A recent interview conducted by Hollywood entertainment reporter Jeffrey Wells featuring actor Kurt Russell that started out talking about Quentin Tarantino’s style of movie making ended up turning into a conversation about Paris, San Bernardino and gun politics in America.
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What Russell had to say is not likely to please those who believe gun control will stop terrorism.
After Wells said that guns are a “totem, a metaphor that disenfranchised white guys need [to] feel good about themselves” and that this is “statistically irrefutable,” here’s how Russell responded:
If you think gun control is going to change the terrorists’ point of view, I think you’re, like, out of your mind. I think anybody [who says that] is. I think it’s absolutely insane. The problem, the problem that we’re having right now to turn it around…you may think you’ve got me worried about you’re gonna do? Dude, you’re about to find out what I’m gonna do, and that’s gonna worry you a lot more. And that‘s what we need. That will change the concept of gun culture, as you call it, to something [like] reality. Which is, if I’m a hockey team and I’ve got some guy bearing down on me as a goal tender, I’m not concerned about what he’s gonna do — I’m gonna make him concerned about what I’m gonna do…
Wells replied, “I get that.”
“They can also make a bomb pretty easily. So what? They can also get knives and stab you. Whaddaya gonna do about that? They can also get cars and run you over. Whaddaya gonna do about that?” Russell continued.
Wells suggested “some controls […] just so the idiots can’t get hold of them [so easily], that’s all.”
“You really believe they’re not going to? Are you serious about that? What good will that…? Oh my God. You and I just disagree,” Russell replied. “I understand that you think you can control the behavior of people that are dead set on taking your way of life away from you. You think you can control that?”
“There’s only one thing you can do with that. And that’s [to say] ‘No, dude, that’s not gonna happen. That’s just not gonna happen.’”
Kurt Russell has described himself as a “flexible libertarian” in the past.