Colbert rips Romney for blaming gun violence on single parents

By Meredith Blake

Oct. 18, 2012 12 AM PT

On Wednesday, both Stephen Colbert and his buddy Jon Stewart spent the majority of their Comedy Central shows dissecting Tuesday night’s presidential debate — focusing on buzz-worthy moments like Republican candidate Mitt Romney’s unfortunate “binders full of women” comment and the candidates’ heated exchange over Libya.

Each, in his own way, called the night a win for President Obama: Stewart by marveling at how Romney walked into a “nitpicky semantic trap that hadn’t even been set” over Benghazi, and Colbert by pretending he believed the Republican had won the debate despite evidence to the contrary.

But it was Colbert who singled out for criticism one of the more dubious assertions in the debate, specifically, the connection Romney drew between single parents and gun violence.

The subject of guns came up thanks to a question from town-hall participant Nina Gonzalez, who asked the candidates how they planned to limit the availability of assault weapons. Like Fox News’ Megyn Kelly, Colbert was irritated that the issue – along with other “out-of-left-field topics no one cares about” like immigration and the pay gap – was even mentioned during the debate.

“Now is not the time to discuss gun control. We haven’t had a mass shooting in almost 49 days,” he joked on “The Colbert Report.”

After playing footage of Romney’s response, during which the former Massachusetts governor suggested that unmarried parents were a contributing factor in gun violence, Colbert took a moment to unravel the candidate’s line of thinking.

“The answer to gun violence is not getting rid of assault weapons; it’s a two-parent home,” he said, feigning agreement. “Because when a psychopath marches into the mall in Kevlar body armor, slowly lifting the laser site of his AK-47 toward the Sunglass Hut, the only thing that will stop him from carnage is when he asks himself what will Mom — and Dad — think?”

If only.

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