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August 18, 2016
Hollywood’s Hypocrisy on Guns
What do rogue government assassin Jason Bourne and elite hitman Deadshot have in common? The actors who portray these characters in their respective current Hollywood films are hypocritically anti-gun. The two actors, Matt Damon and Will Smith, continue to preach gun control to the masses, while simultaneously reaping millions in revenue from the violent films in which they play starring roles.
During a press conference in Australia Matt Damon called for the U.S. to ban guns in “one fell swoop,” yet he brandishes a pistol on the poster advertising for his latest film. Similarly when Will Smith was asked about how he felt about violence in America during an Esquire interview he stated that “This is a gun culture. And it’s painful for me,” but for the costume in his newest movie he carries not one, not two, not even three, but seven guns on his person.
While Hollywood actors frequently possess firearms in their films, the characters they play hardly ever use them safely or responsibly. Theirs is a fantasy world in which guns never run empty, while the victims of violent gunplay either fall immediately dead to the ground from a single shot, or suffer no apparent consequence from multiple shots. Audience desensitization to depictions of extreme violence is the result.
It seems increasingly rare for Hollywood films to feature police officers using guns to save lives, much less hunters using guns to feed their families. Blockbuster films these days are usually about criminals and murderers using guns for nefarious and illegal purposes. These kinds of two-faced actors seemingly show no sign of remorse for helping to perpetuate the glamorization of the gun violence they claim to abhor so vehemently.
Actors such as Damon and Smith don’t seem to mind, if they even understand, that they are vilifying law-abiding citizens who want only to exercise their Second Amendment right for the real-world purpose of protecting themselves and their families. They, on the other hand, can routinely mishandle and misuse guns on film in ways that defy reality while lining their pockets, never acknowledging that perhaps they share some sort of societal responsibility.
Categories: Featured, Government Relations, Top Stories
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