Lee Daniels (courtesy star945.com)

“My dad was a cop, and as a kid, I played with his gun. I could have easily killed myself. I’ve had friends growing up in the projects die in my arms, three different moments in my life that I distinctly remember from gun violence. I hope Katie drives home the insanity of having guns.” – Under The Gun producer director and producer Lee Daniels [via people.com]

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55 COMMENTS

  1. I see because your own father was irresponsible and dangerous with his Firearms no one else should able to have them that we get out of this

  3. And how many people that died in his arms were killed in non gang related violence with legally obtained weapons?

    • I wonder how many more died from drug overdoses. Yet, I’m sure he’s a pro-legalization type who bemoans the Drug War, whose supposed only purpose is to cycle blacks through the criminal justice system.

      • I don’t agree about blacks being the target, but I do think that the only purpose for the Drug War today is to cycle the poor through the justice system, securing easy convictions and allowing law enforcement, DA offices, and politicians to show taxpayers that they are “tough on crime”.

      • You sound like you think the drug war is reducing the number of deaths due to overdose.

  4. I had a great parent who taught me gun safety through NRA classes despite knowing nothing about guns herself. So why the f*ck does my life have to be dictated by your dad’s screw up, a$$h*le?

  6. Your Dad was a Cop, but you were in the projects…….why? Lies usually come in 3’s. Just saying, I don’t buy it.

  7. Well, if Katie says they are bad, I’m trading mine in for….
    Oh wait. I just realized that producers and actors who foist their opinions on us are the insane ones.

  8. Perhaps he should emigrate to North Korea if he wants to live in a society where only governmental agents are armed. No need to worry about ‘gun violence’ there.

  11. He probably wants to save the lives of all those thuglifers who like to break into decent folk’s homes.

  12. Does anyone actually think this guy’s old “hood” would welcome him back now that he’s a rich hollywood snob? Please, he would get beat up quicker than Ice Cube’s kids. No, this guy swims in the nice pool, but uses his “hood life” for the street cred it gives him with his new crew. He knew damn well what the real problems were in his community, that’s why he spent his whole life ignoring the terrible influences of his neighbors and clawing his way up out of there.

  14. you sure would not have wanted to live in my house, there was a Loaded single shot shotgun by the Back door,
    a Loaded 30-30 and an over under 22/410 in others, a cocked and locked .45 for a Pistol.
    It.s funny non of those discharged accidentally of course we obey our parents when they told us not to play with weapons as they were considered extremely dangerous, which was proved by my siblings and myself numerous time when game was killed, My Dad was in the Navy and Step mom in the Spars, She taught me how to shoot. if we screwed up it did not want too be because of misuse or mishandling of Fire arms,brother 19, got a good whooping, with a razor strap for that, (shooting birds and cut the telephone wire)

  15. My dad wasn’t a cop. Yet he somehow managed to teach me not to mess with or play around with his guns. Maybe he was smarter than your dad, or maybe I was smarter than you and got the message. Maybe I just had more respect for my father. Either way, my rights aren’t based on your feelings.

  17. I’ve not personally seen any of it, but I’ve come to understand Daniels’ oeuvre is a little out there. Might as well send David Lynch out with foreign policy proposals, or Terry Gilliam’s ideas for responsible financial regulation.

  18. Interesting how all these anti-gun people come from a reference point of personal, visceral and irrational animus towards guns rather than objective fact.

  19. Ok so.. Every household has items in the home that if used improperly will result in death. So under this logic, we should ban all sorts of household cleaners, insecticides, ect.. that may not be stored properly.

  20. Some folks have an emotional reaction to guns like people in Kansas have a fear of sharks. No experience but they are just soooo dangerous. Two very intelligent but uninformed people told me that they thought spree shooters were using full auto firearms. Because of the movies. Because of the anti part of the media the oft repeated question is asked. “Why would anyone need…..?”
    They didn’t know there is a NCIS system. So the phrase Universal Background Checks makes sense because……I can just order a .50cal Barrett online and its delivered.

    If they thought for themselves they’d ask a question specifically addressing their concerns.
    One whose daughter has drug addiction issues admitted that the drug laws never prevented her daughter from obtaining illegal drugs. She could see how gun regulations only affect the law abiding.

    • The same people who believe that “millions” of slaves died on the journey from Africa and were tossed into the sea, that “black lives matter” when blacks are their own most lethal enemies, that having spent $10+ trillion dollars on social welfare given to American blacks since the creation of LBJ’s “Great Society” that we’re supposed to still pay reparations.

      That’s who.

  22. Dad was a cop, we didn’t live in the projects and we learned very early on, “Don’t touch dad’s guns”.

  23. So your dad, one of the chosen ones ™ was a doofus. You lived in the projects (cop dad in public housing? ), and your feelz should be central to how the .gov does away with our inalienable rights……………..

    FAIL

  24. My dad kept his 1911 in a holster hanging on the wall, next to it was his police .38 revolver in his duty belt.
    We had an oldsmobile with no seatbelts that we drove cross country.
    We rode our bikes without helmets and gave and took our lumps in school yard fights with neighborhood bullies.
    We grew up learning respect your elders and take care of the less fortunate.
    We had the privilege of strong family, neighborly community and growing up knowing that nothing comes easy.
    People die and that’s a cold hard fact, nobody makes it out alive.
    I’ve witnessed death…so what.
    That doesn’t make me cringe in the corner or blame a gun or a pond or the school bus that ran over a 6 yr old girl at the bus stop.
    Life is cruel,human beings are cruel sometimes and most are not but to regulate the entirety of life is to hide from reality.
    Bad folks are out there, to hope they magically go away is not a real solution.
    It’s not the good gun owner you need to be concerned with.
    Even faced with jail or execution ? Doesn’t the criminal still commit evil?
    If the USA started chopping off heads the bad guys would still exist.
    Reality just means that the world can be a tough place to live, get used to it cause it’s not gonna suddenly be utopia anytime soon people.

  25. So… yet again, we citizens are to be made to pay for the incompetence of cops.

    Got it.

  28. Katie says:
    We don’t really question people’s right to buy and own guns,” said Couric, 59. “We leave the Second Amendment as-is.

    Director and producer of the film, Lee Daniels, recognizes what the film really is and says:
    I hope Katie drives home the insanity of having guns.

    What can we deduce from this you ask? Well – I deduced that Katie is a liar and Lee is an anti-gun hoplophobe that couldn’t reconcile the difference between thugs killing each other in the projects and common decent moral people with no ill intent who happen to own guns.

  29. Whut? Lived in the projects and pop had a real job? Fraud either way…and yer shillin’ for another gal. Like the BS Oprah Winfrey movie.

  30. Having guns isn’t “insane”.

    Expecting the police to do the right thing with guns merely because they ARE police is INSANE.

  31. Daniels story sounds contrived. After looking on his wikipedia page there are some things that may shed light on his situation. Apparently his father beat him, in some part for him being gay, I would guess that he had his fathers gun because he was contemplating suicide, or retaliating against his tormentor. If those events even occurred.

    from wikipedia: “Lee, the [7] son of former Philadelphia police officer William Daniels, who was, as Daniels says, “killed in the line of duty” when Lee was a teenager, in 1975.[8] Daniels has also been very open about the fact that his father was violent and physically abusive towards him, and even tried “to beat it [being gay] out of me.”[9]

    Also would suggest that the part about having 3 friends in the project “die in his arms” is likely false, it would be interesting to hear more of that story if it is true, including circumstances and names. The wikipedia article mentions that “He graduated from upscale, suburban Radnor High School in 1978,” Not the likely background that would coincide with an upbringing in the projects. Also It seems strange that he would, as a policeman’s son be hanging around the projects. There are too many false biographies of celebrities, journalists, and politicians to trust this one without verification.

    The wikipedia article does describe a person that has been ambitious and a “go getter”. It is too bad that he would turn his abilities to undermining civil rights as the 2nd Amendment is a civil right. Imagine if he turned his abilities to working on helping improve the underlying root cause issues in cities like Philadelphia, maybe just isn’t glamorous enough or easy.

  32. It seems to me that there is an entire culture that needs to be destroyed, and it’s not ours.

    If I had three people die in my arms through violence, I think I might look around at my environment and wonder if maybe, just maybe, there was a cause and effect relationship.

    But no, not in Lee Daniels’ world. In his world, the guns are to blame. Or white privilege. Or something, anything, except the young criminals who own his neighborhoods.

  33. “I’ve had friends growing up in the projects die in my arms, three different moments in my life that I distinctly remember from gun violence.”

    Right, because if there were no guns your friends couldn’t have been beaten to death, with the same outcome. Good God, how did people even die before guns existed?

    Let me get you a mirror so you can see where the violence is at.

  36. So your experience with guns is that your father (a cop, who lived in the projects? ) was irresponsible with his, and several people you knew were murdered with them. Many people have experiences with guns growing up that include none of that, but do remember:

    -Quality time with family around guns.
    -Time at the range with friends.
    -Guns being used to protect family, livestock, or property.
    -Guns being used to put food on the family table.

    Why do you think your experiences differ so much from theirs? I’ll give you a hint: many people in the latter category were not subject to licensing, registration, universal background checks, waiting periods, microstamping, magazine limits, or assault weapon bans.

  38. Did any of you even watch the documentary? Almost everyone on here jumps to the conclusion of , “They’re coming to take our guns” or “don’t infringe on my rights”. The documentary doesn’t suggest this at but rather reports on data and shows how gun violence has effected real people. The numbers don’t lie, gun violence is an epidemic in this country. You are correct, gun ownership is a right, but a right with a huge responsibility. Just like driving a car you should have to prove that you are responsible enough to do so.

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