April 20, 2013 by David K. Sutton
Real Time with Bill Maher: 30,000 Gun Deaths vs. 3 Terrorism Deaths
Real Time with Bill Maher
Episode 279
April 19, 2013
GUN CONTROL
BILL MAHER — For those people who just hear that ninety percent of Americans wanted something, they wanted this background check bill passed, and it couldn’t get through the Senate — I want to answer that question for them. How can something that ninety percent of people wanted…how can democracy work this badly?
NICHOLAS KRISTOF — This week was this incredible stark contrast between the system going absolutely all out to crush people who had killed, who had murdered three people, in a way that completely worked, and completely backing off and doing nothing about weapons that kill 30,000 people each year. And the contrast between the forcefulness with which we address terrorism and the completely anemic response to 30,000 gun deaths a year I think explains some of that failure.
FILIBUSTER
SALMAN RUSHDIE — Yes, we can talk about, we should talk about the cowardice of the people in the Senate. We can talk about, and should talk about how much money various Senators receive from the NRA — and all that’s true. But, I think there’s just a simple problem here, it’s a real constitutional problem in America, which is the filibuster. If you have a vote which wins, is won by a simple majority, by quite a wide margin, and that fails, there’s something wrong with American democracy.
