Guns are always a hot topic, but they probably become a bit hotter when a well known celebrity starts talking about their beliefs behind gun ownership and gun control. That’s what happening with Brad Pitt currently, admitting in an interview Radio Times that he’s been a gun owner since he was in kindergarten and he just doesn’t feel safe without a gun in the house. From The Independent:
“There’s a rite of passage where I grew up of inheriting your ancestors’ weapons,” said Pitt. “My brother got my dad’s. I got my grandfather’s shotgun when I was in kindergarten.”
The actor – who was born in Oklahoma and raised in Missouri – was first given an air gun, then received a shotgun when he was six. By the time he was eight, he had fired a handgun.
The Radio Times reports that Pitt doesn’t feel that he and his family are safe unless there is a gun in the house.
“The positive is that my father instilled in me a profound and deep respect for the weapon,” he said.
Bully for him. This is the quote that is making the rounds during the U.K. promotional tour for Fury and it seems to have people running to make a connection to the gun control debate in some manner. And while I think there is a gun issue AND a mental health issue, I don’t think this quote is some sort of platform to take a stance in one way or the other.
What Pitt is talking about, to me, is just his personal experience. How he was raised. How he raises his own kids. That’s all there is to see here and it’s an interesting tidbit. I certainly didn’t know it before and I never would’ve assumed it.
Sure, you could mount a case using it to support either side here. I just think you’re digging. It isn’t like he comes out saying “Obama is a demon and I keep my gun under my pillow at night in case the white slavery truck shows up.” The kind of sh*t that I grew up hearing year in and year out.
If he said that, I think I’d question seeing Fury this weekend. I’d still see it, it’d just be a small doubt.
(Via The Independent / Fox News / US Weekly / Defamer)
