Hollywood and guns. It’s a complicated love story unlike any we’ve ever seen.
Tinsel Town is addicted to gun violence, and has been for decades. Just ask John Wick, assuming you duck first.
Yet many films and TV shows demand sizable restrictions on the Second Amendment. More recently, stars rally for tighter gun laws in the wake of mass shootings. Everytown for Gun Safety literally advises screenwriters on how to best share anti-gun narratives.
There’s another side to the Hollywood gun story, one that gets far less attention.
A not so small group of stars love their guns, and they aren’t afraid to say so.
Brad Pitt
The “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” star owned his first gun at a very early age.
“There’s a rite of passage where I grew up of inheriting your ancestors’ weapons,” said Mr. Pitt, 50, The Independent reported. “My brother got my dad’s. I got my grandfather’s shotgun when I was in kindergarten.”
He grew up in a family where guns were just a part of life. He also learned to respect them and appreciate the level of protection they afforded his loved ones.
In 2012, Pitt told The Daily Mail, “America is a country founded on guns. It’s in our DNA. It’s very strange but I feel better having a gun. I really do. I don’t feel safe, I don’t feel the house is completely safe, if I don’t have one hidden somewhere.”
More recently, he received an unusual gift that spoke to his lifelong bond with weaponry. Reality show star Jesse James made a pair of custom Cisco 1911 pistols for Pitt and his then-wife, Angelina Jolie. Pitt’s pistol came engraved with the name “Big Papa.”
Bruce Willis
The “Die Hard” alum spends most of his screen time with a gun in hand. He doesn’t think those films inspire real-world violence. Nor does he suggest more gun control laws will reduce the number of gun tragedies the nation suffers from in any given year.
Passing fresh gun legislation in the wake of mass shootings may be the answer for some, but Willis gently disagrees.
“I don’t know how you legislate insanity. I don’t know what you do about it. I don’t even know how you begin to stop that.”
He also holds to a slippery slope reasoning when it comes to American rights.
“I think that you can’t start to pick apart anything out of the Bill of Rights without thinking that it’s all going to become undone,” Willis told The Associated Press in a recent interview while promoting his latest film, “A Good Day To Die Hard.”
”If you take one out or change one law, then why wouldn’t they take all your rights away from you?”
Miranda Lambert
The country superstar is a lifetime NRA member. ‘nuff said?
Lambert expanded on her second amendment support with Time magazine, fully aware that her stance goes against what many of her peers believe.
“My dad was a police officer, so early on I was taught gun safety, what guns were for, how to use them and when not to touch them. I’ve just grown up around them, so it’s my normal. I’m a girl, I travel a lot by myself, and I like to carry to protect myself. I know everybody has an opinion on it and it’s polarizing, but for me it’s just a way of life.”
Vince Vaughn
The erstwhile “Wedding Crasher” is one of Hollywood’s few, outspoken Libertarians. He’s also in favor of arming teachers to help prevent school shootings, a position far out of step with his celebrity peers.
He dug deeper into his philosophy in a 2015 GQ interview.
“Banning guns is like banning forks in an attempt to stop making people fat. Taking away guns, drugs, booze … It won’t rid the world of criminality.”
Chris Pratt
The MCU’s Star-Lord uses blasters to beat down the likes of Thanos, but in real life Pratt goes hunting sans apology. He downplayed his gun cache during a 2014 GQ interview, saying “it’s really more just about collecting s***.”
He even gave his then-wife Anna Faris a gun to protect herself when he’s away on location. He proudly shares his hunting exploits on social media, including his affinity for hunting coyotes.
Alas, Pratt’s affection for hunting, and his Christian faith, make him ripe for unsavory character attacks.
Amber Heard
She’s best known these days for her legal tussles with ex-partner Johnny Depp, but the “Aquaman” starlet describes herself as “pro-gun.”
“I’m a good shot and I love guns – I own several. I don’t have children in the house, so I sleep with my gun in a place that’s close enough that if I needed to protect myself, I could. It’s not in bed with me, though; it’s in a safe location. I’m fully trained and I’m an active member of a gun club. I’m definitely pro-gun,” the Texas native told The Daily Mail in 2010.
She still embraced “reform” during that interview, but it’s clear she isn’t in favor of draconian gun restrictions.
Tom Selleck
The “Magnum, P.I.” veteran is the most famous NRA member not named Charlton or Heston. In fact, Selleck stepped down from his position on the NRA’s Board of Directors in 2018 after a 13-year run due to his busy work schedule.
The star of CBS’s “Blue Bloods” famously tussled over gun rights on Rosie O’Donnell’s talk show back in 1999. The former “Queen of Nice” turned on Selleck, who eventually responded by saying she was questioning his humanity.
Ice T
The musician who famously sang the anti-police song “Cop Killer” is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment, and it’s not about hunting deer or similar sports.
“It’s part of our Constitution. You know, the right to bear arms is because that’s the last form of defense against tyranny. Not to hunt. It’s to protect yourself from the police.”
The rapper/actor formerly known as Tracy Lauren Marrow, defended gun rights anew in a separate interview two years later.
“We used to say when I grew up, ‘Guns don’t kill, a cold heart kills.'” The real question we should be asking ourselves, he said, is “what makes these kids hearts grow cold and decide this is an answer?”
Hilary Duff
The “Lizzie McGuire” actress broke the internet in 2016, but it wasn’t how other ex-Disney Channel stars typically do it.
She didn’t twerk or overshare her sexual exploits. Instead, Duff revealed a photograph of her firing a Tavor X95 on her Instagram account. And she wasn’t alone. Jack Osbourne, son of Ozzy, and U.S. Military veteran Tyler A. Grey accompanied Duff on the shoot.
“Learned a lot today,” she wrote below the picture.
A year earlier, paparazzi snapped pics of Duff walking out of a Culver City gun shop with a Glock case and ammo. She also completed a handgun safety certificate as part of the process.
Whoopi Goldberg
The “View” veteran peddles mostly liberal talking points each weekday, but she occasionally veers from the progressive playbook. Case in point: Goldberg likely shocked far-left talker Stephen Colbert in 2017 when she opened up about guns.
“Actually, I’m a gun owner, babe,” Goldberg revealed to Colbert. “I also believe in a woman’s right to choose. We can be lots of different things in one body, which is what I encompass.”
Although she owns a gun, Goldberg insisted that she doesn’t want to “do anything odd.” “You can check all my stuff. Come and find out what I’m doing, where I bought stuff, because I want you to know that I’m not trying to do anything odd with my gun,” Goldberg said.
Still, her Second Amendment embrace has its limits. She spoke about gun rights limitations on “The View” four years ago, deriding the need to own “assault weapons.”
“There is no hunter that I have ever known that needed an assault weapon to get a deer. That’s not what they are for.”
Dean Cain
Superman may fly faster than a speeding bullet, but one of the most famous faces to play him settles for supporting NRA causes. Cain also believes gun-free zones do little to stop gun violence, noting how many tragic shootings happen within them.
Cain connects gun rights to the big picture of being free in America.
“I didn’t have a whole lot of experience with [guns] as a kid, but as I got older I got a look at what our soldiers, law enforcement, first responders and people of that ilk,” Cain said. “The Second Amendment is about freedom-fighting against tyranny, self-defense. Living in this world and traveling, I’m learning what the world is about and I see how important the Second Amendment is. You wouldn’t have the First Amendment without the Second Amendment. Watch what’s happening in Venezuela. People say that could never happen here — baloney.”
Ted Nugent
The hard-charging rocker shouts his love for guns from any rooftop he can find. The man behind hits like “Cat Scratch Fever” and “Wango Tango” starred in The Discovery Channel’s “Ted Nugent’s Gun Country” and promotes the NRA on social media and elsewhere.
He’s battled Piers Morgan on gun legislation and refused to use mass shootings as a reason to pass for gun laws. Gun violence is about “moral decay,” not insufficient gun control legislation, he argues.
Kevin Sorbo
The “Hercules” alum remains a rock-ribbed conservative. And, like most of his right-leaning peers, he’s firm in his pro-gun sentiment.
“The Second Amendment wasn’t put in for hunting .. the whole idea was to protect the individual from a tyrannical government,” he said while promoting “The Reliant.”
The 2019 film featured an armed family defending itself from a ruthless pack led by former football star Brian Bosworth.
“I talk to people that hate guns, too … I say, ‘what would happen if a guy breaks into your house and is ready to kill you?’ … you’d do anything to protect yourself and your family. So don’t kid me and say guns are such a horrible thing. There’s more people being killed by knives and other things than guns.”
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.