Will Smith: ‘This Is a Gun Culture and It’s Painful for Me’

In an interview which Esquire magazine published on February 12, actor Will Smith laments “gun culture,” saying it “is painful for [him].”

In the Esquire interview, Smith is asked about racial tensions and incidents like Ferguson.  He responds by suggesting racial tensions today are different than racial tensions in the sixties, because the are exacerbated by  guns, and he said this is something that “America is going to have to face.”

Said Smith:

What we’re really talking about in this issue is people walking around the street with guns that can make a decision whether or not they’re going to kill someone, right? And that’s even more difficult, because there’s really no way back from that. This is a gun culture. And it’s painful for me because I can’t figure out how to be more helpful.

To be fair, guns were present in the racial tensions in the sixties as well. In fact, it was then that President Lyndon Baines Johnson signed the Gun Control Act of 1968 in an effort to make it harder for rioters to buy handguns they could carry into crowds.

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