As we are nearing the 2016 Presidential election, the public resonance of a handful of controversial issues is going to grow more frenzied by month. At a guess the popular top ten will include the recent gay marriage decision, the discussion of abortion which seems to be unable to ever stop, and the drug war that is getting to be rather absurd and costly.
Another issue that appears to be growing in importance from one election to the next is about American people being able to have weapons. Strict gun laws have been introduced by a number of countries, and many Americans are expecting the same thing done by their governments. It is clear that unarmed citizens are vulnerable and exposed to abuse.
Not everyone is ready to endorse this point of view; in Canada, for one, opinion is voiced that guns should be in possession of government agents only. As if government agents were not common people just like all of us, apt to get off the right tracks at unpredictable moments. Sadly, nowadays people have to protect themselves from governments as well, governments being corrupted through and through.
Although the question of vulnerability is a painfully thorny one, there is a tendency among Americans to give up their home weapons. Quite a lot of people don’t seem to realize that, while honest citizens are yielding their weapons, criminals will hold on to theirs, and this process will lead to citizens relying on the police for protection. But the police is a reactive force, and those awful minutes before they arrive on the scene may prove drastic for those involved for the sole reason of people having no means to protect themselves from violence.
Like everyone else, celebrities have embraced opposite views on the subject of firearms. Many of them are known to speak for the cause of responsible gun ownership for the US. Some of them are listed in this article. Wonder who is pro home guns?
Whoopi Goldberg
Our multi-talented diva, Whoopi Goldberg, seems to be capable of anything: she is an excellent singer, performer, and she is incomparably amusing – a veritable paragon! In her views she is a true liberal. She spoke for assault weapon bans, but she is enrolled in the NRA, and was heard to say that she considers weapons like rifles and pistols to be suitable for use by citizens.
Chuck Norris
A well-known weapons activist, Chuck Norris wrote and spoke much about citizens’ rights to own and use firearms. He went so far as to compose an advertisement some years ago which urged gun owners to actively participate in elections so they could legally keep their guns. The Walker: Texas Ranger hero is an ardent proponent of the belief that the US government intends to gain total control over the population, and only weapon ownership can be an effective measure against this.
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie
These two A-list celebs and one of the best-known showbiz couples both agree that America ought to arm itself. Brad Pitt said that owing and using a gun is an inherent feature of the American lifestyle for him, and he believes his home is safe if there are guns in it. Angelina Jolie seconds his opinion and adds that she is ready to use a gun against an intruder – reminding us that it was she who played Lara Croft!
James Hetfield
Metallica’s co-founder and lead vocalist James Hetfield, also a member of the NRA, stands firmly for firearms ownership despite the criticism it drew upon him. Moreover, the famous rock musician is an inveterate hunter. A year ago his views nearly resulted in Metallica’s being ousted from the Glastonbury Music Festival due to activists filing a petition. Fortunately, the petition proved ineffective, and Hetfield and the boys delighted their fans with an excellent show.
Jennifer Lawrence
The Hunger Games star is another gorgeous celebrity who has no patience with the give-up-guns cry. Lawrence’s plans comprise – after finishing the next couple of movies – buying a grand house for herself and her new big dog, with a shotgun to complete the picture. Sounds perfect, don’t you agree?
Adam Baldwin
Adam, who is a Baldwin apart from the famous Baldwin clan, is well remembered in Full Metal Jacket and Vietnam War, Stanley Kubrick’s outstanding film, where he portrayed a trigger-happy machine-gunner with a sociopathic nature. In life he is also fond of guns, but in a sensible, balanced way. He holds that guns are highly useful when wielded by trained and responsible people – even if he came in for a deal of heavy fire for his attitude.
Bruce Willis
An actor who is an iconic figure of a movie actor for many, Willis played in so many action-packed flicks that it is very easy to picture him with some kind of firearm in his hand. Likewise, he is very pro-second amendment, and openly urges people to mistrust politicians who work for absolute control. In a country devoid of guns which help people feel free and protect themselves from unwanted pressure, their influence will grow thousandfold. A clinching argument, that.
Ice-T
Those who follow Ice-T’s thirty-year-long career are well aware that the rapper recognizes the importance of owning guns. Throughout his successful stage life he often sang of violence, cruelty and retribution, like in his 90s’ Cop Killer – a song about a young criminal out to exterminate racist cops. His tough guy attitude looks fairly sensible, though. According to him, guns mean much when there’s an inborn need to feel free in the world of governmental villainy and rampancy. Here is an example of healthy respect for freedom.
Miranda Lambert
Lambert, a country music star, cannot boast of a very tranquil life. Almost since the beginning of her career she started getting death threats, so now she says she rarely appears in public without a gun. But it’s not only necessity, it’s a viewpoint of a person who understands what personal protection involves. Miranda Lambert doesn’t want to become embroiled in a political controversy, but she is firm in her pro-gun stand: it’s no secret she believes guns are needful tools and would serve America fine.
Clint Eastwood
An epitome of Hollywood toughness, Clint Eastwood is known for saying that “If there is a gun around, I want to be controlling it”. Although Eastwood is also known to have spoken for anti-gun cause to the effect that civilians shouldn’t carry assault firearms, the justice of the first quotation remains unassailable. When the chips are down, he is sure to join in the ranks of those who believe that protection, freedom, and hunting make guns indispensable for the US.
Vince Vaughn
A very droll character in cinema (Swingers, Dodgeball, so many titles to come to mind), Vince Vaughn gets unusually serious when the discussion touches upon the subject of gun ownership. In his interview for GQ he was unequivocal, stating that he considers it to be a citizen’s inalienable right to carry arms around – and not so much because of robbers as in order to “resist the supreme power of a corrupt and abusive government”. He went on to compare gun carrying to freedom of speech and reminded that spree shootings and other mass murders committed by madmen have mostly taken place in gun-free zones. Such monsters deliberately go to places where they know there are no firearms because they don’t want to be confronted while they are satisfying their sick hunger for massacre.
Vaughn’s speech presents a damning case against gun control and for responsible gun ownership which is nowadays so closely linked to man’s basic freedoms.
