Actress and activist Sophia Bush is getting candid about the fact that she owns a gun.
In an interview published on Thursday on People.com, Sophia talked about gun reform frankly, at one point observing, ‘It feels a bit mental that we wouldn’t regulate guns in the same way that we regulate cars, for example.’
Activist: Sophia Bush took the opportunity to talk about the legislation surrounding gun ownership and gun control in light of this weekend’s upcoming Wear Orange campaign; seen here in April 2019
Bush began the chat by describing her affinity for firearms as going back to when she was a child, and it was a way to bond with her father.
‘Going to the range was the thing my dad and I loved to do together and something that I really took to,’ she said.
‘Riflery, and then marksmanship in general, became a passion of mine and over the years has been something that I’ve continued to pursue.’
Seriously: In an interview published Thursday, Sophia observed, ‘It feels a bit mental that we wouldn’t regulate guns in the same way that we regulate cars, for example’; seen in March
Later, Sophia identified herself as a gun owner, saying, ‘I’m a really passionate advocate for responsible gun ownership and for much stricter legislation around gun ownership.’
It was then that she made the analogy of guns being at least as regulated as automobiles.
‘You have to pass a test, have insurance, get your qualifications checked,’ she said of driving a car, which should obviously also be the absolute bare minimum for being able to own a lethal weapon.
stylish with a point of view: Sophia identified herself as a gun owner, saying, ‘I’m a really passionate advocate for responsible gun ownership and for much stricter legislation’
Bush also opened up specifically about gun violence, sharing candidly that her second cousin Christina-Taylor Green was shot and killed at age 9 in the 2011 shooting in Tuscon, Arizona.
‘Anyone out there who doesn’t think it could happen to them is thinking on borrowed time,’ she observed.
And about the Wear Orange movement, Bush said ‘the campaign started in Chicago, where Hadiya Pendleton was shot and killed in 2013 at 15 years old. Her friends wore orange in her honor, and since then orange has been the defining color of the gun-violence-prevention movement. When we can get entire cities to turn orange, entire social media feeds, we can really garner some attention and spark conversations.’
Fists up: Gun violence is just one of the issues close to Sophia’s heart, as it intersects with other pressing cultural and societal problems the country is facing; seen here at a recent protest for George Floyd
Gun violence is just one of the issues close to Sophia’s heart, as it intersects with other pressing cultural and societal problems the country is facing.
‘People look at something like gun violence, they look at something like systemic racism, they look at something like political corruption, and they think, “How am I ever going to do something about that? That feels big. That feels far away,”‘ Bush observed.
‘They aren’t as tuned in to how close the effect of issues like those are. It’s up to all of us to remind ourselves that if this has happened to a family somewhere, it’s happened to our family.’
‘People look at something like gun violence, they look at something like systemic racism, they look at something like political corruption, and they think, “How am I ever going to do something about that?”‘ Sophia (left) seen with actor friends at a protest this week
Outspoken: The actress uses her social media as a platform for social justice and matters she cares about, reminding others that ‘Every single one of us has a platform now’; seen in 2019