Back in the summer of 2012, TTAG lauded actor Ice-T (a.k.a., Tracey Marrow) for telling Martin Bashir that the right to keep and bear arms was both common sense (personal protection) and a bulwark against tyranny. “The United States is based on guns,” Mr. Marrow told the now-former anti-gun anchor. “It’s not gonna change.” In the recently recorded interview above, T announces “I’m pro Second Amendment but I’m not anti-gun control.” Which is a lot less definitive than Mr. Marrow’s previous pronouncement. As with our NRA chin-wag with the garrulous Glenn Beck, there’s but one question to separate pro-gun from kinda sorta pro-gun: do you favor Constitutional Carry? Well do ya, punk? Sorry. Show biz.

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113 COMMENTS

    • Ice-T is the OG “Original Gangster”, and one of the patriarch “rappers” that started and promoted “Gangsta Rap”, and with album titles like “Home Invasion”, and “Pimp Gotta Eat”, he must be so proud that his assimilation into the Hollywood progressive training is complete.

      Him and Ice-Cube, Somehow they avoided the Tupac and Biggy fate.

  2. It’s not even clear what fraction of TTAG readers supports constitutional carry. Supporting shall issue may be a more sensible test for public figures.

    • Great idea for the next TTAG Readers Poll: How far do you go with different aspects of 2A support? Open/Concealed carry, Constitutional/permits for carry, etc. Do you contact your representatives? How often? Are you a single issue voter? With some thought this could be quite informative.

      • I would also like to see PoliceOne.com do that very same survey. For anyone who is not familiar, they surveyed much more general questions about gun control. Over 15,000 current and retired police officers responded and their responses where overwhelmingly in support of our inalienable right to keep and bear arms.

        • False. The PloiceOne poll did NOT show support for the Second Amendment. All it showed is that the police don’t believe gun control reduces crime. Do not confuse the two.

      • To answer your questions thus far asked:

        I’m for about the same level of firearm freedom that we as a nation enjoyed in 1870.

        What so many on the other side fail to grasp is that the Chicago Mobs of the’20s, the “Wild West,” “death squads” serving robber barons et cetera could not happen again, now that we’ve full interstate cooperation of police forces, ubiquitous rapid communication, widespread video surveillance et cetera.

        Machinegun Kelley would be ratted out by thousands of cellular ‘phone users, and Liberty Vallence would quickly become Caged Vallence.

        The bad aspects of an armed society have been largely neutralised, and the few that have not would be were we to become again an armed society.

        It ain’t rocket science.

      • I’m for constitutional carry including machine guns.
        I think felons should mostly be allowed to carry with te exception of paroled felons
        I think all people should be able to have guns in home

      • How far do you go with different aspects of 2A support? All the way; shall not be infringed!

        Open/Concealed carry Both; shall not be infringed!

        Constitutional/permits for carry, etc. No permits or licenses or background checks on carry, possession, or purchase… it’s an enumerated natural right necessary to the security of a free state; shall not be infringed!

        Do you contact your representatives? Yes. Sometimes in person and am personally working to get one replaced by an extremely pro-Liberty candidate.

        How often? Several times a year but it has always proven to be a waste of time.

        Are you a single issue voter? No. but I firmly believe that the RKBA is the most important.

        • ** The editor is not saving. ***

          “No permits or licenses or background checks on carry, possession, or purchase…”

          Should read

          “No permits or licenses or background checks on carry, possession, purchase, or manufacture…”

      • I don’t like the word mandatory, but I do think that basic firearms safety ought to be part of public school curriculum. I can’t think of a single good reason why everyone shouldn’t know that much at least. However, I wouldn’t mind, personally, if hands-on activities like the one in the video had an opt-out for anyone who objects to handling firearms, similar to opt out for dissection in biology classes. It would be great if instruction in firearms operation and maintenance were available, though. Cool video. 🙂

    • I’m all in for Consitutional carry, with a limitation: no liberals need apply. Oh, and be at least 12 years old. (I’d go younger but can hear the MothersAgainstGuns calling me a baby killer.)
      ‘Nuff said.

      • I am more liberal than conservative. You going to take my guns and/or tell me that i can’t own one, you FLAME DELETED.

  4. When we, as a society, find a celebrity’s opinion to be of more value than any other individual, we are in trouble. I say that not because a celebrity’s ideas are good or bad. I say that because when we evaluate the importance of an idea based on the popularity of the speaker rather than the content of the idea, the hope of rational discourse is gone.

  5. Why yes, I do support constitutional carry. Now, did I fire 4 shots or 5 from my new L frame smith. Do you feel lucky, punk?

    Or did I switch to my .44 special cylinder. Cause, ya know, it’s special.

  7. Conditional carry? You mean not punishing people until they actually commit a crime? Sounds good to me, where do I sign up?

  8. Vermont Carry? Absolutely. Vermont is a very safe state, so they must be doing something right. Constitutional Carry? Ooo, nooo, too too dangerous.

    I guaranty that most of the Great Unwashed would agree. Including Garrulous Glenn.

  12. I watch a good deal of Glenn Beck. From hearing it many many times from him he is very pro 2nd amendment. If you look back to 2012 he was speaking on the overall knowledge of the United States. We have lost a few generations to gun control BS. We needed to gain the knowledge back and I believe we have done it in spades thanks to this website and many others like it. I would love TTAG to speak with Mr. Beck again and see if his view has evolved since 2012. As for Ice-T, having met the man years ago at a paintball event I wouldn’t really consider him an authority on anything. He is an actor, I guess if he was giving acting or show biz tips I’d listen. Actors are easily swayed to what is hip and cool and feels comfortable, they always will be, for the most part they are cowards(there are a few exceptions). I believe with education the gun community is making huge strides. Now making that cultural leap is another thing. It may be sometime before cowardly actors feel comfortable enough to truly show their Pro2 colors, we the people need to continue leading the way and they will follow…eventually.

  13. Of course Constitutional Carry; that’s what “Shall not be infringed” means.

    For a black man to say he believes in gun control by the state; the state that had denied the RTKABA from black men like Iced-T and continues to deny a higher percentage of black men the RTKABA for life because of prior felonies; is truly bizarre.

  16. Ice-T’s past comments and interviews demonstrated solid support for the Second Amendment. Is he somehow softening now?

  17. Don’t blame him for flip flopping. He has an acting career and a wife with real nice twins (coco) who needs to be supported (her not the ta’s). Anyway, being pro gun won’t pay the bills in hollywood. Just saying. Money talks. Always bet on the whore. Just ask the MDA founder what price she paid to be Bloomy’s bitch.

    • Being pro-gun in Hollywood WILL pay the bills if you are the prop department that provides the weapons and (sometimes) training all these anti-2A actors, directors and producers seem to think is the only way to make a movie.

    • Be nice to ice t. Feat off he is cool as he’ll. secondly for a wrapper and celebrity to come out in favor of 2 a takes guys. ESP a black celebrity. And he is being honest about the history of minority repression and gun control. A lot of people think felons should not own guns. That is a kind of fun control. So technically is keeping guns from prisoners.
      He is a lot closer to right than wrong

  18. Just take a look at the states where constitutional carry is the law of the land. No ok corrals, no streets running with blood, no spike in violent crime……just like there has been a huge increase in the stock of private arms in the last couple decades while violent crime has continued to trend downward. That is one of the best starting points for any gun control discussion.

  20. Ice Tea is an Obama fan. That is all you need to know about a guy who made a fortune singing rap about killing cops and doing drugs.

  21. Not I infringed is how far expanding I see the 2nd amendment. There should be no other gun law except the 2nd amendment. Plus nothing minus nothing.

  22. Coming from Hollywood, even tepid support is better than no support. I think your asking a lot from anyone out there to support the ‘shall not be infringed’ part.

  24. Is Ice T a convicted felon? If not where’s the rapper street cred? Did he merely rap about killing cops or did he do the deed? You folks gave him WAY too much credit for the Piers Morgan interview. Coco is stunning though.

    • Watch the movie assaulted ice t does the voice over for most of it. The. Tell me he is jut like Obama

  26. I will not kick someone out of the ‘pro gun’ tent for not accepting constitutional carry. I’d say shall-issue + no magazine or scary rifle bans counts as pro-gun in the current climate, especially that in hollywood/NYC/DC.

  27. I thin, Constitutionally, there must be a reasonable way for your regular Joe to carry without need of any permit or hoops. What I mean is, a law saying no carry in a prison may be reasonable, a law saying the average Joe can carry, but only 20 ft away from any building isn’t.

    I am not so certain that one must be allowed to concealed carry without a permit, if he can truly, unencumbered and unharassed, carry openly without a permit. I support “Constitutional” carry in part because the permitting system can be abused, in part because even in pro gun states open carry can attract harassment, and because I see no substantial benefit from permits. But in itself, I think it is justifiable under the Constitution, when and if open carry is freely allowed.

    Thus has been the conclusion of many courts too, most recently the 9th which struck at CA in part because open carry was not allowed.

  28. To supporters of the constitution: How do you reconcile the declaration of independence stating “all men are created equal” and the constitution stating “congress shall have the power to tax”?

    • Government needs money to support itself, I think it gets too much, but governments do serve a purpose beyond just taking your money(or at the least they did when they first came into being). How does one reconcile it? What other option do you have? Its a part of EVERY government in existence, at least you have a wonderful constitution otherwise.

    • You figure out how to successfully operate the country without a gov’t, or successfully operate the gov’t without taxes, you let know, I will likely be on board.

  29. I think getting mad at when anyone says “but” after declaring support for something is unreasonable cause it surmises that there aren’t extremist views that we want to disassociate ourselves from. “I support the second amendment, but not the crazys who think you should be allowed to own a nuke to be on par with the military”. “I support gay rights, but get put off when people use terms like cishit and cis scum in the lgbtq community”. It’s not a slippery slope to dissociate yourself from extremists, cause what you’re using is the Black and White logical fallacy, that either your for or against something.

  30. I absolutely support Constitutional Carry (open or concealed, no permit necessary, carry anywhere). So much that I started Texas Firearms Freedom to try to help get us there. For anybody else who wants to help work toward this goal (or firearms freedom in general) and get more involved politically, check out our site and facebook page. We have training in locations around Texas coming up: https://www.facebook.com/events/1465326287020628/

    Carry on!

  31. I supposed that since he was never caught and convicted for his crimes, that Ice-T can still own firearms?

    Drug dealing, bank robbery, jewel heists, pimping, gang connections, rapping about killing cops…….years later plays a cop on TV.

  32.  “I’m pro Second Amendment but….” BUT you are NOT pro Second Amendment.

    You either adhere to the government not infringing upon the right of the people to keep and bear arms or you do not. There is no “but.”

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