The internationally-renowned film director Quentin Tarantino has said – in a rare Hollywood admission of exercising one’s Second Amendment rights – that he owns a gun “for protection.”

Asked about his opinions on the subject of gun control by El Pais, a Spanish daily newspaper, Tarantino answered, “we certainly don’t need as many automatic weapons as there are. There should be better laws. [However,] I do have a gun at home.”

His honesty about owning a gun is unlikely to go down well with many of his contemporaries in Hollywood and the media, and may be seen as hypocritical given his propensity to back new laws while happily owning a gun under current legislation, especially if that weapon is owned in California. It is not clear where Mr. Tarantino keeps his firearm.

Q. What’s your position on the debate about gun ownership in the U.S.?

A. There are always two sides. We certainly don’t need as many automatic weapons as there are. There should be better laws. [But] I do have a gun at home.

Q. A gun?

A. Yes, for protection.

Q. A few years ago in an interview, the father of Uma Thurman — a promoter of Tibetan Buddhism in the U.S., a friend of the Dalai Lama and a former monk — defended his cinematic work. He told me that we must distinguish between real violence and on-screen violence.

A. Robert [Thurman], yes. I couldn’t have said it better myself. There is no real violence in the movies. We’re just playing.

Q. Are you tired of the debate about violence in your movies?

A. Yes, very much so. In fact, I hope you stop asking about it, ha ha!

America has been gripped, once again, by a spate of gun violence occurring under a Democrat president in predominantly Democrat-run cities.

This past Saturday alone there were seven “mass shootings” in six states. CNN suggests: “There have been more mass shootings than days so far this year and more shootings than at this point in any year since at least 2013.”

But the corporate news networks rarely reflect where these shootings are occurring, and in which communities.

As stated by Tarantino in the same interview, “there are always two sides” to the debate. The problem is the pro-2nd Amendment side is rarely heard by younger or less politically aware Americans who get their information from anti-2A sources.

Quentin Tarantino is just one of the millions of Americans who own guns for protection purposes. Indeed, he is part of a majority of gun owners who cite “protection” as the primary reason for owning a gun, with many also believing that owning a gun makes their homes safer.

According to the Foundation for Economic Education, “[g]uns prevent an estimated 2.5 million crimes a year, or 6,849 every day. Most often, the gun is never fired, and no blood (including the criminal’s) is shed. Every year, 400,000 life-threatening violent crimes are prevented using firearms. [Sixty] percent of convicted felons admitted that they avoided committing crimes when they knew the victim was armed. Forty percent of convicted felons admitted that they avoided committing crimes when they thought the victim might be armed.  Felons report that they avoid entering houses where people are at home because they fear being shot.”