I didn’t realize this until it was a Jeopardy question a few months ago, but Amy Schumer and New York’s senior senator Chuck Schumer are cousins. It’s true! Sort of – they’re like second cousins once removed. And on Monday, the Schumer family had a little get-together in New York. They did a joint press conference to announce Sen. Schumer’s new public initiative to prevent gun violence.
Amy has been trying to walk the razor’s edge about the issues of gun violence and gun control in the past few weeks, ever since a violent and crazy douchebag walked into a Louisiana theater – during a late screening of Amy’s Trainwreck – and opened fire. Two women were killed and more than a half dozen people were injured before the gunman turned his weapon on himself. Ever since then, it feels like the pro-gun control lobby has been publicly needling Amy to take more of a stand. Sarah Clements, the daughter of a Sandy Hook survivor, even wrote a powerful open letter to Amy connecting Amy’s feminism to the violent, tragic acts in that Louisiana theater. I have no doubt that Amy was always pro-gun control, but I feel uncomfortable with the way so many people have put the spotlight on her to do or say something. It is not her fault that a madman walked into a theater playing her movie. I feel like Amy was trying to be genuinely respectful towards the victims and their families by NOT getting on a soapbox about guns and gun control. But she waited and I have to say… she did it the smart way.
In Monday’s press conference, Amy got very emotional talking about the Louisiana shooting. Sen. Schumer proposed blanket background checks and additional funding for mental health. Chuck Schumer’s idea is pretty smart – he’s proposing legislation that would fund state-by-state background checks and gun ownership records. He’s also proposing that the DOJ keep better records on involuntary mental-health commitments. You can read more about it here.
Grateful to @amyschumer for adding her talent & her voice to the nationwide call to put an end to #gunviolence. pic.twitter.com/tJyRdNyinw
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) August 3, 2015
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Nicely done. It troubles me that it is more difficult to obtain a driver’s license and a car and regulation over maintaining that driver’s license and car registration than it is to obtain a gun. The amendment includes the language “well-regulated.” Let’s do that.
I agree. I just don’t understand it. Why can’t we just try to regulate it a bit more? I respect Sen Schumer for trying to bring a solution to the table.
But I suppose there will be the usual “get your hands off of my guns” pushback. When you have a Senator/Presidential candidate proudly using a machine gun to cook bacon, I’m skeptical this can happen. Sigh…
The “if we outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns” arguments and “Chicago!” Two very, very different problems. And let’s ignore that a large number of illegal guns out there were initially obtained, illegally, because the “responsible gun owners” who had weapons in the house for “protection” left those weapons exactly where a thief could find and take them. Regulating who has guns and how they store them, whether they’re qualified to operate them, will cut down substantially on accidental deaths of children in their own homes and in the homes of their friends and on the mass killings, most of which have been performed with LEGALLY obtained weapons. Yes, we need to deal with illegal weapons on our streets too but that is a different problem, which needs to be addressed with different measures and ignoring one problem because it won’t solve the other gets us nowhere.
Agreed and look how many mass shooters “fell through the cracks” when obtaining guns. How is that not maddening to people?!
I said this to my friend when discussing the Charleston shooting and I’ll say it again: if Sandy Hook couldn’t spur people to STOP LETTING THE NRA CONTROL LEGISLATION nothing will.
If 20 dead kids doesn’t wake America the fuck up nothing will.
Sorry for the language but I’m just so tired of this debate. Seriously tired and this is coming from someone who can shoot guns and has a license to carry.
Lilacflowers and Alex – The link to this 2012 article was in my Twitter feed after the Lafayette shootings. The tweet said “Read this. Nothing has changed. Not One. Damn. Thing”
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/dec/15/our-moloch/
I respect her for taking a breather and waiting to express a well thought out reply in this manner, most importantly alongside actionable proposals being made by her relative. She seemed nervous understandably but came across as sincere – my only critique being the over-emphasizing of “mentally ill” – yes most mass shooters are mentally ill, but honestly gun laws need to be stricter across the board, period. The letter from the Sandy Hook by association girl kind of irked me a bit – yes it was coming from the right place, sort of, but she should have known someone like Amy would eventually come out and speak about it in a more thought out way. The last thing she needs is women jumping on her – what exactly did anyone involved with Batman do to change things after the shootings? Did Christian Bale or Christopher Nola align with any gun control bills or do anything other than immediate p.r.? I respect Amy for handling this with measured thought and action, people who want to imply the shooting was in any way her fault for daring to be a bold woman with a voice can go do one.
People jumped all over them honestly. Wanted them to cancel the movie and everything. Bale secretly went to hospitals in the area (sans any notice or paps) to meet the survivors and other people in the hospital.
But yea people tend to condemn a movie as if its their fault. I was not pleased that the letter was written to amy…its not on her at all
It was very emotional watching her and I agree, she took her time and did something that could potentially get a chance in Congress. It’s not revolutionary, but the gun lobby is too strong in the US to have a massive change. I mean, a bunch of first graders being killed had zero effect.
Amy handled this really well, no surprise. I think it’s very considerate that she waited. While no amount of time will ever make it ok for the families impacted, she should compassion by not immediately making this a political issue. I love that this isn’t just about generally needing more gun control but also about a possible solution to do
so.
Agreed. She seemed deeply moved and sincere, and passionate about the issue (while being professionally controlled). I applaud her statement. I didn’t know the Senator was her cousin, one hopes that connection will make her statement even more noticed and potentially effective. Maybe something good can come from this awful (yet one more) senseless tragedy.
Agree. Good for her.
I applaud her for speaking out, but the pro-gun lobby in this country cares about nothing but keeping their guns. They don’t care how many people die, how many mentally unstable people get guns or anything else as long as they can continue to slaughter birds and wild animals. They have proven that over and over again, and until we have the guts to stand up to them we will continue to have the most outrageous number of gun deaths in any “civilized” country in the world. It’s sickening, they are sickening and we are sickening.
GoodNames, I agree and I’ll add that their rhetoric, thanks largely to the NRA, has gone way beyond keeping their guns for hunting. In fact, gun ownership, especially among “sportsmen” had begun to decline until the NRA came up with their Second Amendment spin to keep themselves relevant.
GNAT, I completely agree with what you say here, except the motivation of the gun nuts. Their true motivation isn’t slaughtering animals, it’s being armed to the teeth for the perceived full out war that will occur when the government comes to get their guns. They also need to be prepared for when they over-throw the government. It’s totally nuts.
I’m happy to see she waited a bit and was part of something really well-thought out. This wasn’t her making a statement, this was being part of something bigger.
This whole debate is so wild to me. We have a few guns, and granted, it’s not a “way of life” for us. We own land in the South where we take a small gun with us because there are some really dangerous snakes there. If they did more background checks and mental health involvement, we’d still have our guns. I bet MOST people outraged about these changes would still have theirs, too.
I made the mental health comment once and they went on about ‘giving the goverment the power to decide who’s mentally stable and who isn’t!!!!!!!!!!’
It’s tiresome to argue with people like that.
Being Australian owning guns for snakes strikes me as funny. Here my 87 year old nanna deals with massive king browns with a shovel, much better strike rate lol.
This. I’m an Aussie and I’ve always used a shovel. (Not that I go hunting them, I’ll only kill ones that have come into the house or are nesting in the horse paddock.) Give me a gun and I’d miss the snake and shoot myself in the foot.
But even if I could shoot (and didn’t mind shooting up own floor!) … after decapitating them with a shovel and they’ll still thrash for several minutes, and a severed head can still bite for up to an hour. How many bullets do you have to put in one to stop it being dangerous?
What a graceful statement — you could genuinely feel her passion on the issue.
I hope people take this statement in the spirit of which it was intended. If anyone (*cough* Fox) tries to stir up a sh!tstorm saying she’s trying to drum up publicity or some such nonsense, so help me God I’ll…. get really cross. (!)
I still hate that everyone caches their language around gun control in terms of ‘felons’ and the ‘mentally ill’ etc. Here in Australia, it’s clear and easy: no one can have guns. Farmers do, but only clunky, slow guns — def no automatic/semio-automatic. I think that other than police and farmers, that’s about it… No one here has guns.
That’s not entirely true. People can apply for gun licenses here in Australia and get guns but the checks are super intensive and auto/semi rifles are not available.
Our gun laws are so tough you cant even shoot a gun at the shooting range without showing your gun licence.
I only know this because my Dad has been paranoid about my safety since i got boobs and curves at age 12 and some 40 year old men were overheard talking about how they wanted to get in my pants. So my dad enrolled me in self defense, karate and taught me how to use a gun
I don’t know guys, the numbers don’t add up. Countries like Switzerland have more guns per household than we do, but incredibly low homicide rates.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/switzerland.asp
I can totally get on board with funding for mental health though.
I think I read that they dont really have ammo with them, goverment controls it.
If the US’s guns were half as controlled as Switzerland’s there wouldn’t be a problem, but the NRA would lose their minds. For a start, it literally is a militia: every citizen (possibly male citizen, I’d have to double check) does military service including a pretty serious gun training, and then they keep their gun afterwards for the event that they are called to defend their country. However, it is illegal for them to keep ammunition at home. It is possible to get a license for a shotgun for sport/personal use, but incredibly difficult and rare.
I agree that culture of fear + easy access to guns is the root of the problem in the US, but it really is a myth that easy access to guns is the situation in Switzerland.
First time commenter, long time lurker.
I have a great deal of respect for Amy Shumer. She is using her voice to speak up on such an important issue.
I am an Australian, here in April 1996, we had a shocking Mass Murder of 35 innocent people. 23 also left with severe injury. The shooter was a disturbed man, known to authority’s. He should never have been in possession of many automated weapons.
With in weeks, our Prime Minister at the time, passed new laws, banning automated gun use. He also raised a moratorium for private citizens to hand in their weapons, no questions asked. Also changing the laws for storage and sale of weapons.
Since then we have had in Australia ZERO mass murders by gun. We as citizens were happy to hand in thousands of firearms.
We hear almost every other day of travesties in the USA committed with guns.
I have visited the US a number of times. I met many wonderful people, no less concerned and passionate about this issue. Change can happen in your country too. It would save so many innocent lives and so many preventable injuries.
I believe there are many,many more in your country who want this change, than there are those who fight it. It’s people just like the commenters on Celebitchy. Your voice in numbers is more powerful the the gun lobby who try to make out they are more powerful.
They are not.
We are.
I am glad to hear from the citizen of a country where a ‘no guns’ policy has worked. I think this is an interesting conversation to have and very worthwhile.
Just a little research shows that while the gun control did not statistically reduce homicide rates, it has dramatically reduced suicide rates by guns. Somehow I think people will still find ways to kill themselves if they want to.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/08/02/did-gun-control-work-in-australia
More argument here for better mental health benefits yet again.
Hi Crumpet,
Good to see you recognize the need everywhere for greater funding for Mental Health services.
The statistics here in Australia actually reflect a 60% drop in gun related homicides and a 65% drop in suicide rates. Those are big numbers.
Suicide and homicide are often impulsive acts, permanent solutions to often temporary problems.
The banning of easy access to guns is so important.
Most people able to be interviewed, who have survived, state that they regretted their decision the moment they pulled the trigger.
Guns make it too easy. If people in distress can no longer access such an quick and destructive weapon, they have time to calm down and avoid both homicide and suicide.
It doesn’t have to be either/or. Both are necessary and important. It’s happening nearly every week here. That’s unacceptable. NRA pushes for guns to be brought to schools, churches, theaters… it’s insanity.
Getting a car should not be harder than getting a gun. It is not “well regulated” as the Constitution requires. It is damn near UNregulated with loopholes you could drive a monster truck through.
Responsible gun owners ought to step up and cooperate. Right now the NRA is playing you and it doesn’t help your cause, at all.
Well said Helen. As a Tasmanian, Port Arthur was very close to me and the impact was huge.
As a fellow Australian, I am so proud of what we were able to achieve with our gun reform.
To think a newly elected ‘Conservative’ Prime Minister could impact so much change, is incredible. Each state had to agree to the changes as gun laws were not federal. It couldn’t have been an easy task.
The prime monster had to come up against many that had put him in government and to this day even the loudest objectors agree that it has worked.
I really hope something will happen in the US in my lifetime. It breaks my heart to think children being murdered wasn’t enough to warrant change.
we Australians can all hopefully agree that this was John Howard’s greatest achievement. he definitely made our country safer.
Absolutely. Especially when he had only just been elected in the previous month. It was an horrific time for our country and he stood up and made the hard decision and he did not back down. However, our attitude towards guns in general was very different to Americans. The battle in the US is going to be a lot tougher.
I am very thankful we have never seen anything else like Port Arthur in this country, however it breaks my heart each and every time I see it occur in the US.
‘ I feel uncomfortable with the way so many people have put the spotlight on her to do or say something. It is not her fault that a madman walked into a theater playing her movie’
Not people, person. This is why I hated the letter. It’s not her fault someone shot up the movie during Trainwreck but now it’s her responsibility to set things right. I’m pretty sure she could have gotten the letter to her in private without making her feel like this things was her fault.
Agreed.
I really appreciate the Australians who have shared how gun control works in their country. I’ve often heard Australians compared to Americans, aka a cowboy mentality. It made sense because the US Southwest can be very rugged and isolated, where dangerous creatures abound, and the police are farther away.
But where a large majority of Americans cling to stories of how pioneers had to fight off “Indians”, and others fought over land with Mexico, and how every man, woman, and child had to carry and be prepared to use weapons, Australian’s seem to have adapted to current reality.
I feel like it’s a battle that will never be won. If rich white children being mass murdered by guns doesn’t bring about change, nothing ever will. I don’t know why gun control is such a problem. Well, I do know – the NRA. I just don’t know the solution. Poll after poll shows that more than fifty percent of the American public want more stringent gun laws, yet special interests control the issue.
There’s always been a loophole in back ground checks at gun shows. A recent mass shooter obtained guns because the person conducting the back ground check dropped the ball. Even the new push to exclude the mentally ill has problems. I believe it only excludes those involuntarily committed. The Virginia Tech shooter had spent time in a psychiatric hospital, but it was voluntary. Therefore, he passed the background check.
I spent most of my life in the Midwest, where farmers tend to have shotguns, but you rarely see them, and they’re rarely used. I’m now in the south, and it’s crazy how these folks love their guns. Stand your ground laws, and being found non-guilty of murder because someone accidentally knocked on your door at midnight. In Georgia, people can now carry in churches and bars. Bars! Where people go to get drunk! It boggles the mind. When I go to the Atlanta Courthouse, there are the typical signs telling you what you cannot bring. There are actual pictures of semi-automatic weapons placed in circles with a slash through them. I guess for those unable to read, but able to see they can’t bring their AK47s in the courthouse. I went from Chicago to Atlanta, and I feel like I’m in another country.
I never thought of it that way mayamae but you are on to something. Australia certainly had a very rugged start and everyone was fighting and armed to the teeth just like America but it’s definitely not something that carries through today. Most Aussies are urbanised and have no connection to that bush mentality now. If you told the average Aussie at a cafe that they had to fight for their rights or something they’d probably laugh at you and sip their latte 😉
Yes mayamae, I can understand your frustration and share confusion over just where you and your fellow like minded American’s can really effect change.
Obviously, celebrities have a huge voice. There must be a way to encourage them to publicly speak out, as Amy Shumer has.
It takes courage, as they can become targets for pro gun lobbys.
Perhaps a petition set up directly to the whitehouse and able to be signed on line.
If Kelly Rutherford can do it……..
Amy Schumer’s cousin Senator Chuc Schumer has a new public campaign to fight for gun control in a realistic way.
Shout out to my fellow Aussies on Celebitchy.
The memory of the Port Arthur massacre still horrifies. I’m so glad none of us have mentioned the perpetrator’s name.
I have cousins in Tasmania and have visited Port Arthur on my honeymoon. I’m sure their were people on their honeymoon there on that terrible day almost 20 years ago.
Australia does have a significant Outback and rough country heritage. However most of our population lives in big coastal cities, which are very sophisticated and not full of deadly creatures. Lol
Apart from our Killer Drop Bear Koalas… REAL
Some interesting points there. Just in what you mentioned, I can see a couple of big differences between the US and Australia, which might explain why we implemented gun-control and you haven’t.
1) I think you touched on the biggest difference when you mentioned the “stand your ground” laws.
To legally own a fire-arm in Australia, you have to have a good reason. Being a farmer or a sports-shooter is considered a good reason. Defending your home is not.
It wasn’t a problem here, because most Aussies have never had anything like “stand your ground” laws – only South Australia lets you use lethal force to protect against home invasion, and that was only passed in 2003 (7 years after the gun buyback scheme). Everywhere else: if you CAN run away, you’re supposed to run away. Our general defense of property laws are weaker too: if you’re defending your car/wallet you can’t use force that is intended or likely to cause death or grievous bodily harm.
But it will be a problem for gun-control in the US. That “I need a gun to defend myself” idea is at the root of why gun culture in the US is so different to gun culture anywhere else. The countries with high gun-ownership and low homicide rates (like Switzerland and Canada) don’t treat guns as a reasonable means of self-defense.
2) After Port Arthur, our public support for increased gun-control was polling around 90%. That’s ridiculously huge. (Seriously, you’d have trouble getting 90% of people to agree that free chocolate is awesome.) I’m not sure on your “more than 50% of Americans support stronger gun control” figure. I looked at the latest Gallop poll (October 2014), and it was just 47%. But let’s say it’s 57%, or even 67%. Would all of those people actually feel strongly enough to vote on the issue? Here in Australia, voting is compulsory, so if a poll says 90%, that’s 90% of voters. In the US, the poll might say 70% pro-control … but the issue would galvanise the pro-gun to actually get out and vote, so 70% pro end up being 55% of the voters.
Unfortunately, I think the reality is that you’re going to need a LOT more public support for gun control before your pollies take action.
One thing that often gets overlooked is that many states refuse to participate in existing gun laws. In order for background checks in one state to work, other states where a person might have lived must report incidents of involuntary commitment to mental health facilities, violent crimes, domestic violence, etc. Many states do not report this information, so it doesn’t make it on to a background check.
The murderer in Louisiana had domestic violence and involuntary commitment on his record…but it was in another state. I have to wonder if the pawn shop where he bought the gun didn’t run a background check (if their primary business isn’t selling guns, they might have fit the “gun show” exemption), or if the other states like Georgia where he was committed didn’t report the information correctly.
Have you forgotten the Boston marathon? No guns were used at all..how about the Oklahoma bombing? If you experience home invasion, you’ll damn sure buy a gun. How about the twin towers?
I own a gun. I had to register it and went through the waiting period. I also took a class in firearms. I can’t understand the big deal over this. Why does someone need to buy an assault rifle at a gun show? The NRA has WAY too much power.