Actor Matt Damon lauded Australia for its gun control legislation and said Americans "cannot talk sensibly" about guns in an interview he did with the
Sydney Morning Herald.
"You guys did it here in one fell swoop and I wish that could happen in my country, but it's such a personal issue for people that we cannot talk about it sensibly," said Damon, the star of the popular "Jason Bourne" movie series that features a lot of gun violence, a fact that did not go unnoticed by critics of the actor's rant.
"I'm all for the First Amendment right for free speech (for Damon), but I think the public sees a whiff of hypocrisy here," editor of HollywoodinToto.com Christian Toto told the
NY Daily News. "You see a lot of stars in Hollywood doing what Matt Damon is doing: preach gun control and they make these movies that glorify gun violence."
Damon went on to praise Australia for banning automatic and semi-automatic rifles as well as pump-action shotguns.
"People get so emotional that even when you make a suggestion about not selling AK47s to people on terror watch lists, that's a non-starter," Damon told the Morning Herald. "It's wonderful what Australia did because you guys haven't had a mass shooting since you went, 'No, we're going to be sensible about this.' And nobody's rights have been infringed, you guys are fine."
Damon, who was in Sydney, Australia, to promote the latest "Bourne" movie, also invoked the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre.
"Sandy Hook, when those children were murdered, if that didn't do it, you know, I just don't know," Damon told the Morning Herald. "Maybe we just need to evolve further before we can have that conversation."
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