British Actor John Cleese Mocks Americans Buying Guns in Response to Coronavirus

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 20: (EXCLUSIVE COVERAGE) (L-R) John Cleese and Eric Idle perform on
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AWR Hawkins

Cities across the United States are releasing hundreds of criminals amid the coronavirus outbreak, prompting gun owners to stock up on guns and ammo. And over the weekend, Monty Python star and British actor John Cleese mocked those Americans preparing to defend themselves.

“It strikes me that it’s terribly funny that the response of some Americans to a virus is to buy guns,” John Cleese said.

A user responding to Cleese wrote “The poor British, unmanned, disarmed and proud of it. Yikes.”

Cleese reacted, saying “I think the British are proud that they DON’T need a gun to make themselves feel manly. And they would feel sympathy for any males suffering from feelings of inadequacy because they don’t own a gun. So…keep your pecker up, Brad. Remember, assault weapons keep ED away.”

Another individual tweeted Cleese a question: “How are the stabbings in London of late?”

Cleese’s response: “Glad to report that few of them are done with guns.”

Of course, a person stabbed to death is dead, whether a gun was used or not. Just as a person run over by a terrorist driving a truck are dead, whether a gun was used or not.

On January 4, 2020, Breitbart News reported the number of people murdered in London has reached its highest level in a decade under the leadership of Mayor Sadiq Khan.

Moreover, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Cleveland are among the U.S. cities freeing hundreds of inmates from prison in response to the deadly coronavirus. How else would John Cleese have innocent Americans protect themselves from potential danger as a result of newly freed criminals being freed from prison?

On June 3, 2017, Breitbart News reported on terrorists in a rented van who drove into crowds on London Bridge, before exiting the vehicle to stab startled Londoners. The AP reported the “attack…left eight people dead and nearly 50 people injured.” Moreover, “It was the third such deadly attack in Britain in three months.”

Ironically, the attack was ended because armed police shot the perpetrators. And such justifiable use of firearms is vastly unreported in the United States every day, where it occurs not simply at the hands of police, but of armed citizens protecting their lives and the lives of their families.

On February 19, 2015, Breitbart News reported that Florida State criminology professor Gary Kleck affirmed that his 20-plus years of academic findings showing at least 760,000 defensive gun uses a year had yet to be refuted. People have mocked his findings, and leftists professors and gun control groups have tried to counter them, but no one has provided empirical evidence to refute them.

Kleck’s numbers were first published in 1993, and he defended them in 1997, 1998, and 2001, then again in 2015, when Politico published investment counselors Evan DeFilippis and Devin Hughes’ claims that defensive gun uses were part of “myth.”

On average, there are 11,000-12,000 firearm-related homicides in the U.S. each year. Gun controllers report numbers closer to 38,000-39,000 a year because they add firearm related suicides to actual homicides, thereby swelling the number of “gun violence” deaths. Even then, the columns are quite slanted, in that one shows 38,000 “gun violence” deaths while the other shows a minimum of 760,000 defensive gun uses.

And if we look at a subset of guns which the left loves to deride-rifles, for instance—the a clearer picture about gun deaths is quickly visible.

On September 6, 2019, Breitbart News reported roughly 1.1 deaths by rifle a day in the U.S. in 2017. But there were 1.27 deaths a day from hammers and other blunt objects, 2.7 deaths a day from bicycles, four deaths a day via knives and other sharp instruments, and 16 deaths a day occurred simply during the act of crossing the street.

Perhaps it was the ready accessibility of these facts that led Page Six to report that Cleese was “fish-slapped” over the derisive comments he made about Americans and their guns.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

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