Wes snipes at Spike’s gun stance
FILMMAKER SPIKE LEE called his new film “Chi-raq” a cry for gun control legislation, then led a protest march from the Ziegfeld Theater premiere to Times Square after the movie’s premiere.
But the film’s star, Wesley Snipes, was marching to the beat of his own drum on Tuesday night.
“The gun is a tool. It’s a machine,” Snipes told Confidenti@l less than 24 hours before Wednesday’s mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. “You can have all the regulations we want, but at the end of the day, if we don’t change the mindset of the architect or the carpenter or the user, then they’ll find just another tool to still do what they’re doing.”
Snipes, who holds black belts in karate and the Korean martial art hapkido, says the nation’s gun problem is all in our heads.
“I’m around Shaolin monks and they have some of the most terrifying weapons that you can imagine to dispatch a human being, but they don’t use them for that purpose,” says Snipes. “Why is that? Because of the mindset — the spirit.”
Director Lee (photo inset) says make no mistake, “Chi-raq” takes direct aim at gun control legislation.
“That’s what this film is about,” Lee told us. “We have to get legislation in place that’s going to make the United States of America safe for all Americans, despite the NRA and the gun manufacturers.”