On Dec. 21, a week after the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, demandaplan.org released a video featuring numerous celebrities encouraging viewers to “demand a plan” for the issue of gun violence.
The video included actors, singers and comedians such as Beyoncé Knowles, Aziz Ansari, Paul Rudd, Amy Poehler, Selena Gomez and Ellen DeGeneres.
Although it is unclear as to what capacity the featured celebrities think something should be done, they all agree “enough is enough.”
The National Rifle Association (NRA) soon refuted the video with its own.
The video mocked the celebrities in demandaplan.org’s video, calling them hypocrites. The NRA’s video was a mash up of the original with added clips of the featured celebrities’ most violent roles.
For example, the video showed Ansari saying “How many more shopping malls?” quickly followed by a clip of him duck hunting.
The NRA video also included clips of Will Ferrell in “The Other Guys” and Jamie Foxx in “Django Unchained.”
The Weinstein Company canceled the premiere of “Django Unchained,” originally set to premiere Dec. 18.
“Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families of the tragedy in Newtown, Conn., and in this time of national mourning, we have decided to forgo our scheduled event,” producers said in a release issued to media.
Other celebrities have taken a more vocal approach, voicing their personal opinions via Twitter, blogs and in interviews.
Moments after the tragedy, actor Dax Shepard tweeted, “I love guns, I have several but I would gladly get rid of them if it would help prevent anything like this from happening again.”
Musician Michelle Branch also tweeted “Gun control people!!! My heart is breaking. As a parent this is my worst nightmare.”
The Sandy Hook shooting was not the first incident that prompted the entertainment industry to speak out. In the wake of the Aurora movie theater shooting last summer, Piers Morgan voiced his concerns via Twitter.
“America has got to do something about its gun laws. Now is the time.”
While many celebrities agree that something has to be done, others have publically expressed their views to keep guns accessible and legal.
Musician Ted Nugent has been a long-time advocate for gun ownership. Following the Sandy Hook shooting, Nugent wrote a letter to the Washington Times blaming “spiritual bankruptcy” for the tragedy.
“More laws and more restrictions won’t fix our culture. The problem we face is much deeper and more insidious,” Nugent said.
#GunControl
#Celebrities
Gun control is the issue that they will use to lock us all down, when they should be talking about mental health & psychotropic drugs. -@TheRealRoseanne
gun control is our only road to freedom -@iamrashidajones
One storm after another…. #GunControlNow -@AlecBaldwin gun control is no longer debatable -@MiaFarrow
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