about Saturday night's devastating attack,

and not as a host of a show, but as a human being.

In Orlando, Florida, we saw what had happened,

and I couldn't be more sad and sickened by the events.

And neither could President Obama,

who spoke yesterday to the nation from the White House's

James S. Brady Press Briefing Room

because that's how much

gun violence is a part of American life.

Even the room the president talks about gun violence from

is named for a victim of gun violence.

And so, it was yet another one

of the president's post mass-shooting addresses.

Today marks the most deadly shooting in American history.

The shooter was apparently armed

with a handgun and a powerful assault rifle.

This massacre is therefore a further reminder

of how easy it is for someone to get their hands on a weapon

that lets them shoot people in a school,

or in a house of worship, or a movie theater,

or in a nightclub.

And we have to decide

if that's the kind of country we want to be.

I wonder if President Obama ever thought to himself

that mass shooting speeches

would be such a big part of his job.

Because you know at this point, he's hosted 12 state dinners,

but he's had to give 16 mass shooting addresses.

So right now, the White House is using more Kleenex

than it is good napkins.

And the president-- he made a powerful point.

America has to decide

if this is the kind of country that it wants to be.

And the saddest part is, every time this happens,

it feels like America has already decided.

This is exactly the kind of country it wants to be.

Because we know how this always plays out.

We're shocked, we mourn,

we change our profile pics, and then, we move on.

It's become normal, but I'm sorry.

Maybe because I'm new,

but it's not normal, and it shouldn't be normal.

We shouldn't allow this to be normal.

It's not a normal thing.

It's like milk from almonds, or sushi from Walgreens.

-It's not normal, people. -(laughter)

What's also not normal is having the same thing happen to us

over and over and over again and doing nothing to change it.

That's not normal.

You know when I was a kid,

I never used to tie my shoelaces 'cause I was an idiot.

-All right? -(laughter)

And now, obviously, I'm an adult.

-I'm still an idiot, but I'm an adult. -(laughter)

And so I only wear Velcro, but what I would do is a child is,

I would run around, I'd trip on my shoelaces,

I'd fall down, I'd cry, I'd be like,

"Aah, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!"

And my mom would come over, and she'd say to me,

"Get up, Trevor. Get up. Get up. What happened?"

And I'd say, "I fell down. I fell down."

And she'd be like, "Why did you fall? Why did you fall?"

"I fell because I tripped."

And she's like, "Why did you trip?" (indistinct mumbling)

She goes, "Your shoelaces."

Now I see it's my shoelaces.

And we'd realize I fell because of the shoelaces.

Now tie them and then move on.

I knew I had to move on, but I had to tie the shoelaces first.

I had to change something.

I mean, I could have said to my mom,

"Mom, why are you bringing shoelaces

-into the conversation?" -(laughter)

"Why are you blaming the shoelaces

for something the sidewalk did to my knees?"

-(laughter) "Who even says there's a connection

"between untied shoelaces and falling anyway?

You're violating my right to keep my shoelaces untied."

I didn't say that. I didn't say that. You know why?

Because I realized, after falling, after falling a lot,

there was a connection between my shoelaces being untied

and getting hurt.

That's why I didn't say that to my mom.

And that, I also didn't say that because I realized

there was a connection between talking back to my mom

and being unable to sit comfortably for a day.

-(laughter) -But that's besides the point.

The point is, look, this is...

this is a clearly complicated incident.

There's elements of terrorism, homophobia, mental health,

but it is glaringly obvious.

America needs to make it a lot harder

for people who shouldn't have guns to get guns.

And to many of us, it seems crystal clear.

But there are still people who think we're wrong

for even trying to bring that up.

This is not a gun control issue.

MAN: It is not about the guns or the means that ISIS uses.

We can have gun debates later.

This is terrorism.

Terrorism needs to be destroyed.

It is Islamic terror.

We've got to stop getting in the wrong argument,

bring this back to the evil that is radical Islam.

And to, once again, make this an issue about gun control.

Look, if you go back to 9/11, they used box cutters.

You know what? This is not something

I've ever said before, but I'm glad you brought up 9/11,

because yes, terrorists didn't use guns on 9/11.

They used planes to kill thousands of people.

And as soon as we realized

that they could use planes as weapons,

we worked together as a society.

We worked our damnedest

to make it harder for them to ever do that again.

We locked cabin doors, we expanded the no-fly list.

We even make everyone pose for X-ray nudes now.

(laughter)

What we didn't do was say,

"Oh, this has nothing to do with airplanes.

It has everything to do with radical Islam."

No, what we did instead was regulate air travel

to make it harder for the terrorists to do the damage.

Even when fighting ISIS itself, we fight the ideology, yes.

We fight to reduce their resources, but most importantly,

we attack their weapon stores.

Why do we do that?

Because removing their weapons

dramatically decreases their ability to hurt us.

Because everybody knows

ISIS without guns is just basically a blog.

-(laughter) -So...

Like... the irony...

(applause and cheering)

The irony of the situation is

that these people say there's no connection

between America's gun laws and terrorism.

They say there's no connection between gun laws and terrorism.

But what's crazy is, you know who does see a connection?

Terrorists.

And just listen to this al-Qaeda spokesman

identifying the easy access to guns in America.

In the West, you've got a lot at your disposal.

Let's take America as an example.

America is absolutely awash

with easily-obtainable fire arms.

You can go down to a gun show at the local convention center,

and come away with a fully-automatic assault rifle

without a background check, and most likely,

without having to show an identification card.

So what are you waiting for?

Sweet Lord.

This guy is selling terrorism like used cars.

"So what are you waiting for?"

This is what we're saying.

So when people say "This is not about guns,

it's about terrorism,"

no, it's about terrorism, and it's about guns.

Because you realize there were two other gun incidents

this weekend that didn't involve terrorism.

Just two days before this mass shooting,

a 23-year-old singer named Christina Grimmie

was also gunned down in Orlando.

And the day after the nightclub shooting,

some other guy got caught driving

to an L.A. gay pride parade

with a (bleep) of guns in his car.

This was not related to terrorism.

We don't know why he had all of those guns.

I mean, maybe he was just mad

that everyone kept asking him if he was Elijah Wood.

-(laughter) -We don't know what it was.

The point is... the point is,

just because there's a problem with terrorism

doesn't mean there isn't also a problem with access to guns.

And I understand that Americans love guns.

But this love comes at a cost.

So far this year alone, this year alone,

23 people in America have been shot by toddlers.

By toddlers.

You realize we haven't even reached the summer.

Right? You realize, 23 people thus far.

Thus far, 23 people have been shot by toddlers.

We haven't even reached the summer.

Summer toddlers are the worst.

-Summer toddlers don't give a (bleep). -(laughter)

It's hot, preschool's out-- you know (bleep) gonna go down.

(laughter)

And the truth is, I know where this argument always ends up.

It's always gonna be the same thing.

The Second Amendment. The Second Amendment.

"The right of the people to keep and bear arms,

shall not be infringed."

But as much as the NRA want you to believe it's an absolute,

it's not, and it never has been.

Because America does regulate guns.

For example, the Orlando shooter,

he couldn't get a machine gun.

And it's not because he hadn't unlocked it yet on Call of Duty.

It's because America banned those in the 1980s,

because it was obvious that they made it too easy

for one person to kill multiple human beings.

And time after time we've seen that assault... assault weapons

have the same fatal capability.

I think... America, it's clear here.

America needs to ask itself the question:

Do you want to be a country that takes reasonable measures

to protect its citizens,

or... should we tell the president