John Oliver takes Republican presidential candidates to task for being so quick to bring up mental health only to take the focus off gun control when there’s a mass shooting.
In the wake of yet another mass shooting last week, Republicans were quick to blame not the 300 million guns floating around America, or the utter lack of gun control their party has secured, but mental health as the reason for an insane level of gun violence that is characteristic of America.
On “Last Week Tonight,” John Oliver highlighted responses from Donald Trump, Ben Carson, and Mike Huckabee, all of whom cited mental health as an issue.
“This isn’t guns, this is really about mental illness,” Donald Trump said. “In many of these shootings, people have mental disturbances,” Dr. Ben Carson claimed. “Do we need to do a better job in mental health? You bet we do,” Mike Huckabee challenged.
Huckabee’s response was particularly galling to Oliver, who noted that, as governor of Arkansas, Huckabee’s efforts to improve mental health were rated a “D-.”
“It seems there is nothing like a mass shooting to suddenly spark political interest in mental health,” Oliver observed. And he took umbrage with those who bring it up only then.
“The aftermath of a mass shooting might actually be the worst time to talk about mental health, because, for the record, the vast majority of mentally ill people are nonviolent, and the vast majority of gun violence is committed by non-mentally ill people,†Oliver said. “In fact, mentally ill people are far more likely to be the victims of violence rather than the perpetrators, so the fact that we tend to only discuss mental health in a mass shooting context is deeply misleading.â€
Oliver concluded that “if we’re going to constantly use mentally ill people to dodge conversations about gun control, then the very least we owe them is a fucking plan.”
Watch:
Â
MORE JOHN OLIVER:
Watch: John Oliver Exposes Tax-Exempt Televangelism Frauds By Becoming A Televangelist
Watch: HBO’s John Oliver Takes On Catholic Church Over Ireland Same-Sex Marriage Vote
Watch: John Oliver Rightly Asks America, ‘Columbus Day – How Is That Still A Thing?’
Â
Image: Screenshot via LastWeekTonight/YouTube
Hat tip: The Daily Beast
Â
Â