On the same day that the National Rifle Association demanded armed police officers in schools, and blamed video games, politicians, and the media for the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Hollywood had a message ready and waiting.
Some of the biggest names in film, music and entertainment have come together in a video entitled “Demand A Plan To End Gun Violence.”
Timed to perfection to follow the NRA’s press conference, among the stars involved in the video were; Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, Jennifer Aniston, Jamie Foxx, Ellen DeGeneres, Beyonce, Will Ferrell, Michelle Williams, John Hamm, Chris Rock, Jessica Alba, Conan O’Brien, Reese Witherspoon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jeremy Renner and Sarah Silverman.
The video begins with a list of some of the locations of the worst shootings in US history — Columbine, Virginia Tech, Tuscon, Aurora, Fort Hood… Newtown — before the celebrities repeatedly ask:
“How many more? How many more colleges? How many more classrooms? How many more movie theaters? How many houses of faith? … Enough.”
Clearly inspired by the atrocity visited on 27 innocents in America last week, the video is the initiative of the “Mayors Against Illegal Guns campaign.”
The campaign was reportedly launched in July after the Aurora, Colo., movie theater shootings, and it already rides a wave of over 700, 000 signatures on a petition headed “Demand a plan to end gun violence.”
The Hollywood Reporter notes that the petition’s aim is to support gun reform legislation that would make background checks a requirement for anyone wanting to buy a gun, calls for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and would also make gun trafficking a federal crime.
In a clear message to NRA executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre and ordinary Americans who have been asked by President Obama to get behind the gun control proposals currently being formulated, Hollywood said “enough.”