences and worry less about our own opinions. Get back to debate and away from believing or supporting the idea that if someone doesn’t live the way you want them to live you just buy a gun and kill them, bomb them up. That is not OK.”
Conan O’Brien responded to the tragedy in Orlando by calling for an end to semi-automatic assault rifle sales.
“I simply do not understand why anybody in this country is allowed to purchase and own a semi-automatic assault rifle. It makes no sense to me. These are weapons of war, and they have no place in civilian life,” O’Brien said.
