On Wednesday night, Don Lemon got emotional when he spoke about the school shooting in Parkland, Florida.
On CNN Tonight, he spoke for four minutes on gun violence, calling it “a sickness that has infected the country.”
“Today, 17 lives are over. Seventeen families are torn apart. Parents who sent their kids to school this morning — imagine that — many people send their kids to school. Just like they’ve done every other day for years,” Lemon said in his emotional response.
“They trusted their kids would be safe. Teachers went to work this morning. Trusted that they would be safe in their space, in their work environment. The way we all should be safe in our work environments, every day, everywhere. In our schools. Our churches. Our offices. At concerts, at nightclubs.”
He then asked the country at large: “Do you feel safe tonight?”
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We’re ‘just playing the odds at this point’
He went on to answer his own question, opining the way that the constant mass shootings in the United States have made it so that no one can feel safe.
“Every single one of us is just playing the odds at this point. The odds that in a country of 325 million souls that we won’t be the ones who get hit by the next bullets that start flying. We won’t be the one that gets that phone call about someone you love who did. Your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister, your spouse, or your parent. Even a friend. Anyone you know. The phone call that changes your life,” he said.
“But with every deadly shooting in this country, the odds get worse and worse and worse. Are you really willing to keep playing those odds?” he asked.
Lemon then specifically addressed the gun control debate, pleading for a discussion to take place and condemning people who claim that it isn’t the time.
“People who oppose gun control will say, today is not the day to talk about it,” Lemon said. “And you know what, they are absolutely right. Because the day to talk about it was weeks, months, years, or decades ago.”