Comedians call out do-nothing lawmakers for inaction on gun violence

— -- Late-night comedians struck a serious tone on Tuesday as they called out lawmakers for "doing nothing" to curb gun violence in the wake of last week's mass school shooting in Florida.

“This is an election year,” Stephen Colbert, host of “The Late Show,” said during his opening monologue on Tuesday. “So if you want to see change, you have to go to the polls and tell the people who will not protect you that their time is up.

“I was sickened and heartbroken, not only by the attack and the loss of life, but by what I feared would be the complete lack of action by our leaders,” Colbert added, referring to the Feb. 14 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, where a former student allegedly used an AR-15 rifle to kill 17 people.

Students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, where the massacre occurred, descended on the Florida Capitol building in Tallahassee earlier on Tuesday to lobby legislators for tougher gun laws, but the rally wasn’t enough to convince state lawmakers to take action.

The Florida state House ultimately voted down a measure on Tuesday that would've banned assault rifles like the one used in the deadly shooting. The Republican-dominated body voted against the bill in a 36-71 vote.

Colbert said the students and their efforts gave him hope.

“The adults aren't cutting it anymore,” he said. “These kids are taking action, organizing a series of school walkouts across the country and a march in Washington. These kids are inspiring.

“These students saw their leaders doing nothing and said, 'Hold my root beer,'” he added.

Trevor Noah, host of “The Daily Show,” also praised the students for “seizing the megophone” and demanding changes to America's gun laws.

“I refuse to get used to it and refuse to accept the idea nothing can be done,” Noah said. “It feels like nothing's ever going to change, except this time, there was one big difference -- those meddling kids.”

He also slammed U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., over a statement he made last Thursday where he indicated that tougher gun laws wouldn’t stop a mass shooter.

“It’s weird how Marco Rubio is super confident in laws and their power when it comes to restricting drugs, and terrorism, and abortion and literally everything else and it’s only when it comes to guns that these people suddenly become all zen like, ‘Look, man, if the universe wants it to happen, it's going to happen, man,’” Noah joked.