Jason Alexander, best known for his role as the goofy and curmudgeonly sidekick George on the 90’s sitcom Seinfeld, has stirred up controversy once again after tweeting his opinions on gun control in light of the Colorado shootings. He was recently in the news for some questionable remarks made on a talk show regarding the game of Cricket, and he later took to Twitter to clear things up.
Update: Since this story was originally written, it appears that Alexander has utilized the situation to get a little marketing power of Twitter.
Now, the comment that started a heated debate was made on Twitter, and Alexander has written a lengthy post about it.
I cannot understand support for legality of the kind of weapon in this massacre. It’s a military weapon.why should it be in non- mil hands?
That comment sparked a rather large debate on whether or not the right for Americans to arm themselves was meant for private citizens, and after Alexander received a staggering amount of responses on Twitter, he composed a longer tweet to address his concerns in depth.
I’d like to preface this long tweet by saying that my passion comes from my deepest sympathy and shared sorrow (cont) http://t.co/Hli8h2Tw
Among other things, Alexander argues that the type of guns we have access to are the problem; this only sparked more ire from Twitterers.
…I get messages from seemingly decent and intelligent people who offer things like: @BrooklynAvi: Guns should only be banned if violent crimes committed with tomatoes means we should ban tomatoes. OR @nysportsguys1: Drunk drivers kill, should we ban fast cars?
I’m hoping that right after they hit send, they take a deep breath and realize that those arguments are completely specious. I believe tomatoes and cars have purposes other than killing. What purpose does an AR-15 serve to a sportsman that a more standard hunting rifle does not serve? Let’s see – does it fire more rounds without reload? Yes. Does it fire farther and more accurately? Yes. Does it accommodate a more lethal payload? Yes. So basically, the purpose of an assault style weapon is to kill more stuff, more fully, faster and from further away. To achieve maximum lethality. Hardly the primary purpose of tomatoes and sports cars.
While shooting deaths have clearly been a problem in the U.S. for a long time, it’s been a recurring issue in recent years, starting most notably with Columbine and ending with the tragic ambush on the Aurora movie theater where 12 people lost their lives. And, judging by this Twitter debate, a change in gun laws isn’t something we will all agree on for quite some time.