06/24/2026
On his show Real Time, Bill Maher reacted to the Hemani decision, the ruling that habitual ma*****na users can’t automatically be banned from owning guns, with one word: “Awesome.” He called it “fair” and admitted he wants a gun but doesn’t have one because it’s illegal under the old rules. That’s a comedian, a lifelong liberal, basically saying: “I use ma*****na, I don’t trust the police to be everywhere, and I still want the option to defend myself.” That’s not a fringe view. That’s millions of Americans suddenly realizing the Second Amendment might actually apply to them, too.
Then Maher pointed out that in California, it “almost makes no sense to have a gun", because if you ever use it, even against an intruder, you might be the one going to jail. He jokes that the only “safe” shooting is if the intruder is in your bedroom, facing you, and that if you shoot him on the lawn, you’re the one in trouble. That’s his way of describing the insane legal maze law‑abiding gun owners face: own a gun, train, carry, and then pray the prosecutor agrees you did everything “exactly right” in the worst 10 seconds of your life.
Rep. Ro Khanna’s response was classic: “I don’t think the answer to crime should be everyone takes justice into their own hands.” Maher had the obvious reply: “Even if there’s somebody in your house?!”
The gun‑control narrative sounds nice in a studio; it collapses the moment you imagine a real stranger inside your home, between you and your family. At that point, you’re not “taking justice into your own hands”; you’re trying to survive.
The Hemani ruling didn’t just help one man; it reminded the country that rights belong to ordinary, imperfect human beings, not just the politically approved.
And when Bill Maher says he wants a gun for self‑defense and calls California’s self‑defense rules “ridiculous,” he’s saying what millions of concealed carriers already know: if the law makes it practically impossible to both survive an attack and stay out of prison, the problem isn’t the gun. The problem is the law.
