Bill Maher is a very funny fellow — at least, that’s what liberals tell me. I’ve never seen his television show on HBO and only read about him when he says something outrageous.
Like on Friday night.
The man who once said “the Second Amendment is bulls*t” let loose the most outrageous “joke” of the year so far.
Taking a swipe at conservatives on gun control, liberal comic Bill Maher joked that a mass shooting should take place at the Country Music Awards.
“Now that liberals have forwarded their agenda by inserting a mass gay wedding into the Grammys, conservatives must match them tit-for-tat by having a mass shooting at the Country Music Awards,” Maher said Friday during his HBO program, “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
Maher’s joke follows the mass weddings performed during the Grammys this past Sunday, in which both same-sex and heterosexual couples were married. Conducted as musician Macklemore and Ryan Lewis sang “Same Love,” it was widely viewed as a call for marriage equality.
Maher, a vocal proponent of gun control, has frequently lambasted conservatives and the Republican Party on the issue of firearms, having previously called them “gun nuts.”
Maher also slammed Congress last spring, specifically Democrats, who he said were weak on the debate of gun control after a push to ban assault weapons ultimately shifted to background checks.
“I’m sorry, but this is the problem with the gun debate is that it’s a constant center-right debate. There’s no left in this debate. Everyone on the left is so afraid to say what should be said which is, ‘The Second Amendment is bulls-—,’” Maher said at the time.
OK — we get it. Except, Mr. Maher might want to consider why a mass shooting at the CMA would be iffy, if not outright impossible.
You see, Bill, the probability that several dozen audience members — including some musicians — would be armed and not afraid to protect themselves and their loved ones makes anyone contemplating committing such a heinous act either stark raving mad or ignorant beyond belief. What kind of a numbskull would want to shoot up a venue where before he could scream “Allahu Akbar” or “Death to Fascists!” he’d be lying on the ground drawing his last breaths?
Of course, there’s no accounting for crazies who want to die in a hail of gunfire. It’s usually referred to as “suicide by police.” But in states with a lot of restrictions on guns, it’s not likely the shooter will get his wish before killing a lot of innocent people.
Tennessee, where the CMA show is held, has very liberal (in the best sense of the word) gun laws and a permit to carry a concealed handgun is relatively easy to get for law-abiding citizens. I don’t know if the venue where the awards are held — the Bridgestone Arena — has a posted ban on carrying firearms, but even if they do you can bet the bodyguards of country music stars suffer from no such restrictions.
In short, Bill Maher’s sick joke was not only idiotic, it displayed his towering ignorance of guns and the gun culture, as well as an inability to recognize the efficacy of intelligent gun laws.
Say it along with me and with gusto: “An armed society is a polite society.”
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