After Orlando John Oliver Reveals Secret of Beating the NRA: ‘You Have to Show Up Every F*cking Day’

HBO Pundit Challenges America to Force Congress to Allow Research on Preventing Gun Violence – Because That’s Currently Illegal, Thanks to the NRA

John Oliver Sunday night looked at gun violence in America in the wake of the Orlando anti-LGBT hate crime mass shooting terror attack, and focused his sights on the NRA. 

After examining a few responses to the Orlando tragedy, including Donald Trump’s attempt to frame the terrorist as foreign, even though, as Oliver notes, he was born in Queens, just eight miles from where Trump was born, Oliver went after Congress for failing to respond to our nation’ gun violence crisis.

“Here we are again after another mass shooting with weak legislation due to failure. And there is clearly a disconnect between public opinion, which favors—to varying degrees—a number of different gun control measures, and any practical action in Washington. And it is pretty clear what is standing between those two things, and it is the National Rifle Association,” Oliver accused.

The “Last Week Tonight” host observed that efforts to block gun control often begin with Republicans saying there’s no proof gun control works, and that’s very convenient, because in 1997 they passed the Dickey Amendment, which specifically bans the CDC from studying gun violence or advocating for gun control. Efforts to repeal the Dickey Amendment, which are even supported by Jay Dickey, the now-former U.S. Congressman who sponsored the legislation, consistently fail, thanks to the pull the NRA has on many members of Congress.

Making it illegal to study gun violence and ways to reduce or eliminate it gives Congress the out it wants to refuse to pass gun control measures.

“So how the fuck has the NRA managed to accomplish all of this? Because the truth is, they’re not that large an organization. They claim they have a membership of around 5 million, but that is three million fewer members than Planet Fitness—and the members of Planet Fitness have almost no power. Most of them don’t even have the power to go to Planet Fitness,” Oliver quipped. “The real power of the NRA are in its members who are highly motivated and can be mobilized quickly.”

The HBO pundit noted the NRA is also successful because it mobilizes its members to show up and tell Congress “no.” They aren’t for anything, they are against everything. They have one message and one goal, and that makes it easy for their members to show up in Congress and to call their Congressmen and Senators to demand they vote “no” on all gun control efforts.

“The truth about politics is it’s about showing up. Remember the Manchin-Toomey Amendment?,” he asked, speaking of the 2013 bill offered in the wake of the Sandy Hook slaughter of 20 first grade students and six administrators. “Well, a national poll at that time found that 88 percent of people supported universal background checks, and yet Manchin’s office maintains that of the calls they received, they ran 200 to 1 in opposition to the bill, and that’s why it’s actually important to call your congressman,” said Oliver.

Oliver wants America to repeal the Dickey Amendment so we can once again study gun violence and ways to reduce it. He calls the NRA’s success at blocking information on guns its “most ingenious and insidious” tactic. And he says you will have to get involved, and not give up.

“You’re going to have to call and remind them, again, and then call them on their birthday and say, ‘Happy birthday! And also get rid of the Dickey amendment.’ Call them on Arbor Day and say, ‘Happy Arbor Day, whatever that is. By the way, what’s going on with that Dickey amendment?’ Call them on days when there wasn’t a mass shooting — and I know those days are getting fewer and farther between — but say, ‘Hey, it’s me again, what the f*ck’s up with the Dickey amendment?'”

Repealing the Dickey Amendment “is not asking much,” Oliver pleads. “It’s not gun control! It’s enabling us to have an informed conversation about what that could look like. And if or when a proposal you like is on the table, you’re going to have to make all those calls again, because remember, it doesn’t take much to outnumber the NRA. Planet Fitness members outnumber them. But it’s time for us to learn what those members haven’t. If you’re going to see serious changes, you actually have to show up every fucking day.”

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