WASHINGTON, December 24 (RIA Novosti) – In the wake of the Connecticut school shooting massacre, several popular film, television and music stars, including Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Cameron Diaz, Beyoncé, and Chris Rock, appear in an online video urging US lawmakers to act now to develop stricter gun control legislation.
“Demand a plan right now. As a mom, as a dad, as a friend, as a husband, as a wife, as an American...as a human being,” the celebrities state in the short black-and-white video, each appearing on screen for a few seconds saying a word or short phrase pleading for gun violence to end in the United States.
The artists are backing the “Demand a Plan” campaign, an initiative that calls for a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition clips, criminal background checks for every gun sold in America, and for gun trafficking to be declared a federal crime.
Jamie Foxx, who stars in Quentin Tarantino’s new, violent movie “Django Unchained,” kicks off the video saying, “Columbine,” and is followed by other celebrities who take turns listing off some of the worst gun massacres to happen recently in the United States.
The video ends with several stars saying, “Newtown,” referring to the school in Newtown, Connecticut where a gunman killed 20 students and six adults before turning the gun on himself Dec. 14.
“How many more? How many more colleges? How many more classes? How many more movie theatres? How many more houses of faith? How many more shopping malls?” various artists ask during the video before stating that “It’s time for our leaders to act.”
The video can be seen on the campaign’s website, which states that the initiative is already backed by more than 800 mayors and 800,000 grassroots supporters throughout the United States.
“Our efforts cannot bring back the 20 innocent children murdered in Newtown, Connecticut - or the 34 people murdered with guns every day in America. But we can prevent future tragedies by passing common sense legislation,” the website stated, which also lists a petition that can be signed to demand that members of Congress and President Barack Obama immediately take action to reform gun control laws.
