December 1, 2023: Gun Control Histories: Jim Jefferies

[30 yearsago this week, Congress passed the groundbreaking gun control legislation knownas the BradyBill. So this week I’ll AmericanStudy a handful of key moments andlayers to the debate over gun control and guns in American society, past andpresent!]

On two ofthe many great arguments in a comic case for gun control.

To mymind, one of the most persuasive (and definitely the funniest) cases for gun controlwas made by Australian stand-up comedian JimJefferies in his 2014Netflix special Bare (that’s Part1; here’s Part 2). Ifyou haven’t had a chance to watch that stellar extended bit, please check it outand then come on back if you would for a couple takeaways from among Jefferies’excellent arguments.  

Welcomeback! Perhaps the single most pointed (and likewise very funny, if in aparticularly Black Comedy kind of way) commentary on America’s epidemic of gun violenceis the headlineshared by The Onion after everymass shooting since 2014: “‘No way to prevent this,’ says only nation wherethis regularly happens.” Jefferies’ starting point in his gun control bit is anextended and inarguable version of the same point: that after a horrific1996 massacre in his native Australia, the country passed aggressive guncontrol legislation, and there have been no mass shootings there since. Ofcourse (as he also notes) the U.S. is not Australia, but here as well in thedecade after the 1994Assault Weapons Ban there were immeasurably fewermass shootings than there have been since that ban was allowed to expire in2004. We know full well, both from our own experiences and from those of othernations, that there are aggressive steps which can limit mass shootings; wejust, as Jefferies mockingly points out, aren’t taking them.

Jefferiesisn’t ultimately as interested in questions of national laws and policies,however, as he is in the ways that individuals make the case for unfettered gunownership. And to my mind, he uses his comedy to note one of the singleclearest hypocrisies in that case: that the pro-gun crowd claims to want theseweapons for protection, but that they likewise note that “responsible gunowners” keep their guns locked in a safe to prevent accidental shootings,especially by and toward children (a tragically commonexperience). “Then they’re not fucking protection!,” Jefferies exclaimsafter a pointed pause, in one of the single funniest and most accurate momentsI’ve found in any stand-up special. Followed closely by his recognition of theonly genuine argument that the pro-gun crowd can make in good faith: “Fuck off,I like guns.” I suppose it’s obvious enough from this week’s series that I donot like them; I know that’s partly a difference of preference, but I hope theseries has also illustrated the long history of national debates over guns andthe common welfare.

NovemberRecap this weekend,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Histories or contexts you’d highlight?