Stephen Colbert (sort of) rips Piers Morgan on gun control

By Meredith Blake

Jan. 15, 2013 12 AM PT

A month after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, the gun control debate rages across the country, and especially on the cable airwaves. Since returning to the air last week, both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have pursued the subject relentlessly. No one, though, quite comes close to CNN host Piers Morgan, who’s spoken of almost nothing but guns over the last few weeks.

On Tuesday night, Morgan paid a visit to “The Colbert Report” to discuss the issue, but that didn’t stop Colbert from having a little fun at his guest’s expense first. Describing Morgan as “Matthew Perry in anaphylactic shock” -- a joke that got a huge laugh from his audience -- Colbert wondered why Morgan, a Brit, is so concerned with guns. “Their police don’t even carry them. If you want a debate about whistle control, I’m all ears,” he said.

Colbert appeared to agree with the suggestion, made by many critics, that Morgan intentionally avoids booking reasonable gun rights advocates, choosing instead people like “conspiracy sommellier” Alex Jones.

WIth that in mind, he dared Morgan to invite Tactical Response CEO James Yaeger, who recently warned he would “start killing people” if the government enacted any gun control laws, then backpedaled ever so slightly by saying he didn’t endorse assault or murder “unless it’s necessary.”

Colbert helpfully outlined the situations in which murder is necessary: “Someone endangers your family or takes your yogurt from the break room fridge, or through their democratically elected reps enacts gun control law of any kind.”

Colbert poked plenty of fun at Morgan, but he reserved his harshest criticism for 2nd Amendment purists who’ve taken to framing guns as a civil rights issue.”Guns are the civil rights victims of our time. It’s no coincidence that most of them are black and I get nasty looks when I sit down with them at a lunch counter,” he quipped.

The latest to join the ranks of this growing subspecies is Larry Ward, founder of “Gun Appreciation Day,” who recently argued on CNN that if African Americans had been allowed to bear arms all along, then “slavery might not have been a chapter in our history.”

“Yes, if only America’s founders had turned to the people they owned and chained into servitude and said, ‘Here’s your gun. Use it responsibly,’” Colbert replied.

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Stephen Colbert slams “crazy” Wayne LaPierre

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