Chris Rock Drove Home a Gun-Control Argument on the Day of the Florida Shooting

If you spent Wednesday shaking your head at the horrific mass shooting in Florida, then sat down to watch Chris Rock’s new Netflix special, “Tamborine,” you may have been stunned at the timing of one of his first jokes.

Rock addressed mass shootings in America, saying there will never be gun control. He pointed out that every time there’s another mass shooting, someone goes on TV to make the case that guns don’t kill people, people kill people — and that people could just as easily commit mass murders with knives. He recorded the special at the Brooklyn Academy of Music last November.

“If a hundred people ever got stabbed at the same time, in the same place by the same person, you know what that would mean?” Rock said. “Ninety-seven people deserve to die.”

Also Read: Netflix's 'Tamborine' Explained! Chris Rock's New Comedy Special to Premiere This Week

After an applause break, he added: “What, you’re just watching this s—?”

It isn’t the first time Rock has pointed out flaws in Second Amendment arguments. In 2012, he told “CBS This Morning”:

We got to figure out how to stop this gun stuff. We do. Whenever people try to defend their guns, they always say, “I’m protecting my property. I’m protecting my property.” Every time there’s a mass shooting, it’s a guy who lives with his mother. He owns no property.

He later elaborated to TheWrap:

The gun lobby always says, well, people need the right to protect their property. Every mass shooting is done by a guy who lives with his mother. I honestly believe you should have to have a mortgage to buy a gun. No one with a mortgage has ever gone on a killing spree. … A mortgage is a real background check … And you know if you go to jail for 30 years you still have to pay your f–ing mortgage.

And then there was his classic “bullet control” riff from “Bigger and Blacker”: “I think all bullets should cost $5,000 dollars… if a bullet cost $5,000, there’d be no more innocent bystanders.”

“Tamborine” is now available on Netflix.

Madonna to Chris Rock to Sarah Jessica Parker: Randomness of Celebrities at Miami's Art Basel Ranked (Photos)

When you think "Art Basel," Miami Beach's ultra-modern art fair and the constellation of parties that orbited it this weekend (Dec. 1-4), the default visual in your head should be something like those from the opening of the Broad Museum in L.A last year. Like, Jeffrey Koons' iconic balloon dog...
Getty Images from the opening of the Broad Musem in L.A. in 2015
... or art world celebrity sightings like Damien Hirst...
Getty Images from the opening of the Broad Musem in L.A. in 2015
... or some well-dressed characters that walked off the page of a Woody Allen script... (that's artsy hotelier Alan Faena on the right)...
Getty Images from Art Basel 2016
... or maybe a scattering of Hollywood A-listers schmoozing with the captains of the modern art world, like Owen Wilson here with Koons, Eli Broad and Takashi Murakami.
Getty Images from the opening of the Broad Musem in L.A. in 2015
Instead, Art Basel is a lot of this: Bethenny Frankel with a clown...
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Bulgari
Tyson Beckford and Wilmer Valderrama sharing a smoke at an "INC Holiday Menswear" celebration on Saturday night...
BFA
Cool consumer activations aimed at the well-dressed socialite set, like this Samsung Gear 360 selfie booth...
BFA
And this guy. In addition to taking over the Grammys, James Corden hosted Madonna's glitzy fundraiser on Friday night. It continued the music icon's streak of one-upping other tentpoles with her own party that steals the thunder. (See also: Her Oscar night bashes that drain the Vanity Fair party).

Also Read: Madonna Tells Sean Penn ‘I’m Still In Love With You’ (Video)
Getty Images
From Chris Rock and Courtney Love supporting Madonna's "Evening of Music, Art, Mischief and Performance to benefit Raising Malawi" (which netted over $7 million)...
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Bulgari
...to Sean Penn (who may or may not be responsible for that cigarette in the glassware)...
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Bulgari
...the Party Report picks apart celebrities' tenuous connections to art week in South Beach.

Let's start with Diddy (left), who was palling with Chris Rock. Diddy's a part-time Miami local and has his hands in everything, including Forbes' highest paid celebrity list. He's in his element here at Madonna's bash.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Bulgari
SUBJECT: Michael Chow (of "Mr. Chow" restaurant fame.)

CONNECTION: "Michael paints day and night, and I mean day and night obsessively," wife Eva Chow told the New York Times' Brooks Barnes last year. His nom de paintbrush is Zhou Yinghua, his chinese name.

VERDICT: Not random. A museum director led a Q&A with him at an IVY Artist Chat this week.
Courtesy of IVY
SUBJECTS: Emily Ratajkowski and Rosario Dawson.

CONNECTION to Art Basel: For Rosario, speaking at game publisher Take-Two Interactive's mashup of the art, gaming and entertainment communities. For Emily, we're not sure.

RANDOMNESS: High, but not quite "Jennifer Aniston on SNL" random.
Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images for Take-Two Interactive
SUBJECTS: Boxer Wladimir Klitschko and Hayden Panettiere.

WHAT ARE THEY DOING HERE? According to the Daily Mail, putting on a "loved up display" to dispel breakup rumors. The big-and-little pair hit the hot party on the front of the week (see what I did there?), the Daily Front Row's bash at the Faena Art Dome.

DECISION: The couple rarely goes to things like this. Winner by TKO... Random!
Hunter Abrams/BFA
SUBJECTS: Sarah Jessica Parker and not-Matthew Broderick.

CONNECTION: SJP hit this blizzard of champagne called L'Eden by Perrier-Jouët.

VERDICT: Hanging out with Simon Hammerstein (pictured above), who created London's artsy-nightlife experience The Box, makes this a neat fit. SJP, your Art Basel passport is stamped.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Perrier-Jouet
"I proudly raise my glass and toast the team who put together this entertaining and colorful evening," SJP told the crowd at Casa Faena.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Perrier-Jouet
SUBJECT: Katie Holmes

CONNECTION: Unclear. She hit the same party as Sarah Jessica Parker.

VERDICT: It's been over 80 degrees in Miami this weekend. At night, it's down to 47 in L.A. In light of the bygone TomKat era, Holmes' randomness should be graded on a curve.
Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for Perrier-Jouet
SUBJECT: Brittny Gastineau (center), who was a reality TV pioneer while her pal Kim Kardashian was still best known as a celebrity closet organizer.

CONNECTION: Gastineau hosted a show for artist Domingo Zapata (left) at EAST, Miami, a boutique hotel on Brickell.

VERDICT: On-brand for the sizzle over substance nature of Art Basel.
World Red Eye
SUBJECT: Miami Dolphin Jay Ajayi (center).

CONNECTION: More relevant than his local address, Ajayi's celebrity imprint derives from his astonishing ascent from NFL no-name to playoff deal-breaker in countless NFL fantasy football leagues. Mr. Brainwash invited the running back to his dinner at DOA.

VERDICT: Random.
World Red Eye
SUBJECT: Rapper Fat Joe (left), at a TAG Heuer watch event, with artist Alec Monopoly (center)

CONNECTION: Known best as the leader of the "Terror Squad" rap collective and his hit "Lean Back," Joe has been a Miami local for the past 15 years.

VERDICT: Less random because artist Monopoly's paint assaulted Joe's jacket.
Eugene Gologursky/Getty Images for TAG Heuer
LAST BUT NOT LEAST: Ms. Hilton.

CONNECTION: C'mon! She invented Miami's celebrity appearance industry. Here, she prepared to DJ a party at Wall Miami, one of the hot nightclubs.

RANDOMNESS and/or RELEVANCE VERDICT: You be the judge.
World Red Eye

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Why are you here? Celebrity appearances and connections to modern art range from vague to bona fide to baffling

When you think "Art Basel," Miami Beach's ultra-modern art fair and the constellation of parties that orbited it this weekend (Dec. 1-4), the default visual in your head should be something like those from the opening of the Broad Museum in L.A last year. Like, Jeffrey Koons' iconic balloon dog...

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Madonna to Chris Rock to Sarah Jessica Parker: Randomness of Celebrities at Miami's Art Basel Ranked (Photos)

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