Vince Vaughn: "Of course" guns should be allowed in schools

by

Sara McGinnis

posted in Celebrities

Vince Vaughn has waded into the great gun debate, and his take on things might be hard for some parents to swallow. In an interview with British GQ, the actor and father of two explains why he believes guns should be in school and gone-free zones should be done away with.

Vince Vaughn on the American right to own a gun: "I support people having a gun in public full stop, not just in your home. We don’t have the right to bear arms because of burglars; we have the right to bear arms to resist the supreme power of a corrupt and abusive government. It’s not about duck hunting; it’s about the ability of the individual. It’s the same reason we have freedom of speech. It’s well known that the greatest defence against an intruder is the sound of a gun hammer being pulled back.

All these gun shootings that have gone down in America since 1950, only one or maybe two have happened in non-gun-free zones. Take mass shootings. They’ve only happened in places that don’t allow guns. These people are sick in the head and are going to kill innocent people. They are looking to slaughter defenceless human beings. They do not want confrontation. In all of our schools it is illegal to have guns on campus, so again and again these guys go and shoot up these f***ing schools because they know there are no guns there. They are monsters killing six-year-olds."

On whether guns should be allowed in schools: "Of course. You think the politicians that run my country and your country don’t have guns in the schools their kids go to? They do. And we should be allowed the same rights. Banning guns is like banning forks in an attempt to stop making people fat. Taking away guns, taking away drugs, the booze, it won’t rid the world of criminality."

The whole thing makes my stomach turn. As the mother of two elementary-aged boys the topic of school shootings is one I can't ignore, and also one I don't claim to have any great solution for. Still, I lean towards disagreeing with Vince, because it seems to me the answer isn't in arming teachers. Wouldn't it be better if the shooters didn't have access to guns (especially assault weapons) in the first place?

His analogy with forks also just doesn't add up to me, and his statement seemed a bit contradictory. In the beginning Vince says we have the right to bear arms to protect herself from the government -- not intruders, and yet he wants guns in schools to protect kids from someone there to do them harm.

I just can't imagine trying to train teachers to fire back at school shooters, not to mention the logistics of keeping guns locked away  and out of reach of the students themselves but still accessible should an intruder appear. Can  you imagine what would happen if a student somehow got a hold of the passcode or key to the gun safe? What if a high school student bent on destruction overpowered a teacher and got access to it?

I'm completely willing to admit that I don't know what the answer is, but my gut says Vince Vaughn doesn't have it.

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Photo: PR Photos