Jimmy Fallon Stops The Jokes To Address Orlando Shooting On The Tonight Show
Posted on Tue Jun 14th, 2016 10:44am PDT By X17 Staff
Like Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Fallon gravely addressed the audience at The Tonight Show on Monday nighty, after a gunman opened fire at a gay club in Orlando, FLA. on Sunday, killing 49 people and injuring 53 others.
A solemn Fallon said, "As you certainly know by now, early Sunday morning there was another senseless shooting, this time at a dance club in Orlando, Florida. A dance club. It left 49 people dead, which is the largest loss of life due to a terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11."
The host continued, "I know everyone is angry right now and doesn't know how to react, and this is a time when people are looking to us as a country and how we will react," he told the audience. "This country was built on an idea that we don't agree on everything; that we are a tolerant, free nation that encourages debate, free-thinking, believing, or not, in what you choose."
The funny man continued, "I, as a new father, am thinking, 'What do I tell my kids?'" the father of two young daughters continued, his emotions bubbling to the surface. "What do I tell them about this? What can we learn from this? What if my kids are gay? What do I tell them?"
The 41-year-old said that there are lessons to be learned, explaining, "Maybe there's a lesson from all this. A lesson in tolerance. We need to support each other's differences and worry less about our own opinions. Get back to debate and away from believing or supporting the idea that if someone doesn't live the way you want them to live, you just buy a gun and kill them. Bomb them up. That is not OK."
No, no it is not ...
Meanwhile Anderson Cooper began Monday night's episode of Anderson Cooper 360 with a tribute to the 49 people that were murdered.
Cooper said, "In the next two hours we want to try to keep the focus where we think it belongs, on the people whose lives were cut short."
"They are more than a list of names. They are people who loved and who were loved." - @andersoncooper #Orlando https://t.co/DkxxPC1XtW
— Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) June 14, 2016