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“I am totally for gun control in the U.S. The population of America is roughly 300 million and there are 300 million guns in this country, which is terrifying. Every day we’re seeing some kid running rampant in a school. And do you know what the gun lobby’s response to Newtown was? The National Rifle Association’s official response was, ‘If that teacher had been armed…’ It’s crazy.” – Liam Neeson in Liam Neeson calls for U.S. gun controls [via msn.com] [h/t FC]

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104 COMMENTS

        • J Russell, I disagree with that sentiment, and not just when arguing guns. It’s akin to people attacking special needs kids when disagreeing with Sarah Palin on foreign policy. The analogy Tom made is apt, but it is not one I would use in this case, since the insensitivity would distract from the substance of the debate.

        • True. Especially when you get to the heart of the matter which is arrogance….

          The reason why all these anti gun celebs feel morally a-ok making violent movies or movies with guns is because gun control is for the unwashed masses.

          In their minds, they have enough money and influence the gun control would not ever effect them if they didn’t want it to (and they’re right).

          What the gun control stance means among celebrities is, “Regular people are so stupid and so disassociated with my life that I don’t trust them with weapons.”

          To be fair, I don’t think it’s entirely bonkers for some of these folks to reach that conclusion. Quite a few of them are from CA or live in CA.

          They are surrounded by yes men and arrogant elitism.

          Last but not least, they all have at one time or another had some sort of freaky stalker.

          I don’t agree with their point of view, but I think it is a little more understandable when you look at it through the lens of constantly worrying about some freaky stalker breaking into their house.

          The cognitive dissonance is that they can’t connect the dots and realize that everyone else has to deal with these fears too, even if the people who would be invading the house might just be honest-to-goodness bad guys instead of an unhinged fan.

      • NOT cold. He is hoping for ALL handguns to be declared illegal (like they did in England within 24 hours). It is a statement of Orwellian 1984 death, so nothing is off the table, and ALL is fair.

    • Or everyday we see someone die from lack of available CT or MRI time. Lets ban all activities that might create a situation where a precious scan is needed. A bit abstract but in the same vein. I’ll never watch another Liam Neeson hypocritical movie again. Oh wait one of my very pro-gun buddies has been an AD on his kidnap movies. I don’t want to take money out of his pocket.

    • Which is quite ironic if you think about it.

      Irish subjugation was accomplished through force of arms. Irish resistance to that subjugation was suppressed by civilian disarmament laws.

      Let’s cherry pick a few high spots relevant to our own gun control discussions.

      See, for example, “An Act for the better securing the government, by disarming papists” passed in 1695. Interesting reading that. Consider the language in this act as compared to the current war of words against mentally ill, or “felons” (quotes to indicate past felons, or fiat felons, etc…folks not really violent or dangerous), and quite frankly, classist and racist gun control laws.

      The Firearms Act (1925) remains the cornerstone of modern Irish firearms law. Take a gander and then look at the last 50 year trend in the US.

      In 1973, the National Police took possession of citizen firearms on the pretext of ballistic testing and with the promise they would be returned. They weren’t. This turned out to be a massive, national confiscation of privately held firearms.

      Ireland can stand as a great example for us to study, but it’s not the example the gun control advocates what us to see.

      • Excellent comment JR! We need to look beyond Liam’s inflamitory statement and review history and the actions that led to events. In this case it is extremely relevant.

      • Speaking truth to power always wins. Well done. It’s worth remembering that our 55mph speed limits were imposed as a “temporary” response to the Arab Oil Embargo. Then, hey presto!, they suddenly weren’t so temporary.

  1. He’s all like “only people with a particular set of skills should carry a firearm… skills that make them a nightmare for people like you…”

  2. Don’t support the mostly anti gun media. No cable, no satellite and only buy DVD’s used. Other wise you are paying the grabbers to come after your guns.

  3. Tell you what Liam…just make love stories from now on and see what that does to your career. Nothing but another Hollywood hypocrite.

    • Not really, the typical Hollywood gun scene is designed to either terrify the audience or leave them tingling in awe of these death machines. People honestly think that guns carry ammo enough for ten minute shoot outs and that any one bullet is enough to drop a minor antagonist in a heartbeat. Anyone only familiar with Hollywood gunplay KNOWS guns are just to dangerous to be allowed. Like anyone who saw Miami Vice KNOWS .50 BMG rifles are common drug smuggling implements.

  4. Everyday we’re seeing someone emboldened by something they saw on a movie screen and do something brash or stupid. We should ban movies.

  5. He lost me at “every day some kid runs rampant”. Hyperbole to the infinite degree. If it was happening, I think we’d hear about it. As corrupt, unethical, dishonest, and evil most main stream media are, I’m pretty sure they’re not spiking stories of students shootings in school. Sorry you’re feelings aren’t assuaged Liam, but grow up.

    • He could have honestly said, “Every day we HEAR about a kid running rampant …” This is because every fluke incident is reported over and over and over again. Just like today’s coverage of the anniversary of the Navy Yard shooting. I happened to turn on the radio in the middle of the “news” item, and they were phrasing it in such a way that I briefly thought that some @$$hole was shooting up the Navy Yard all over again as some anniversary copycat stunt. There wasn’t any such thing happening, but the news yokels sure were making it sound as if it were.

      “… thank you so much for bringing up such a painful subject. While you’re at it, why don’t you give me a nice paper cut and pour lemon juice on it?”

    • He lost me at, “Every day we’re seeing some kid running rampant in a school.”

      Does he mean literally 365 days a year or just school days (roughly 180 days)?

      Either way, the NRA must be doing a great job of keeping these stories out of the news, since I can’t find them.

    • He is a US citizen. He’s been naturalized. He gets to have an opinion now. That doesn’t mean he’s right, but he gets to have an opinion on the state of affairs in his own country.

  6. Says the man from Ireland, home of the IRA. Says the man who famously played Michael Collins, one of the most brutal and violent men ever lead within the IRA, a gunrunner and a, if viewed by today’s standards, an outright terrorists. Collins did some great things, but the other is still true. Come on bro. Consider your own country before you start calling for anything in someone else’s.

    • Every day an Irish man beats his wife with a fly rod… Ever see the quiet man with the duke? Well maybe it was a stick and maybe he was a yank but still in Ireland. My logic makes as much sense as the actors whole life at this point.

  7. Guys like Liam spend huge portions of their lives learning hand to hand combat skills and they get pissed when they know that any average Joe with a couple hundred bucks and a clean background can fill out a 4473 and be better equipped than he is.

  8. I liked this quote better.

    “I’ll give Britain its dues, when they had the Dunblane massacre in Scotland, within 24 hours the gun laws were changed so you could not have a handgun… It is the right to bear arms which is the problem. I think if the Founding Fathers knew what was happening they would be turning in their graves with embarrassment at how that law has been interpreted.”

    • This idiot needs to get a better grasp of history. It was a year after Dunblane before the 1997 Firearms Act that banned centerfire handguns in the UK, and almost another year before they came for the rimfires. But, hey, never let facts get in the way of a good story, right, Liam? “24 hours” sounds so much more exciting.

    • The FF would be turning in their graves in sheer horror at someone speaking treason against the constitution and instead of being at the very least called a traitor; he is instead held up as a visionary.

  9. Liam’s a great actor, he was playing a smart man all these years.
    1) if the USA wanted to be like other countries, the revolution probably wouldn’t have happened….and if it did happen, we surely wouldn’t have the constitution written the way it is.
    2) why is “crazy” for people to arm themselves as a means of protection? I’m sure the schoolchildren who were stabbed in China will attest that getting rid of guns in a populous country isn’t a sure bet either……or the military man in England who was run over and hacked to death

    • The Founding Fathers.

      The original radicals speaking truth to power.

      And pivoting mankind with a Constitution intended to restrain government abuse.

  10. This has got to be the most extreme case of hypocrisy I have seen in my life. Another actor with no other skill than to pretend he is someone he is not who proudly proclaims his disdain for the Bill of Rights and freedom in America. I used to enjoy his movies. I will never watch another movie from this little-man again. How much do you want to bet that when he or a studio hires bodyguards, they are armed? (Sorry, I needed to vent.)

  11. Britain has somewhere between 2x to 5x the violent crime the US has. It’s difficult to come to an exact number as the statistics are gathered differently. There is a correlation between their making gun ownership more difficult and an increase in violent crime however.

    Movies and video games have no impact on getting people to lean towards more violence. Notice how it was touched on by the press that the kid who shot up the school in Newton played violent video games and got a higher score by committing suicide? Then the story went away? I’m sure Microsoft and the MSM looked at their revenue stream and decided not to make an issue of it.

    This guy is an a@@ho$e.

  12. There are 300 million legally owned firearms in this country, by 100 million law-abiding citizens. Most of them exist peacefully in areas not subject to strict gun control laws.

    Then, there are places like Chicago and Washington, D.C. – gun ownership is effectively banned, and (mostly gang-related) gun violence is rampant in the streets, committed using illegally owned firearms in the hands of felons.

    Gun control fails everywhere it’s tried. But I have a suggestion, Mr. Neeson: if you’re so fond of gun control policies, how about you start in your own backyard, Hollywood. Let gun control be implemented in every movie and television show.

  13. If you restore our gun rights that will be the end of it, the grassroots will support you But if you try to restrict them, we will find your funding, boycott it and vote you out.

  14. #amongtombstones is the hashtag for his new movie, for all you twitter folk. Not a bad idea to let the producers know you don’t plan to see it since their lead is a hypocrite. The same should be done for Expendables 3.

  15. “Every day we’re seeing some kid running rampant in a school.”

    Large groups of kids have a tendency to run rampant until they run out of energy. Then they eat and sleep to get ready for the next session of rampancy.

    What’s more and more disturbing to me is the ever growing list of actors whose movies I will actively try to avoid. There’s so many that it’s hard to keep up with them. It’s getting so that I can’t watch anything they do….

  16. Arnold S. made a great movie that demonstrated the fantasy world of Hollywood. The movie was Last Action Hero. IMBd quote, “It is a satire of the action genre and its clichés, containing several parodies of action films in the form of films within the film.” It is entertaining. Watch it if you get a chance.

  17. Liam you’ve made the top 3 (or 10). Arnold, Sly, Damon, blah blah blah…actually Neeson might be #1. Darkman, Next of Kin, Rob Roy( ironically enough fighting the evil English) and all of his similarly themed recent kidnap/revenge opuses sic?
    Never a big fan-now less so…

  18. Another foreigner whose opinion on US internal policy matters exactly bupkiss, and another hypocritical actor whose made his career in action movies glorifying gun violence.

  19. Glorify not only the guns but the violence in your movies while advocating for civilian disarmament. Where have I seen this before?

  20. I guess I will have to download his movies instead if spending $$$ if I can help it.

    It’s funny, he never moved to an anti-gun locality until he moved to the U.S. He was born in Northern Ireland (which isn’t anti-gun), then he spent time in Czech Republic (very good gun laws for Europe) then he ended up in New York in the Catskills.

      • Czech is basically shall issue for concealed carry, almost no places off limits, no AWB, no magazine capacity discrimination.

        Czech is really gun friendly for Europe, and more friendly than Maryland, New York, or New Jersey.

        Regarding Northern Ireland. A lot of people over there own handguns and many can conceal carry as well. They are exempt from the U.K. Firearms Act (applies to England, Scotland, and Whales)

  21. I thought he was pro-gun due to the fact he uses so many firearms in his movies , but I guess he is just another one of those who thinks it is okay for him to do this but everyday regular folks don’t have any business to have firearms , and yet again he was raised in a society where firearms are frowned on , a lot of Europeans are not well versed about firearms , but this is no excuse he is just showing he is one of the few that thinks he knows what is best for everyone else . Won’t spend my money on his movies knowing he feels this way now , just like I don’t spend my money on other stars that promote gun control , they feel they are part of an elite that the world revolves around , but it doesn’t happen that way . Be prepared and ready . Keep your powder dry .

  22. Let’s be clear, I do not agree with Mr. Neeson’s message. But on the pampered Hollywood star that lives in a protected bubble, perhaps a few corrections are in order.

    1) though all sorts of options are available to him, his sons attend(ed) the same Jesuit high school in a not so nice part of the Bronx as my two sons. They ride the train and walk through the same crappy neighborhood as everyone else. About half the kids there are from the ‘hood and on scholarship.

    2) have met him on numerous occasions at school functions. Not as a celebrity, but as the guy sitting on the chair next to you (he is big btw) waiting to see the Latin teacher at parent/teacher night.

    3) guess what? He drives his own car and not a bodyguard to be seen in what is not a very nice neighborhood. I’ve walked to the parking garage with him.

    What I do know is that he seems to have little regard for,the Hollywood scene and intentionally keeps himself and his family away from it.

    As for his politics, have at it. I’ll be happy to bring it up with him. But otherwise he does walk the walk compared to the average cleb.

    • …though all sorts of options are available to him, his sons attend(ed) the same Jesuit high school in a not so nice part of the Bronx as my two sons.

      The Bronnx? You mean, a borough of New York City? The same New York City where carry of firearms is already banned, as Mr. Neeson wants for the rest of the country?

      It doesn’t seem that gun control is working out so well for the neighborhood where he lives and sends his kids to school.

      • Chip, read for comprehension. Neeson may have some dumbass ideas on the 2nd amendment. But neither he nor his family live in the “bubble” many of the commenters here ascribe with no direct knowledge. Have spent plenty of time around “celebrities”, that always have one or two guys in black suits no more than two or three steps away. This ain’t one of them.

        • Chip, read for comprehension.

          What did I fail to comprehend?

          Neeson made a statement in favor of gun control, supported by his claim of rampant gun violence – violence that is worst in the very places that have implemented the most comprehensive gun control – places such as the very neighborhood in which he lives and sends his kids to school.

          Kudos to him for not putting his kids in a “bubble”, but what does that imply? It implies that where he lives is not such a “bubble”, because it is dangerous. The danger is all around him, yet he fails to recognize that danger as, partly, the fruit of the very gun control for which he is advocating.

          He’s just as blinded as the liberals who are fed garbage such as August 2014 was the hottest August on record, and believe it, despite all of the overwhelming evidence around them to the contrary.

  23. Well, you’ve just made a whole lot of people’s ‘shit list’, Liam. I’ll never watch anything you do again.

    Oh, and you should probably stay away from the ‘tee-vee’ yourself there too, chief. You sound like a low information sheep, with your babbling on. We don’t want your European-style Liberal Police State crap here.

    And if you don’t like it, then leave.

  24. Dear Liam Neeson,

    If it’s gun control ye wants then migrate back to Ireland where it is national policy. So typical of the imported cognoscenti to want to bring everything they fled from here. Go home fool.

    No love for you,
    Sammy

  25. Most foreigners, like Neeson, have no idea what it means to be an American. But let’s not be too hard on him — there are also a lot of “Americans” who have no idea of what it means to be an American.

    • Yes. Even some native born and raised Americans these days don’t understand Liberty well enough to preserve it. Foreign born and raised individuals often face an even tougher challenge. Freedom is something to be experienced in order to truly appreciate it.

      • If you read the history of Schindler,you’ll see he actually bought firearms on the Black Market to arm the Jews with if they were discovered so they could have a fighting chance.The people making the movie altered history for their anti gun viewpoint by not including this in their movie

  26. Sounds like somebody’s yearning for a late career Academy Award, so he’s burnishing his liberal bona fides. Thirty years since they both played bit parts in “The Bounty”, and Daniel Day-Lewis has piled up five Best Actor nominations, including a record three wins. Meanwhile, Liam Neeson’s particular skills have managed to scrape together but a single Oscar nomination, without winning, and that’s been twenty years. Yes, yes, yes, we all know he was snubbed for “Battleship.” Still.

    Even if he were genuinely anti-firearms freedom, I would at least expect a more reasoned and articulate statement out of this man, and not this cliched and cloying tripe. Apparently, like most actors, if they don’t have a well-written script to parrot, it’s probably best that they keep their mouths shut.

    • +1 Especially your second paragraph. I have yet to hear any valid argument from constitution deniers when it comes to firearm rights but I expected a better attempt from him than hyperbole, simplistic linear thinking and/or regurgitation of nonsense. With the right script and direction he is able to convincingly play someone that thinks things all the way through and believes there are situations that can and should be addressed with firearms.

  27. Not Liam Neeson… NOT LIAM NEESON!

    Eh, what do I care? I still got Bruce Willis. Samuel L. Jackson and Brangelina as my pro-gun actors.

  28. Maybe I’m weird, (shut up), but I don’t spend my time thinking about how many guns are owned by Americans and being terrified of it.

    I got real problems to solve like making payrolls, collecting from distributors and getting to my kid’s football game on time.

    I guess if I was privileged enough to travel in the rarified air of the Hollywood elite with booking agents, armed guards, assistants, personal shoppers, dog walkers, butt wipers and whatever else they are too lazy to do for themselves, well then maybe I’d have more time to make up shit to be terrified of and give myself a neurosis.

    As it stands, I’m too busy being a dirty, unwashed peasant.

    Which brings us to what they are really terrified of, which is who owns the guns. They aren’t opposed to guns, they are opposed to you having guns. Because they are your betters, and they know best for you, and it rubs their butts raw to no end that the little people cannot see that.

    If there is one thing, nay two things, that royalty cannot stand, it is an uppity peasant, further, an armed uppity peasant.

    Derp.

  29. Just asking, how many humans has he supposedly shoot in his movies?
    We hear so much about how violence in the media contributes to violence in society.

  30. Posted to my Facebook:

    I am a responsible gun owner, and I’ve had loaded firearms within arms reach for most of my adult life. That includes time in the Marine Corps, as an armed guard for Dumbar armored, as a police officer, competition shooter, and hunter. I will not support another Hollywood elitist and hypocrite who is perfectly happy with scripted murder and overblown armed self defense, and will subsequently turn around with his box office profits and deny me my lawful and responsible gun ownership. I’m done watching Liam Neeson movies. Taken 2 looked like garbage anyways.

  31. As I have said before many times, why are we surprised when we find out that men who dress up and play act for a living turn out to be sissies.

  32. Liam go home.
    You make your living portraying the use of guns and in some pretty darn unrealistic goory ways.
    Then have the ballz to tell me what and how I should live??
    Again go the F home and cry over what had happened to your tough guy career as you sing dorky show tunes in some small local theater.
    You wont see another dollar of mine spent on your films.
    Ireland awaits you your not wanted here.
    Say Hi to Piers when you see him.

  33. I’m late to this party but need to say so it. Liam go F yourself. Go back to Ireland or wherever you came from. They have all the gun control you want so they just make bombs. Then they blow the shit out of each other. All because they’re Catholic or not. Oh that’s right, they don’t do that anymore. It’s ancient history. Like what 12 years ago? Now they are all “civilized”. Liam Neeson should go back there and stay. While your at it take Piers Morgan with you.

    I’m really just mad because I always liked his movies. Won’t be watching him anymore though.

  34. And Rob Roy was such a great film too. Did they not ban knives and swords in the land (England) he wants us to emulate? Liberalism is a mental disorder.

  35. I don’t understand. Neeson doesn’t like the 2nd Amendment. But, he wasn’t born in the US, and his job allows him to live wherever he’d like and maintain his lifestyle. So, why become a US citizen? If he really hates the Constitution that much, he should renounce his US citizenship and move a a place that suits him better. I hear there are openings in Russia, China, and Mexico. Only the government and organized crime are allowed guns there!

  36. What do you expect – he’s living in the Hollywood Vacuum … void of any logic or reason, surrounded by progressive twits who all repeat the same lies.

    Living and working there he has two choices – 1) either grow a pair and form your own opinion based on facts, then find your income dwindle substantially, or 2) go along with the nonsense and complete the anti-gun circle-jerk, in return for your obedience you receive employment (portraying extreme violence for entertainment) and gushing praise from others in the circle. Unfortunately Mr Neeson has opted for the easy profits and low moral standards behind door #2.

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