Two action stars recently commented on the gun control debate. Fittingly, actors Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis have a lot to say on the topic.
As reported in the Associated Press, actor Bruce Willis has said he is against new gun control laws that could infringe on Second Amendment rights. He also dismissed the link between Hollywood shootouts and real-life gun violence.
"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 AP in a recent interview. "If you take one out or change one law, then why wouldn't they take all your rights away from you? No one commits a crime because they saw a film. There's nothing to support that. We're not making movies about people that have gone berserk, or gone nuts. Those kinds of movies wouldn't last very long at all."
Willis's comments stand in sharp contrast another familiar action star: Sylvester Stallone. He also weighed in on the gun control debate, while doing press for his own new film, "Bullet to the Head."
Stallone was a supporter of the 1994 "Brady Bill" which outlawed certain assault weapons and renewed his support of similar legislation.
"I know people [say]... 'They're going to take away the assault weapon.' Who needs an assault weapon? Like really, unless you're carrying out an assault. You can't hunt with it. Who's going to attack your house?" Stallone conceded that mental illness remains the real factor. "I think the biggest problem, seriously, is not so much guns. It's that every one of these people that have done these things in the past 30 years are friggin' crazy. Really crazy! And that's where we've dropped the ball: mental health. That to me is our biggest problem in the future, is insanity coupled with isolation."
Stallone popularized the action genre in the shoot-em-up "Rambo" series, and Willis has the 5th installment of the Die Hard series, "A Good Day To Die Hard" in theaters later ths month.
Earlier this week, President Obama pushed for further gun control measures, emphasizing background checks and a ban on military assault weapons and high-capacity magazines in a speech to Minnesota law enforcement officials and local leaders.
The president's proposals include requiring criminal background checks for all gun sales, including those by private sellers that now are exempt. As reported on ABC WDAZ 8 Television, he said the "vast majority" of Americans, including gun owners, support background check proposals.
"Weapons of war have no place on our streets or in our schools or threatening our law enforcement officers," Obama said in Minnesota. "Our law enforcement officers should never be out-gunned on the streets."
