The Daily Show: John Oliver Investigates Gun Control in Australia - Part 1

Following the Senate's defeat of the Manchin-Toomey amendment, John Oliver tests the theory that government-mandated gun control doesn't work.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thedailyshow
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheDailyShow

[static skipping]

(Audience cheering and applauding)

Welcome Back.

For more on the gun debate,

we bring you the first part of the 3 part

series with John Oliver.

(John Oliver) [British accent] Yesterday, Americans watched in shock

as even watered down gun legislation
died on the floor of the Senate

but that is exactly where it belongs according to gun lobbyists like

Philip Van Cleave of the Virginia Citizens Defence League.

The Second Amendment, we-we-you know, is-is sacrosanct.

You hold up this sign whenever I make a suggestion that you think

is infringing upon your

Second Amendment rights, ok?

Ok.

Assault weapons ban. Boom there it is.

Increased background checks.

(John Oliver) Really?

(Philip) Yes.

(John Oliver) Just for-just for background checks?

(Philip) We don't do background checks for the First Amendment.

(John Oliver) Okay, so let's just try this one.

(Philip) Ok.

(John Oliver) Nice and easy.

(Philip) Sure.

A mandatory 1 hour waiting period if you buy a gun.

(Philip) Why-why a mandatory...

(John Oliver)
Philip, are you [beep] kidding me?

[Laughter]

(Philip) Okay, unless I can see a reason - No.

I can't think of anything that I support

because at the end of the day none of it works.

(John Oliver) Exactly, gun control does not work.

What if - hypothetically speaking -

what if gun control could work?

Which obviously it can't.

So we know that it won't so that's not a problem but what if it could,

due to that time that it did?

[laughter]

(Philip) Ok when-d-when was that?

Australia.

(Music)

Yes, Australia.

In 1996 a conservative Prime Minister John Howard,

instituted sweeping gun control laws

following a mass shooting that shocked the nation.

So should we be learning from this effective example?

(Scoffs) Of course not.

I-I guess if we're going to go to Planet X

and say it's not the United States - it's on some other planet, different people,

different everything,

[Laughter]

I don't know - yeah-yeah, it-it wou-

But in the real world with human beings

it's not going to work and gun control isn't going to work.

Unfortunately, not only is Australia actually in the real world,

even their animals can holster weapons.

[laughter]

So who was right about gun control?

There was only one way to find out,

confront the man responsible.

(John Oliver) Mr Prime Minister, let's begin in the formal Australian way,

G'day

[audience laughter]

(John Howard) [Australian accent] How are you-how do you do?

Obviously gun control doesn't work,
it can't work, it will never work.

So how was your scheme a failure?

[audience laughter]

Well my scheme was not a failure.

We had a massacre at a place called
Port Arthur 17 years ago

and there have been none, uh, since.

(John Oliver) Zero gun massacres?
Hold on, did gun control actually work?

(Philip) It stopped one thing.
That could also be a statistical anomoly.

Yeah, it was just their mass shootings disappeared.

But there were so few of them, whoop-de-do!

Whoop-de-doo?

Yes.

(John Oliver) Whoop-de-doo?

Yes, mass shooting are rare anyhow.

(John Oliver) [proud music plays] Exactly.

They probably barely had a massacre before 1996.

(John Howard) There was about 13 in the previous 18 years.

(John Oliver) In the 18 years before

Port Arthur there were 13 mass shootings.

(Philip) Yes

Almost one a year.

Yes, I was unaware they had that many.

Mass being what?

More than two people at a time?

(John Oliver) More than four.

(Philip) More than four, ok.

Whoop-de-doo.

(John Oliver) But perhaps there were other non-whoop-de-doo side effects.

The homocide rate, uh, involving the use of guns has

declined significantly by factors of up to 50 and 60%

and the incidence of youth suicides involving guns has declined dramatically.

Whoop-de-f*(beep)-do.

[Audience laughter]

Help me out here, Philip.

Homocides with guns went down,

suicide with guns also went down.

Zero mass shootings.

Well-we-well, Australia still has murders, rapes
and robberies last I checked.

Unless you can get rid of 100% of crime,

it's not worth doing at all.

Well put it this way,

it's illegal to have crack cocaine anywhere in the United States.

Do you think if somebody really wants it,

they could get their hands on crack cocaine in America?

So unless we can completely get rid of drugs,

there's no point in having drug laws at all?

[Audience laughter]

[sighs] Let me think about that for a minute, umm.

[audience applause and laughter]

Well, I guess, effectively it doesn't work.

[proud music playing]

(John Oliver) You can't argue with Phillip,

even his logic is bullet proof.

Well lemme-lemme put it to you this way,

there are more drownings in backyards where they have pools,

if the don't have a pool there are no drownings in backyards, okay.

So the U.S. has a very high number of guns therefore there's going to be

more chances for somebody to be killed with a gun.

(John Oliver) Right.

[audience laughter]

(Philip) Right.

(John Oliver) Right.

[Audience laughter]

Thats MY point.

[Land Down Under by Men At Work]

Philip might think that living in a society with dramatically reduced gun violence

is a whoop-de-doo and people in Australia couldn't agree with him more

(male speaker 1) [Australian accent] Whoop-de-doo.

(male speaker 2) [Australian accent] Whoop-de-doo, mate.

(female speakers, in unison) [Australian accents] Whoop-de-do!

(male speaker 3) [Australian accent] Whoop-de-do, well, whatever that means.

WHOOP-DE-F*(beep)-D0!! Yeah!

[audience cheering] [Land Down Under playing]

John Oliver
We'll be right back.

[audience cheering and applause]