Just one night after the largest mass shooting in American history left 59 concertgoers dead and sent 520 more to hospital,  Katy Perry—performing in New York City as part of her Witness tour—used some of her time on-stage to deliver a powerful message.

The Las Vegas shooting—which took place during the Route 91 Harvest music festival—is the second tragedy in recent months to occur at a concert; in May, a bomber at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester killed 22 people and injured 116 others. Perry took a few minutes to speak about the importance of music: “Music is special. It’s magic. It’s something that unites us. There’s a community here that we need to take care of, that we need to surround, that we need to lift up, and I know that we all feel really disconnected at times but I know music brings us together, and it should never be a place of fear, right?”

Perry then implored her audience to do an exercise in self care: “We all think we’re connected by all the likes and the posts and stuff like that but sometimes we forget we need to touch each other,” she said. “We need to see each other. We need to communicate with each other. So just like one of those hippie dippie exercises, turn to your right or your left and if you don’t know the person next to you, introduce yourself and say hello. Maybe shake their hand! And if you have the guts, just say ‘I love you!’… No one’s going to steal our joy. No one’s going to wilt our flowers or clip our wings. No one’s going to take our power from us.”

When mass shootings happen in the United States—and they happen a lot—two things generally follow. The people who believe that the country’s extremely lax gun laws are to blame call for some sort of gun control. And the people who aren’t interested in reforming those laws offer up their “thoughts and prayers.” And while those “thoughts and prayers” are certainly nice, they are rarely followed up by any sort of real action.

 

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While Perry’s “hippie dippie exercise” in self care won’t overhaul American gun laws, she’s one example of a celeb unafraid to speak out. Here are some other celebrities using their limelight to spark some real change.

Jimmy Kimmel

The late-night talk show host shed tears during his opening monologue Monday, while also slamming the current Republican administration by showing viewers the 56 senators who voted against closing gun-law loopholes. “In February, [President Trump] also signed a bill that made it easier for people with severe mental illness to buy guns legally. The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan—a number of other lawmakers who won’t do anything about this because the N.R.A. has their balls in a money clip—also sent their thoughts and their prayers today, which is good. They should be praying. They should be praying for God to forgive them for letting the gun lobby run this country. Because it is, it is so crazy.”

 

 

Stephen Colbert

During yet another solemn monologue about the critical need for more stringent gun laws, Colbert opened Late Night with a plea to Congress: “Are there no steps we can take as a nation to prevent gun violence? Or is this just how it is and how it’s going to continue to be? Because when you say—which you always say—now is not the time to talk about it, what you really mean is there is never a time to talk about it.”

 

 

The host later tweeted out the links to three organizations which aim to end gun violence.

 

 

Mindy Kaling

The creator and star of The Mindy Project first took to Twitter to point out how absurd it is that talk show hosts feel a responsibility to say what no lawmaker seems able to.

 

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She then threw to the Twitter account of Igor Volsky, a feed dedicated to calling out those political representatives who routinely send “thoughts and prayers” with no real intention of amending the current gun laws because of their ties with the National Rifle Association (NRA).

 

 

Billy Eichner

In a flurry of impassioned pleas for help, the comedian placed calls for action on his Twitter.

 

 

He also shared a call to action to his Instagram: “Text ACT to 64433.” Doing so will contact your US member of Congress and they them to reject gun violence and the NRA.

 

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Lady Gaga

The singer first called for bipartisanship, challenging both Democrats and Republicans to step up to the plate.

 

 

Gaga then invited her fans and followers to join her in a moment of meditation, live on her Instagram.

 

 

Filed under: billy-eichner, Jimmy Kimmel, katy perry, lady-gaga, stephen-colbert