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Ariana Baio
Mar 03, 2023
Jon Stewart challenges pro-gun argument with one question
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Jon Stewart has brought a knife to a gunfight (literally) and somehow he won.
Sitting down with Oklahoma State Senator Nathan Dahm, Stewart debated Dahm’s pro-gun stance as the US faces an increasing number of mass shootings.
Dahm, the self-proclaimed “most conservative State Senator” in Oklahoma, has been a member of the state’s Senate since 2012. He has proposed and passed multiple legislations that loosen gun restrictions.
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Dahm believes wider access to guns can help others defend themselves, he once tweeted, “Best defense against a bad guy with a gun is a good lady with a gun.”
So putting his thinking to the test, Dahm got into a debate with Stewart on episode seven of The Problem with Jon Stewart and Stewart flawlessly poked holes in all of Dahm's logic.
"I believe it is in the individual that is the problem,” Dahm said when asked why he won't support laws restricting gun access. "The person is the threat. Not the firearm, not the knife, the person, the individual is the one who is the concern here ”
Stewart responded, "But you don’t want anything that could help law enforcement or society determine whether or not a person is a good guy is a gun or a bad guy with a gun.”
Dahm authored Oklahoma's "anti-red flag law" which "prevents the state or any city, county or political subdivision from enacting red flag laws."
"You wanna say ‘I’m a second amendment purist and I’m making it safer,’ you’re not. You’re making it more chaotic and that’s not a matter of opinion that’s the truth," Stewart added.
\u201cState Sen. Nathan Dahm (R-OK) has penned several bills loosening gun restrictions, including the nation\u2019s first anti-red flag law. He thinks these bills protect the Second Amendment \u2013 and that they make us safer. We think it's probably one or the other. Watch it on @AppleTVPlus.\u201d— The Problem With Jon Stewart (@The Problem With Jon Stewart) 1677841200
Stewart told Dahm he was making it more difficult, and dangerous, for police to manage domestic calls and "the streets" by allowing for accessibility to guns.
Online, people praised Stewart's ability to weaken Dahm's argument.
\u201c@EdKrassen Masterclass\u201d— Ed Krassenstein (@Ed Krassenstein) 1677853225
\u201cJon Stewart: Does training (in order to own a gun) make you safer?\n\nNathan Dahm: Yes.\n\nStewart: And you would remove that as mandatory?\n\nDahm: Yes.\n\nStewart: So, you are making us less safe.\n\nDahm: No.\n\nStewart: Are you familiar with logic?\n\nDahm: \ud83e\udee5\u201d— Nate Morris (@Nate Morris) 1677822139
\u201cThis is FUCKING brilliant. Watch this from @TheProblem with @jonstewart. Watch every minute from start to finish. The bullshit is exposed.\u201d— Fred Guttenberg (@Fred Guttenberg) 1677851537
Dahm suggested a problem with gun violence could be attributed to "the fatherlessness crisis that we have in America."
With a look of dumbfoundedness, Stewart responded, “Right, yeah they’re dying from gun deaths.”
But Dahm insisted that if fathers were "more engaged" it could reduce school shootings. He cited research that indicated 80 per cent of school shootings were conducted by a person who came from a broken, or fatherless, home.
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