‘SNL' Jumps Into Gun Control Fray in Blistering Sketches

"Saturday Night Live" dove head-first into the country's gun control debate in a series of blistering sketches and a "Weekend Update" segment devoted to the issue.

After tackling the week's big news — like Kevin McCarthy dropping out of the House Speaker race and Justin Bieber's nude photos — "Weekend Update" host Colin Jost debated gun control with Michael Che.

Jost argued that devotion to gun ownership in America is linked to Americans’ obsession with unnecessary things. “We don’t need a Baconator. We don’t need a beer that’s a margarita inside a beer. And we definitely don’t need our dogs to wear Halloween costumes,” he said. 

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Che quipped that drivers licenses, a purple belt in karate, and tickets to see Kevin Hart are all harder to get than a gun and went on to tell viewers that, “you can't have whatever you want.” 

“The forefathers said you had the right to own a gun. They also said you had the right to own people," he said, before comparing the Constitution to a grandfather.

"He's wise, we love him but he's getting really, really old and sometimes we have to go into the other room and talk about what we are going to do with him."

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Amy Schumer, who made her hosting debut, got in on the gun control jokes as well, in a skit about a city council meeting an a commercial spoof, mocking Americans' attachment to guns. In the city council skit, Schumer played the role of a little girl, who wanted to know if she was allowed to bring firearms to school. 

"You have a gun?" an astounded city council member, played by Bobby Moynihan, asked.

"Yes sir a bunch," Schumer said. "I'm very pro-life. Pro-my-life!"

In the gun commercial, Schumer plays a woman, who is touched to receive a firearm as a gift from her date. Sentimental music plays in the background as a narrator says, "there are things we all share: love, family, connection, a sense of purpose. And also, guns."

In her opening monologue, Schumer knocked the Kardashians for being poor role models for women who weren’t born with their figures or faces, and told a story about when she asked Hillary Clinton if she ever drank tequila. Schumer said that the presidential candidate replied that she only drank it when her friends made her, which led Schumer to wonder — “who’s hazing Hillary Clinton?”  

Schumer later appeared in skits about a hands-free selfie-stick, a porn-star teacher and a Delta flight gone horribly wrong. 

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