Mass shootings.
Over the past few years,
they have become as regular in America as Star Wars movies.
And just like Star Wars movies
people have started paying less and less attention.
But this weekend something happened.
[News Announcer] The nation mourns the victims
of two shooting massacres just 13 hours apart.
[News Announcer 2] The massacres in El Paso, Texas
and Dayton, Ohio, happened in startling proximity
for a country already too familiar with gun violence.
29 people were killed
in the two shooting rampages just 13 hours apart.
Yes, in the span of two days, 13 hours in fact,
84 people were shot.
And currently 31 people have been killed
in two deadly mass shootings.
And like, even though most of America has gotten used
to dealing with mass shootings, having them happen
back to back has forced people to take notice.
In fact, this weekend's tragedy has garnered
so much attention that President Trump couldn't respond
with his usual sad tweet.
Instead, he had to come out
and give a formal address to the nation this morning
where he condemned white supremacy and domestic terrorism.
Unfortunately, he also offered condolences
to the people of Toledo, which is not one
of the cities that had a mass shooting.
So that was basically the mass shooting equivalent
of saying the wrong person's name in bed.
But these two tragedies didn't happen in a vacuum.
They're part of a rise in mass shootings in recent years.
And now news anchors, pundits, politicians alike,
they're all trying to figure out the root cause
of what has become a national epidemic.
And they've been pinning the blame
on a lot of different things, starting with the internet.
[News Announcer 3] And on the controversial website
8chan, extremists seem to have found a home.
At least three mass shootings this year alone
have been announced on the site.
The dark corners of the internet
where these people breed hate and division-
The perils of the internet
and social media cannot be ignored
and they will not be ignored.
We must recognize that the internet has provided
a dangerous avenue to radicalize disturbed minds
and perform demented acts.
Yes, many people, including the president
are saying that the internet is to blame
for radicalizing these domestic terrorists.
Because giving them a community and a platform
is helping them share their ideas.
It's the same way the internet is given a platform
to people who eat laundry detergent, right?
Yeah, back in the day, you can only share your feelings
with the people at poison control.
Now you have a community.
[audience laughs]
So now some people are saying
we need to tighten regulation of the internet.
And I'll be honest with you, I'm all for it, yeah.
Especially after I got catfished last week.
[audience laughs]
I thought I was talking to a lonely middle-aged man
who needed my social security number.
Turns out it was some beautiful woman who wanted to date me.
What the hell?
[audience laughs heartily]
I get what these people are saying though.
The internet is a powerful tool that can be
used to radicalize want-to-be mass shooters.
You know, maybe that's why we don't have
a mass shooting epidemic in Africa.
Our internet is shit and the power keeps cutting.
[audience laughs]
Yeah, right now, there's some guy in Nigeria who's like
[Nigerian accent] I want to be radicalized,
but this wifi is so slow.
[audience laughs and cheers]
You're so lucky this video is buffering, yeah?
You're so lucky.
I'll just have to stick to sending emails.
Dear sir, I have lots of money.
[more audience laughter]
Now, while some people argue
that this epidemic is being caused by the internet
another argument is that it's something more precise
because everyone uses the internet in America
but most of these shooters are young white men.
And what do young white men all have in common?
Video games.
The idea of these video games to dehumanize individuals
to have a game of shooting individuals and others,
I've always felt that is a problem
for future generations and others.
[News Announcer 4] First shooter games
would desensitize folks to the violence.
When you see it through a screen
and you don't relate to it in person,
it makes it seem like it's more accessible.
What's changed in this country?
We've always had guns, we've always had evil.
But what's changed where we see this rash of shooting?
And I see a video game industry
that teaches young people to kill.
Okay, on the surface that sounds like
a pretty good argument.
America has always had guns.
America has always had evil
but mass shootings have only taken off over the past,
what 20 years and what has been new in the past 20 years?
Violent video games, although by that logic
anything that's been invented
in the last 20 years could have contributed
to mass shootings.
Like Crocs were invented over the last 20 years.
[audience laughs]
And I know they inspire anger in me.
Here's another thing, here's another thing though.
If video games are responsible for shootings,
how do you explain countries like South Korea or Japan?
They play the same games at a higher rate than the US
but neither of these countries
have a mass shooting epidemic.
The worst thing Japan is dealing
with right now is a karaoke epidemic.
The only thing getting murdered there is Mariah Carey songs.
So some people blame the internet
and others say it's video games, but for many
if the president wants to find the real cause
of what's happening, he should go
and look in the bathroom mirror.
[News Announcer 5] The 21 year old white male
said the attack was in response
to the Hispanic invasion of Texas,
adding that his ideology predates President Trump
and that blaming the president would be the equivalency
of fake news.
This is language the president has used
since his campaign began.
A lot of people are taking issue
with the explosive rhetoric he has used,
rhetoric that mirrors the screed written
by the El Paso murderer.
[News Announcer 6] Just three months ago, this scene
at a rally in Panama City Beach, Florida.
President Trump at first laughing when a supporter
in the crowd suggested shooting immigrants.
But how do you stop these people?
-[Rally Attendee] Shoot 'em! -You can't.
-There's no- -[crowd laughing]
That's only in the panhandle you can
get away with that statement.
[crowd cheers]
Yeah, it might have been a joke at that rally
but clearly there are people out there
who could take the President's words seriously.
I know it's crazy to take Trump's words seriously
but some people do.
In fact, as we've learned, the mass shooter
in El Paso left behind a manifesto
that included the same phrases Trump uses every day.
Fake news, immigrant invasions.
Like the only reason you know that it wasn't written
by Trump is because the grammar was correct.
[audience laughs]
And here's the thing, here's the thing.
Although there is a chance Donald Trump has
emboldened racist mass shooters,
we also cannot say that he's the overall cause
because there were racist mass shooters before Donald Trump.
It's the same way you can't blame stuffed crust pizzas
for the obesity epidemic in America.
You can admit that adding a pizza to the edge
of a pizza is not gonna help people lose weight,
but it's not the cause.
So some people blame the internet,
some say it's video games, others blame President Trump.
But the thing we are hearing the most
after these mass shootings is that the real cause
is all in the head.
Mental health is a large contributor
to any type of violence or shooting violence.
There's so many different factors you don't know.
I mean, maybe a child's born with
you know, something, mental illness.
This was a sick person.
The person in Dayton was a sick person.
No politician is to blame for that.
You cannot be a white supremacist
and be normal in the head.
These are sick people.
Now again, this argument sounds completely logical.
If someone kills a group of random strangers
they must be mentally ill.
But that's not necessarily true.
In fact, a majority of mass shooters have no history
of mental illness, which is a scary thought
because it means most mass shooters are killing
because they want to, not because something
went wrong in their brain.
So what causes mass shootings?
Is it the internet?
Is it video games?
Is it Trump?
Is it mental illness?
You know, what's sad and frustrating about America is that
after every mass shooting, lawmakers want to identify
the one thing that causes all mass shootings.
And if they can't agree on what that thing is,
nothing gets done.
But the truth is, when it comes to any individual shooting,
the cause could be any one
of those factors, if not more.
But there's one thing that every mass shooting
has in common.
Whatever motivated it has to be combined with a gun.
[lively music]