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Noah was still a new host for "The Daily Show," and knocked it out of the park with his signature wit we would all come to love.

Daily Show/Youtube

Trevor Noah as a host on 'The Daily Show'

A previous episode of "The Daily Show" addressed two hot-button issues at the same time: abortion and gun control.

It was one of the earliest tests for new host Trevor Noah, and he pretty much knocked this one out of the park. The segment began with a discussion about the pro-life movement's laser focus on making completely legal abortions really, really hard to get.

Noah started with the movement's push to defund Planned Parenthood on what turned out to be deceptive, altered, and debunked videos. And even he had to admit, pro-lifers are pretty great at what they do, given that they were able to get Congress to hold hearings based on ... nothing, really.

Of course, not all people in the pro-life movement are against gun control, and not all people who are against gun control are pro-life, but there is a certain significant — and confusing — overlap on those two issues that is worth investigating.

So Noah turned his attention to the mass shooting in Oregon — the 294th of the year — and how we as a country are once again discussing gun control.

If pro-lifers are so concerned about the preservation of all lives, Noah wonders, then why don't they support common-sense gun control measures?

There's no need for doctored videos. Gun violence statistics exist (and they're terrifying). Imagine if the pro-life movement rallied behind that?

Noah then brilliantly compared reactions from two "pro-life" presidential candidates on the Oregon shooting and on abortion.

First up was Jeb Bush on what happened in Oregon. He urged against reactionary gun legislation. "Stuff happens," he said.

But compare that to his recent comments on abortion — which is, again, totally legal:

Now that's a response fitting for a mass shooting.

Noah looked over to candidate Carly Fiorina for her thoughts on the Oregon shooting. Similar to Bush, Fiorina cautioned against taking any action on gun control until we know more about what happened.

Now compare that to her comments on abortion:

It's not clear whether pro-lifers are waiting for an even 300 mass shootings in 2015 — which, at the pace we're going, should be sometime in the next month or so — before taking action. But in the meantime, it's really hard to see the "pro-life" rhetoric as anything more than hypocrisy.

In closing, Noah posed this to pro-lifers: If you actually care about lives, do something about guns.

Redirect the energy, lobbying, and rhetoric spent on fighting a more than 40-year-old Supreme Court decision toward sensible steps to curb gun violence.

"They just need to have a superhero's dedication to life," Noah says. "Because right now, they're more like comic book collectors: Human life only matters until you take it out of the package, and then there's nothing left."

Watch the complete segment in the video below.

This article originally appeared on 10.06.15

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One minute of fed-up celebrities talking about guns is actually worth your time.

There are so many celebrities in this video that I honestly lost count. But I'm SO GLAD they came together to make it, because people tend to listen to celebrities — for better and worse. And this is definitely a case of the better.

Image from YouTube video.

Will Ferrell and Beyonce Knowles-Carter.

This article originally appeared on 06.23.15

There were nearly 100 school shootings in the two years after Newtown.

Despite that, Congress still hasn't found the will to deal with gun violence in the U.S. Suffice it to say a lot of people are angry. Including the pile of celebrities you'll see below.

The plan is simple...

1. Close the loopholes.

Almost anyone can skirt the system by buying from private sellers at gun shows or even on the Internet in a lot of states. Current federal law only requires licensed gun dealers to run background checks. Only 17 states have expanded background checks to require them on all gun sales, including by private sellers.

2. Keep better records — and use them.

Background checks are one of the best ways to keep guns out of the wrong hands, but they can only work if states participate. States should be required — and given the tools they need — to track and log criminal and mental health records in the national criminal background database.

3. Keep assault rifles out of the public.

A 10-year ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines expired in September 2004. A lot of gun safety groups have moved away from this strategy for political reasons. But it's still a good idea. When Australia banned assault rifles, reports of mass shootings dropped to, believe it or not, zero.

4. Crack down on gun runners.

The current penalty for gun trafficking is the same as it is for illegally trafficking livestock. Law enforcement should be equipped to find and stop gun traffickers. And when they do, the penalties should be severe enough that others will think twice before doing it.

Let's not hold our breath for Congress to act.

An overwhelming share of voters approve of smarter gun safety rules, and state legislatures can start answering those calls. Just weeks after a school shooting in Washington state, voters passed a ballot initiative for background checks on all gun sales in the state.

Voters, you can make this a priority in your states. If that approval can get translated into state policy around the country, Congress could be left with no choice but to act.

Demand A Plan is a campaign of Everytown for Gun Safety. Join us: https://every.tw/1q7VRZh

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This is what it's like to be raised as a black child. "The talk" is slightly different than most people get.

Clint Smith, an amazing educator and writer, spoke at TED's annual conference about what it's like to be raised as a black child.

He shared "the talk" that black kids all across America hear from their parents:

All GIFs via TED2015.

As a white kid, growing up, I never got a talk like this from my parents. No one ever told me I couldn't pretend to shoot guns. No one ever told me to be extra careful around the police. I was able to just be a kid.

For Clint and for other kids like him, "just being a kid" isn't that easy. This kind of warning isn't an overreaction from overprotective parents.

"With the average age overestimation for black boys exceeding four-and-a-half years, in some cases, black children may be viewed as adults when they are just 13 years old."

A 2014 study found that black boys are perceived as older and more threatening than they really are.

There's actual science indicating that black boys as young as 10 are perceived to be 4.5 years older than they are.

As co-author of the study Dr. Phillip Goff stated, "Our research found that black boys can be seen as responsible for their actions at an age when white boys still benefit from the assumption that children are essentially innocent."

Co-author Dr. Matthew Jackson added, “With the average age overestimation for black boys exceeding four-and-a-half years, in some cases, black children may be viewed as adults when they are just 13 years old."

This suspicion of black children doesn't end when they grow up.

I spoke with Clint over email and asked him for examples of things that kids like me grew up taking for granted that he couldn't, and how that translated into adulthood.

"I can only speak for myself," he told me, "but just within the past week: I've been followed around in a store in the very neighborhood where I live, it's been implied to me that I only got into graduate school because of affirmative action, and I've been passed by taxi cab after taxi cab just trying to get home from work."

"It's the small things, the sort of daily reality of being made constantly aware of your otherness, that exacts trauma and exhaustion on people of color on an ongoing basis," he said.

People with "black-sounding" names are 50% less likely to be called into job interviews.

A University of Chicago study found that having a "black-sounding" name meant a person received 50% fewer calls to be interviewed — with the exact same résumé.

They concluded that having a white name looks like the equivalent of about eight more years of experience to a prospective employer.

"It's the small things, the sort of daily reality of being made constantly aware of your otherness, that exacts trauma and exhaustion on people of color on an ongoing basis."

And black people are far more at risk for being pulled over and/or arrested.

In Boston, black people made up 63.3% of police stops while being only 24.4% of the population. And here's the kicker: 97% of the stops didn't involve a seizure or arrest.

According to a recent piece over at Slate (emphasis mine), "if you compare the murder rate among police officers with the murder rate in several American cities, you find that it is far safer to be a NYPD officer than an average black man in Baltimore or St. Louis."

With numbers like that — and believe me, there are a ton more — black parents have to have a talk with their kids that the rest of us don't.

But Clint refuses to accept that the way things are is the way things need to stay.

There's an easy way to help move this conversation in a productive direction: by talking about it. By letting people know that bias is real and we have to be aware of it if we're gonna fix it.

Making the world safe and just for everyone involves getting stories like Clint's out there. The more that others realize the injustices, pain, and unique lived experiences of those around them, the more equipped we all are to address them.

Imagine a world where black parents don't have to give that talk to their kids.

That's the world I want to live in. How about you?

Have you ever been convicted of a felony?

That's an uncomfortable question to have to answer. Especially if you're trying to get a job. And having to respond by checking a box "yes" or "no" — without much room for additional information — doesn't seem fair.

Image via the City of Baton Rouge.

If you disclose a criminal background to a potential employer, it's hard to know whether it was held against you.

Unless, of course, you get the job, which is unlikely for former convicts, according to a study by Princeton and Northwestern universities. It's a problem that could affect millions, as over 600,000 people exit prison every year.

Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

As part of a broad plan to stem mass incarceration, President Obama is asking federal agencies to hold criminal background inquiries for later in their hiring processes to avoid potential discrimination. But the president is not alone on the issue.

A growing number of political leaders want to "ban the box" by removing the question from job applications.

Laws banning the box have passed in 19 states and over 100 cities from every nook of the country. They're known as "fair chance" laws.

Photo by Larry French/Getty Images for ColorOfChange.org.

The idea isn't to get rid of a safeguard. Employers still have the right to run background checks. Banning the box just levels the playing field for folks with criminal pasts who want to rejoin the workforce but are likely to be dismissed solely because of their pasts.

These laws are passing with strong support from Democrats and Republicans at all levels of government.

At the municipal level, for example, New York City's fair chance law passed in a landslide, and the Louisville, Kentucky, city council passed a law without dissent.

And at the state level, the Nebraska legislature unanimously passed a fair chance law in 2014, making it the first "red" state to take the action. Just months later, GOP presidential candidate Gov. Chris Christie signed a fair chance hiring bill into law in New Jersey.

“Everyone deserves a second chance in New Jersey. Today, we're banning the box." — Gov. Chris Christie. Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images.

City officials in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, are among the latest to join the ban-the-box movement. In one of the highest-crime cities in the country, many Baton Rouge residents face hiring discrimination because of their criminal records.

City council member C. Denise Marcelle sees fair chance laws as an important way to change the trend by opening doors for ex-cons to make a living without crime.

Photo by the City of Baton Rouge.

A federal "ban the box" bill — the Fair Chance Act — has been introduced by a bipartisan group in Congress.

And a bizarre alliance of lobbies agree on the issue. Among them are the NAACP, the ACLU, and — wait for it — the Koch brothers.

Banning the box has also surfaced in the 2016 presidential race, particularly among the candidates for the Democratic nomination. Hopefully issues like it — ones that are plainly about doing what's right — can pierce the static and keep us focused on what's really at stake when we're choosing our leadership.

Here's a lighter take on banning the box by "The Daily Show" that sheds a little more light on why it's gaining so much support:

By 'banning the box,' he's setting a strong example the rest of the nation should follow.

Earlier today, President Obama issued an executive order "banning the box" for federal government employees.

What does this mean? Well, you know how on job applications, there's sometimes a little box that asks whether or not you've been convicted of a crime? With the wave of a pen, Obama just ordered that box to be removed from applications for jobs within the federal government, saying, "We can't dismiss people out of hand simply because of a mistake they made in the past."

From today's address in Newark, N.J. GIF from The White House.

Why? Here's how MSNBC's Ari Melber explains it:

"While the rule was once seen as a common sense way for employers to screen for criminal backgrounds, it has been increasingly criticized as a hurdle that fosters employment discrimination against former inmates, regardless of the severity of their offense or how long ago it occurred."

The president's move follows a 2012 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recommendation as to how arrests and convictions should be treated under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

In July 2015, President Obama visited the El Reno Federal Correctional Institution in Oklahoma, making him the first sitting president to visit a federal prison. Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images.

Within the first year after their release from prison, 60% to 75% of individuals are unable to find work.

If the goal of prison — if there must be one — is to rehabilitate and reintegrate offenders back into society, "banning the box" helps accomplish that. If employers are able to quickly exclude anyone who has ever been convicted of a crime from the job pool, those with criminal records become significantly less likely (nearly 50%, according to one study) to receive an interview or job offer, and it becomes much tougher for ex-offenders to land employment.

Job-seekers attend a California job expo in 2008, when unemployment was on the rise. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images.

We spend $80 billion a year on incarceration.

When people are unable to find a job, they're more likely to find a source of income outside the law. And that puts us right back on square one, with these same individuals back in prison. No one wants that.

And even if this doesn't appeal to you on a humanitarian level, how about in terms of taking a look at how our tax dollars are spent? The truth is that it's really expensive to keep people locked up. We should be taking every step we can to ensure that people have every available opportunity to reintegrate into society upon release, and yes, that includes eliminating barriers that prevent applications from being seen.

A protester at a 2013 rally near the White House holds a sign urging the president to take action on criminal justice reform and end the War on Drugs. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

19 states have banned the box for public sector jobs; 7 states have banned it in all hiring.

California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Virginia make up the states where jobs for state employees cannot ask about criminal histories on applications. Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, and Rhode Island have eliminated the box for private employers.

On Oct. 26, 2015, more than 130,000 signatures were delivered to the White House asking the president to issue an executive order banning the box. Photo by Larry French/Getty Images for ColorOfChange.org.

Banning the box is just part of the president's plan for criminal justice reform push.

The president is also calling on Congress to pass the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015, which would address mandatory minimum sentences, the use of solitary confinement, and development of a system to assess the risk level of prisoners. The bill currently rests with the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In today's announcement, however, the president unveiled the creation of Department of Education adult re-entry education grants, new guidelines from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, increased training and education opportunities for people with criminal records, the creation of a "National Clean Slate Clearinghouse" for ex-offenders, and a number of other new reform initiatives.

Watch President Obama's comments about today's executive order below.

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Last week, President Obama traveled to Charleston, West Virginia, for a candid conversation about substance abuse.

President Obama speaks at East End Family Resource Center in Charleston, West Virginia. Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images.

Before leading a panel discussion, the president talked about the startling toll that substance abuse has taken on the country and on the Mountain State in particular.

The problem has reached epidemic proportions as 44 people in the United States die each day from overdoses of prescription painkillers. West Virginia has the highest overdose death rate in the country with nearly 34 per 100,000 residents.

"The numbers are big," said Obama. "But behind those numbers are incredible pain for families."

Hours after watching the president's remarks on television, one man took a brave step to change his life.

He called 911, admitted he had a drug problem, and asked deputies to come to his home.

When they arrived, the man (whose name was not released) put his hands on the wall and directed the deputies to a cooler full of drugs and paraphernalia, including marijuana, ecstasy, pain pills, and a digital scale.

A photo of the items seized by the police. Photo by Kanawha County Sheriff's Office, used with permission.

And the officers did something equally impressive: They didn't arrest him.

Instead, the man was taken by ambulance to a treatment center, where he voluntarily entered a rehabilitation program. The sheriff's department declined to file charges and released a statement saying, "We applaud this person's self-initiated efforts and wish him well in his recovery."

Photo by iStock.

The complex problem of substance will require an innovative, all-hands-on-deck solution.

It's a multifaceted problem (affecting the health care industry, criminal justice system, border security, and schools) that will require a complex, dynamic solution.

And some are trying to find those solutions. In the town of Gloucester, Massachusetts, Police Chief Leonard Campanello announced this summer that his officers would no longer arrest drug users who came to them seeking help. In the first two months of the program, over 100 people entered treatment.

Paramedics take a man to the hospital after a possible overdose. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images.

But we don't have to wait for a silver bullet. We can take a cue from Gloucester and Kanawha County and start with one fewer arrest and one more person in treatment.

They're saving families communities from one more tragedy.

Zamata teams up with the ACLU to remind us that the fight for equality isn't over. And it's totally lolsob-worthy.

Talking politics with friends can be difficult. Especially when you have a friend who ... just ... doesn't get it.

Cue Sasheer Zamata (of "Saturday Night Live" fame) and the ACLU's hilarious new video. In Zamata's inaugural act as the ACLU's women's rights ambassador, we follow her as she tries to explain to her well-meaning but slightly clueless friend that we have a ways to go with that whole gender-equality thing.

"I know everyone's talking about gender inequality," he says. "But haven't we come a long way in this country?"

What happens to Zamata during their short, casual stroll is a perfect rebuttal.

It's like the universe offered these lessons on a silver platter.

GIFs via the ACLU.

Politics: "There's way more women in politics right now," her friend says — as they pass by this poster:

And policing: "In my experience, everybody here in this country is treated fairly," says her friend as Zamata gets stopped and frisked.

He wouldn't have bothered to stop and frisk her if he knew she had a white male friend!

While the content is hilarious, it makes a somber point: Just because we've made (a lot) of progress doesn't mean the journey to equality is over.

We still have a long way to go to achieve gender equality. That's why this #lolsob-worthy video is so brilliant.

Watch the hilarious video below and share it with your well-meaning friends: