Brad Pitt defends gun laws
Brad Pitt is adamant politicians should ignore calls to outlaw firearms in the wake of the Colorado cinema massacre, insisting he only feels safe at home when he has a gun.
The Fight Club star is a lifelong lover of pistols and owned his first weapon - an air gun - when he was just a small child, and he's adamant lawmakers in his native country should not bow to public pressure to rescind its constitutional right to bear arms.
The actor is equally certain violent movies should not be censored,
insisting it's vital to show the reality of tragedies such as the
shooting rampage at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises near
Denver in July (12) that left 12 dead and dozens more injured.
Pitt tells British magazine Live, "I absolutely don't believe you
can put sanctions or shackles on what is made. Nor do I want to
pretend the world is different than what we witnessed that
night...
"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. That's my thinking, right or wrong.
"I got my first BB (air) gun when I was in nursery school. I got my
first shotgun by first grade. I had shot a handgun by third grade
and I grew up in a pretty sane environment. I was in the U.K. when
the shootings happened and I did hear the discussion about gun
control start again, and as far as I know it petered out as it
always does.
"It's just something with us. To turn around and ask us to give up
our guns... I don't know, we're too afraid that we're going to give
up ours and the bad guys are still going to get theirs. It's just
in our thinking. I'm telling you, we don't know America without
guns."