Roughly 40 gun-related deaths occur every day in the US. Many of those died before even seeing the danger, getting shot down in the chaos. Those who survived have to live the rest of their life in fear. In 2017, a reported 39,773 people died by firearm — the highest number of firearm deaths recorded since the CDC started tracking them in 1979. The deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in American history, the Las Vegas shooting, also happened that year. A 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on the crowd attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival from his 32nd-floor hotel. He fired more than 1,000 rounds, killed 60 people, and wounded at least 413. “NRA - Sunday with Lubach” by Lubach satirizes the gun violence and obsession in the United States and the obsession Americans have with guns. The US should implement more gun control policies or methods to protect its citizens, creating a safer environment for its people and building more trust in the government.

The satire made its target clear by mentioning the National Rifle Association (NRA), a gun rights advocacy group that opposes any kind of gun regulation. Generally, the NRA has a lot of reaches politically via financing and lobbying and presents itself as a massive all-powerful entity, Lubach reframes the NRA as nothing more than a joke by using wit, presenting it as a “terrible epidemic: Nonsensical Rifle Addiction”.  This underscores how this group is ultimately contributing to the larger problem of gun violence as their reluctance to change is causing a lack of regulation. The satire describes the cause of the addiction as a “Constitutional disorder... caused by a dysfunction of the prefrontal second amendment in the nonsensical cortex.”. This play on words highlights the debate around the Second Amendment and how it has stagnated the much-needed regulation and reform the US needs around gun control to prevent more violence from happening. The NRA is described as a disorder, signaling that those who believe in the NRA’s claim that gun regulation violates their Second Amendment are seen as “nonsensical” and are short-sighted as they have some form of “dysfunction” to be able to see the larger picture, where people are dying due to the lack of control. 

The obsession NRA has with guns also affects those around them as the satire mentions the” struggle with fatigue, anxiety... and the feeling of getting shot in the face”. The usage of bathos highlights how the lack of gun control and constant reports of mass death contributes to the feeling of regularly being in a state of danger, which can lead to a state of exhaustion. US citizens could become desensitized to the constant threat, which leads to apathy and lack of change. There has been little progress in making any form of change, since “people with the most severe form of NRA are often in hard-to-reach places like... rural areas. or Congress.” This shift highlights the lack of control, the loss of faith in policy and government, and finally an ongoing problem without a real solution as a normal citizen will never get the opportunity to make any change. 

Those who seek to try to help with the situation are unable to. The mention of "Nonsensical Rifle Addiction Anonymous (NRAA)" is ironic, as the satire implants the concept that people want to recover, however, it is rifle owners who are generally the loudest proponents against any kind of gun regulation and the “addict” will not want to get better. Additionally, addiction recovery groups include the use of a “sponsor” to support the addict in their path to recovery, however, there is no oversight or support from the US government to curb gun use. The call to donate and the mention of the Red Cross sending "facts, insights, statistics, and truth bombs" adds to the irony in that the organization generally helps by providing physical aid, but the NRA is helped, instead, by giving them more knowledge, suggesting how they are ignorant and is choosing to not to act in any way politically to make any real change and help themselves.

The Las Vegas shooting terrified the United States, yet there are almost no changes to prevent it from happening again. Firearm death rates held steady after 2017, and we find it getting more relevant as time moves. In 2023, there were at least 627 mass shootings in the U.S. which is more mass shootings than days in a year. Many of those happening at school, such as the Nashville school shooting. Although no one likes it, maybe the US should implement some control policies to prevent another tragedy from happening.