Dutch TV Comedy Pokes Fun At America's Gun Culture

A Dutch television comedy has released a video making fun of America's gun culture. Sunday with Lubach, a Dutch news satire program hosted by comedian Arjen Lubach, put out a video called NRA.

Named after America's powerful National Rifle Association, the show's video aims to solve what they call Nonsensical Rifle Addiction...

Credit: Sunday with Lubach/vpro

The NRA is a powerful organisation in the United States. Founded in 1871, it has been a vocal critic of any restriction on gun ownership in America in recent years with media campaigns and high-profile members. Perhaps its most famous member was Charlton Heston, star of the original Planet of the Apes series, who was the organisation's president between 1998 and 2003.

Credit: PA

TV host Lubach, a vocal satirist, is well known in his native country for his outspoken views on various issues including the monarchy and religion.

His latest video (the show gained traction earlier this year for a sarcastic video 'welcoming' President Donald Trump) suggests that gun ownership is an addiction and claims to be able to cure it through European intervention.

Though clearly a satire, it's a direct response to the recent - and latest - mass gun attack in the United States. The attack by retired Stephen Paddock has left 59 people dead, with that number possibly yet to rise.

In tongue-in-cheek style, Lubach's video tells viewers that by donating, European organisations will provide Americans with 'water, blankets, facts, insights, statistics and truth bombs'. It also directs criticism towards Congress, the most important law-making body in American government. Watch the full clip here...

Around 55 million Americans (out of over 320 million) own guns, with over 70 million guns having come into ownership over the past couple of decades alone.

However, while there are enough guns for every person in America, just 3% of US adults owned half of all guns, with what's known as 'super owners' possessing an average of 17 guns each.

Stephen Paddock, for example, had secretly accumulated a huge arsenal of weapons over decades before he carried out the fatal attack in October 2017.

The US is not the only country in the world with high gun ownership. Serbia, for example, has around 58 weapons per 100 residents but no history of mass shootings in 'peacetime'.

Topics: American, US News, Politics

Mark McGowan

Mark is a journalist at LADbible, who joined in 2015 after a year as a freelance writer. In the past he blogged for independent football fan channel Redmen TV, after graduating from Staffordshire University with degrees in journalism and English literature. He has worked on campaigns such as UOKM8? and IIOC.