--- description: "In the face of the killings in Oregon yesterday, I honestly don’t know what to do or say." title: Watch Stephen Colbert's Heartfelt Response to the Oregon Shooting image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [TV](/tag/tv/) ## TV Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Watch Stephen Colbert's Heartfelt Response to the Oregon Shooting by [Alexandra Sifferlin](/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 3, 2015 3:48 PM CUT by [Alexandra Sifferlin](/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Oct 3, 2015 3:48 PM CUT In the opening of Friday’s [_The Late Show_](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMtFAi84ehTSYSE9XoHefig "undefined"), host Stephen Colbert gave an emotional reflection on the [Oregon shooting](http://time.com/4060231/oregon-shooting-relatives-mourn-victims/?xid=homepage "undefined"). “In the face of the killings in Oregon yesterday, I honestly don’t know what to do or say,” said Colbert. He went on to note that while he knows what it means to pretend (his was a fake conservative TV host on his former show), “I can’t pretend that it didn’t happen. I also can’t pretend to know what to do to prevent what happened yesterday.” “These things happen over and over again and we are naturally horrified and shocked when we hear about them,” he added. “But then we change nothing and we pretend that it won’t happen again.” Colbert noted that many argue the country needs stricter gun laws to prevent future shootings, while others say the solution is mental health care. The host admitted he did not know the correction answer, but “what I do know is that one of the definitions of insanity is changing nothing and then pretending that something will change.” Watch the full clip below. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4060420/stephen-colbert-oregon-shooting/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4060420/stephen-colbert-oregon-shooting/"},"headline":"Watch Stephen Colbert's Heartfelt Response to the Oregon Shooting","datePublished":"2015-10-03T15:48:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T11:29:41.830Z","description":"\"We change nothing and we pretend that it won’t happen again\"","url":"https://time.com/4060420/stephen-colbert-oregon-shooting/","keywords":["TV","Mental Health","shooting","stephen colbert","Gun laws","Oregon shooting"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alexandra Sifferlin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/tv/","name":"TV"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4060420/stephen-colbert-oregon-shooting/","name":"Watch Stephen Colbert's Heartfelt Response to the Oregon Shooting"}}]}] ```