Matt Damon Speaks On Gun Control, Conservatives Aren’t Happy With His Opinions


Matt Damon is sharing his opinions regarding gun control, and conservatives aren’t fond of his opinions.

Damon was recently in Sydney, Australia, to promote his newest film, Jason Bourne. While there, he sat down with the Sydney Morning Herald to discuss the film and his views on gun control. Damon said he wishes the United States would learn from Australia and implement stronger gun laws.

“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. We just can’t,” Damon told the news site.

Matt added, “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. I don’t know what needs to happen. Obviously mass shootings aren’t going to do it. There have been so many of them at this point. Sandy Hook, when those children were murdered, if that didn’t do it, you know, I just don’t know. Maybe we just need to evolve further before we can have that conversation, I don’t know.”

Australia’s strict gun control laws came after a mass shooting on June 26, 1996, that left 35 dead and another 23 injured. According to the Huffington Post, a man named Martin Bryant, 28, went on a murderous rampage through “Port Arthur Historic Site’s Broad Arrow Café with a military-style semi-automatic.” Less than a month later, Prime Minister John Howard banned all automatic and semi-automatic weapons in the country, marking the “most drastic gun control measure in the nation’s history.”

“I thought it was a good thing for the Prime Minister to do; to immediately see the lesson to come out of Port Arthur… and to so quickly put policy in place. It was a sensible and courageous thing to do,” Dr. Stephen Wilkinson, who was Head of Surgery, said at the time.

Not surprisingly, conservatives aren’t happy with Matt Damon’s views on gun control, and many of them have taken to social media to voice their opinions. Many conservatives are calling Damon a hypocrite because he plays a character that freely carries guns.

“Hey Matt, either lay off the gun ban issue or stop making movies involving guns,” one Twitter user wrote, while another added, “You and your bodyguards have to give up their guns too or you need to be quiet.”

“Matt Damon recently told the Australia press that the U.S. should confiscate guns from all Americans as Australia did a few years ago,” one Facebook user wrote in response to Damon’s gun control remarks. “This is the same person who stars as Jason Bourne in several gun toting and gun violent movies. This is same person who makes millions off these movies and yet is against gun ownership.”

Jason Bourne will mark the first time Matt Damon will reprise his role as spy Jason Bourne since The Bourne Ultimatum, which came out in 2007; it was the last of the trilogy based on the books by Robert Ludlum. Jason Bourne will open in theaters on July 29. Watch the official trailer below.

[Photo by Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP Images]

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