NBC’s Meet the Press host Chuck Todd opened his show on Sunday by ruefully mocking elected officials in both parties for an inability to reach consensus on comprehensive gun reform.
Todd referenced an article in the satirical online magazine The Onion with the headline: “No Way To Prevent This Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens,” a years-old headline that is often widely recirculated on social media after new incidents of mass shooting in America.
“There’s truth in humor,” Todd said. “And in this case, it’s a dark truth.”
Todd referenced data from Gun Violence Archive, an organization which tracks such incidents, reporting dozens of people have been shot or killed in mass shootings — instances where four or more people are shot not including the shooter — just in the two weeks since the massage parlor killings in Atlanta.
“Democrats say enough is enough, time to get an assault weapons ban passed,” Todd said. “Republicans say enough about gun control. This is a mental health problem and we need to protect the Second Amendment.” And nothing gets done.”
The host compared the ongoing threat of gun violence in America to the coronavirus pandemic, saying the U.S. government and health system have done “a brilliant job” attacking that problem.
“But when it comes to our epidemic of gun violence,” he said. “Our political system has no answers.”
Eighteen people were killed in separate shootings in the Atlanta area and in Boulder, Colo., over the past two weeks.
Democratic lawmakers and the White House are talking about new background check legislation, but the changes of legislation passing the Senate appear unlikely.
Nonetheless, President Biden has called for a ban on assault weapons and Senate Democrats have promised to make passing meaningful gun reform a top priority in the weeks ahead.