Washington (CNN) From the second he started his nearly 10-minute monologue focused on the mass shooting in Las Vegas on Monday night, Jimmy Kimmel was near tears.

Kimmel's raw emotion -- something rarely seen on television and even more unique for a late-night comedian -- made for a remarkably compelling moment amid the national mourning for the victims of the attack outside the Mandalay Bay casino late Sunday night. It was also a stirring call to action as Kimmel urged members of Congress to do something -- anything -- about the wave of gun violence in the country.

"When someone with a beard attacks us, we tap phones, we invoke travel bans, we build walls, we take every precaution to make sure it doesn't happen again," Kimmel said. "When an American buys a gun and kills other Americans, we say there's nothing we can do about that."

Kimmel veered between breaking down in tears and angrily denouncing the National Rifle Association for its refusal to budge on what he described as "common sense" measures to limit these mass catastrophes committed with guns.

Of Republican lawmakers who voted against gun control measures in the wake of last year's shooting at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando that left 49 people dead, Kimmel said: "They should be praying for God to forgive them for letting the gun lobby run this country." (Kimmel showed pictures on screen of many of the senators and House members who voted against that legislation.)