On Wednesday, actor John Cleese, a co-founder of the comedy troupe Monty Python, issued his lofty opinion on Americans buying guns during the coronavirus crisis, sniping, “It strikes me that it’s terribly funny that the response of some Americans to a virus is to buy guns.”
It strikes me that it's terribly funny that the response of some Americans to a virus is to buy guns
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) March 25, 2020
He followed that acerbic judgment with yet another: “Buying guns seems to be the default position for some of the American electorate… When confronted by something upsetting, they buy guns Bears…same-sex marriages….global warming…albino raccoons…long words…Hispanics…ANY kind of panics… Let’s go shopping !!!’
Buying guns seems to be the default position for some of the American electorate…
When confronted by something upsetting, they buy guns
Bears…same-sex marriages….global warming…albino raccoons…long words…Hispanics…ANY kind of panics…
Let's go shopping !!!
— John Cleese (@JohnCleese) March 25, 2020
Cleese was echoed by tennis icon Martina Navratilova:
Can’t figure that one out either. Gun culture- what an oxymoron!!! https://t.co/LTkfMsWOfW
— Martina Navratilova (@Martina) March 25, 2020
ABC News noted on March 21:
At gun stores from California to New York, the American people are stocking up in enormous numbers, almost as if the end was near … People are arming themselves. They are lining up outside gun stores. Or going online. In February, the internet retailer ammo.com reported a 309% increase in revenue and a 222% surge in transactions. The group is calling the sales “unprecedented.”
In Virginia, where the State Police track background check numbers, there was an 86% increase in requests in January compared to January of 2019 … the trend continued in February, when over 64,000 buyers underwent checks, compared to 39,300 the previous February. And in March, Virginia saw 35,383 background checks conducted, which is just 10,000 background checks than the entire month of March 2019.
In 2016, Cleese stated his opinion on offending people in an interview with the Youtube Channel, Big Think:
I’m offended every day. For example, the British newspapers offend me with their laziness, their nastiness, and their inaccuracy. But I’m not going to expect someone to stop that happening; I should just simply speak out about it. Sometimes when people are offended they want somebody to come in and say, “Right. Stop that,” to whoever is offending them, and of course, as a former chairman of the BBC once said, “There are some people one would wish to offend.” I think there’s truth in that, too.
So the idea that you have to be protected from any kind uncomfortable emotion is one I absolutely do not subscribe to. And a fellow that I helped to write two books about psychology and psychiatry, he was a renowned psychiatrist in London called Robin Skinner said something interesting to me, he said, “If people can’t control their own emotions then they have to start trying to control other people’s behavior. And when you’re around super sensitive people you cannot relax and be spontaneous because you have no idea what’s going to upset them next.”
Cleese continued, “And that’s why I’ve been warned recently don’t to go to most university campuses because the political correctness has been taken from being a good idea, which is let’s not be mean in particular to people who are not able to look after themselves very well, that’s a good idea, to the point where any kind of criticism or any individual or group could be labeled cruel. And the whole point about humor, the whole point about comedy, and believe you me I’ve thought about this, is that all comedy is critical.”