Anti-gunner Matt Damon: making a killing by selling America gun violence

While riding the New York City subway system this morning I spotted billboard after billboard featuring Matt Damon pointing a Sig Sauer pistol at me.  It was a advertisement for the new Jason Bourne movie, which had shut down parts of Las Vegas during filming while I was there back in January for the SHOT show.  The great irony of this is that Matt Damon is openly anti-gun.

In recent days, Damon has advocated for a gun ban as currently exists in Australia.  In a interview with the Sydney Morning Herald to promote the his new movie he remarked on gun control that, “you guys did it here in one fell swoop and I wish that could happen in my country…”  Yes, this is the rich affluent celebrity who wants to take away our guns, while making big bucks by selling America gun violence.

Matt Damon’s hypocrisy is thick as it is deep on this issue.  In a 2003 interview, Damon said, “I actually hate guns…they freak me out.”  Yet, a large portion of Damon’s movie career is spent glorifying gun violence as he stars in films which are incredibly violent.

What is the message we are supposed to take away from the Jason Bourne billboard?  Jason Bourne is a badass dude with a gun, so go see this movie?  And put a few more dollars in Matt Damon’s pockets in the process.  The moral hypocrisy of making far more money with portrayals of gun violence than the vast majority of those employed by the firearms industry does not seem to faze Damon.

The issue is not that he is anti-gun.  As an American Matt Damon has as much a right to express his point of view as anyone else.  Granted, you may want to take his opinion with a grain of salt since he is a member of the upper 1% whose life has little in common with mainstream America, but he is entitled to his opinion.  The issue is that he has the hubris to tell us that America should ban guns the way they did in Australia while making a killing in the box office by showing extra-judicial gun violence as something cool, slick, and even fun.