[From August 14, 2014] Rambo Hates Guns: How Sylvester Stallone Became the Most Anti-Gun Celeb in Ho

daily beast ^ | August 14, 2014 | Asawin Suebsaeng 

[RC one]

This weekend, you can see Sly lay waste to hundreds of fools in The Expendables 3. But the man formerly known as John Rambo is, surprisingly, one of the NRA’s most reviled stars.

On Friday, The Expendables 3 hits theaters. It’s the third installment in the star-studded, old-school, bullet-riddled action series spearheaded by Sylvester Stallone—of the Rambo franchise or, for the less-discerning filmgoer, Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.

The latest Expendables flick was never destined to garner much love from film critics. “You need The Expendables 3 like you need a kick in the crotch,” wrote Variety’s Justin Chang. Regardless, the movie will no doubt satisfy fans of the kind of ’80s action vehicles in which large objects explode and nameless henchmen are heroically gunned down.

But here’s a thing to keep in mind whenever a new Stallone guns-guts-and-glory fest comes out: Sylvester Stallone is the most anti-gun person working in Hollywood today (really).

This probably strikes you as weird, given that the impossibly ripped, snarling actor has built his image and fortune on being one of American cinema’s most iconic gun-toting protagonists. “[M]ovie cult figures like Rambo are seen as boosters for every American's right to bear arms,” reads a Reuters story from 1985, noting that national gun-control efforts had weakened due to a “newly aggressive U.S. mood.”

It’s not that Stallone is a raging liberal, or anything. He is widely regarded as a Hollywood conservative who has supported Republican presidential contenders from Reagan on. (Here he is attending festivities for the first George W. Bush inauguration, along with Chuck Norris and Meatloaf.) But he’s not a strict ideologue, and has donated money to the DNC and Democratic candidates including Joe Biden and Barbara Boxer. Stallone, truth be told, isn’t vocal about very many political issues—but he definitely isn’t shy about publicly voicing his opinions on gun control and gun violence in America.

After the shooting death of his friend, comedian Phil Hartman, in 1998, Stallone became particularly passionate about the issue. And it wasn’t just lax gun laws he was angry about; he wanted to blow a hole through the Second Amendment: “It has to be stopped, and someone really has to go on the line, a certain dauntless political figure, and say, ‘It’s ending, it’s over, all bets are off, it’s not 200 years ago, we don’t need [the Second Amendment] anymore, and the rest of the world doesn’t have it,’” Stallone told Access Hollywood in 1998. “Why should we?”

“Until America, door to door, takes every handgun, this is what you’re gonna have,” added Stallone. “It’s pathetic. It really is pathetic. It’s sad. We’re living in the Dark Ages [in America].”

The actor also addressed the charges of hypocrisy celebrities like him face when they favor stricter gun laws while acting in movies where a higher body count generally means a fatter paycheck. “I know we use guns in films, [but the time has come] to be a little more accountable and realize that this is an escalating problem that’s eventually going to lead to, I think, urban warfare.” Stallone, along with the late comedian Bernie Mac, attended an event sponsored by the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence back in 2006 (the buff actor had previously supported the 1994 “Brady Bill.”) And in response to the Newtown Elementary School massacre in 2012, he again called for banning assault weapons.

“I know people get [upset] and go, ‘They’re going to take away the assault weapon,’” Stallone said in early 2013, right around the time he was promoting his then-new film, Bullet to the Head. “Who…needs an assault weapon? Like really, unless you’re carrying out an assault…You can’t hunt with it…Who’s going to attack your house, a fucking army?”

For comments such as these, Stallone didn’t make any new friends in the so-called pro-gun community. Fox News even called him out over his support for post-Newtown gun-control legislation:

In early 2012, Guns & Ammo listed Stallone as one of their eight “surprising” anti-gun celebrities: “Some actors and celebrities may hope and wish for gun control, but their takes aren’t as totalitarian as Stallone’s,” the piece reads. And the following year, he was included on the National Rifle Association’s enemies list—alongside fellow ass-kickers Barry Manilow, Michael Moore, figure skater Tara Lipinski, and Henry Winkler.

In the eyes of the NRA, Rambo is as grave a threat to gun rights as The Fonz—or the director of Bowling for Columbine.

[SunkenCiv]

Source: Bruce Willis Left 'Expendables 3' Over $1 Million-a-Day Fee Demand

• Sylvester Stallone Calls Bruce Willis 'Greedy and Lazy' on Twitter
• Opinion: Bruce Willis 'greedy and lazy' after 'Expendables' exit? Not so much, Sylvester Stallone

  That's what Sylvester Stallone tweeted on Tuesday, just after he announced that Harrison Ford was joining his Expendables team for their next adventure, filling the action-icon void left by his onetime Planet Hollywood pal, Bruce Willis... The Hollywood Reporter cited "sources with knowledge of the situation" that claimed that Willis was replaced after he'd demanded $4 million for just four days of filming in Bulgaria. I'm not Willis' agent -- who declined to comment about the matter -- or the president of Willis' fan club, but publicly calling him "greedy and lazy" on Twitter is not only unprofessional, but inevitably begs some pot/kettle introductions. After all, it's Stallone who's spent the last eight years wringing every last dollar out of the 1980s, resurrecting Rambo and Rocky Balboa and creating the Expendables as some charity organization for aging Hollywood muscle-men who are still quick with a gun and a quip. There's so much winking at the camera in these movies that you'd think Stallone had a neurological disorder.

[Caipirabob]

Well, since "Rocky" he's made millions selling the use of them.

A bit too late to take a meaningful stand on them. He'll count among some of the more successful gun salesmen in history.

Chew on that, Stallone.

[driftdiver]

I wonder how many armed security men he uses.

[BCW]

“After the shooting death of his friend, comedian Phil Hartman, in 1998, Stallone became particularly passionate about the issue.”

So - his is an emotional response - not a logical one.

Yeah - he needs to shut up considering the amount of money and fame he has gotten from such “on-screen” gun violence...

[Travis McGee]

[1010RD]

Yeah, guns are only good for making money, not protecting liberty.

[central_va]

Hey give all your money back and we might listen to anything you say.

[1010RD]

Government schools have utterly failed the youth of our country. They don’t teach the important and distinctive things of our nation. We have a common law system while the rest of the world has one imposed by government. We have a Bill of Rights that no one has. We are a free market country, at least historically, and that’s a rare bird.

The history of the world is slavery and tyranny. Liberty is so rare that it deserves special attention. Instead we let lieberals do the teaching. Stupid.

[elcid1970]

Sly needs to practice what he advocates:

Knock, knock

“I’m Sylvester Stallone and I’m here to take away your guns. Hand ‘em over, NOW!!!”

[Colonel_Flagg]

Yo, Sly. Even Adrian says STFU.

[PapaBear3625]

After the shooting death of his friend, comedian Phil Hartman, in 1998, Stallone became particularly passionate about the issue.

Hartman was shot to death in his sleep by his wife, after an argument. The wife was intoxicated and on Zoloft.

The wealthy do not fear armed criminals. They have armed bodyguards and street criminals know better than to bother anybody who has the mayor on speed-dial. What celebs fear are regular people with guns, people with no prior criminal history, who may suddenly develop a desire to kill the celebrity. No body guards can protect them from random crazies (or their own drunken wives).

Gun control ramped up considerably after the killing of John Lennon.

[TigersEye]

Yeah, guns are only good for making money, not protecting liberty.

And how do these jackass millionaire actors usually use guns in their movies? Committing crimes (even when they're the good guys) and in dangerous, unsafe and patently ridiculous ways. Don't get me wrong, I love action/adventure movies, but these moron play actors are the last people on earth to speak about gun ownership or safety.

[noinfringers2]

Question! Do you feel compromised by enjoying the actors behavior/performance but hating the actors real life dogma? Of course I am biased because I stopped giving my earned money to these make believe people a long time ago.

[TigersEye]

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘compromised.’

[noinfringers2]

I could have and probably should have asked , without any personal judgment, how you reconcile spending time on a make believe situation by persons you do not apparently think highly of. As a personal choice for me I forego the Hollywood make believe garbage.

[TigersEye]

I like movies. If an actor like Neeson or Stallone pisses me off enough I don’t watch their movies. They don’t get much if I do watch them and don’t lose much if I don’t though since I am only seeing them on DirecTV’s basic package channels.

[Red in Blue PA]

Excellent point.

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

Good one! LOL!

[POWERSBOOTHEFAN]

Stallone’s comments remind me of ‘Demolition Man’.

[RC one]

yeah, that’s right. Again, he’s a total hypocrite.