Is it Possible That Hollywood is Out of Touch With the Real World?

Speaking from the European elite mecca of film — in a country with no constitutional gun rights and strict laws that suffocate civilian ownership — one of Hollywood’s more recognizable actresses declared she’s had enough.

After decades of participating in films, many of which included guns, shootings, scenes of violence and she herself handling and using a firearm, actress Julianne Moore pontificated that she no longer wished to act in films with violence.

“I don’t like someone being murdered. I don’t like explosions and guns,” she told a crowd during an interview at the Cannes Film Festival last week in France. “Particularly now at a time when things are really rough globally, it’s very difficult for me to invest in a story that I think is pretend,” she said.

Moore, one of Hollywood’s most progressive, far left, anti-gun actresses, now resides in New York City… in a residence that has private security. She also might want to check what the crime stats reveal about violence in the United States right now.

Moore’s Misunderstanding

Moore’s antigun efforts began more than a decade ago when she became an outspoken advocate for more gun control. She spoke out at gun control rallies, aspired to meet and replicate gun control activist Shannon Watts’s Moms Demand Action efforts. She’s even tried the whole “I support the Second Amendment, but…” charade that so many do.

“We respect the Second Amendment, but keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of convicted criminals, terrorists, domestic abusers, stalkers and dangerous people isn’t anti-gun; it’s pro-common sense,” she wrote in a 2015 blog post. The firearm industry agrees and fortunately for the much mistaken Moore, individuals like those she references are already barred by law from purchasing and possessing firearms.

She made the statement while announcing her new venture, Everytown Creative Council, to get Hollywood officially on board with the efforts of the billionaire Michael Bloomberg-funded Everytown for Gun Safety.

“We know that more than 90 percent of Americans support common-sense reforms that are proven to save lives,” Moore falsely suggested. “What not enough people know, and what the gun lobby doesn’t want more of us to know, is that a large majority of gun owners support these reforms too.”

One glaring example of where she’s flat wrong is her support for a new federal ban on modern sporting rifles , the AR-15-style semiautomatic centerfire rifles that Moore and others deem so-called “assault weapons.”

According to recent data, Americans are practically evenly split when it comes to imposing any new ban on commonly owned firearms — including MSRs. That’s just asking the question and not delving into the debate of constitutional violations.

Politics and Protection

The problem with Moore and her Hollywood friends who are so eager to join her “gun violence prevention” effort is that the vast majority support politicians who impose severe gun control restrictions on law-abiding Americans, while at the same time implementing policies that go easy on criminals. In recent years this includes gutting law enforcement budgets. All the while, Hollywood elites live within gated neighborhoods or in ritzy buildings with locked doors and private armed security services. It’s “security for me but not for thee.”

During the rise in community violence across the nation following the death of George Floyd, Moore joined in the protests, attending one in Montauk, New York, on Long Island. That was also a high point of the calls by left wing activists to defund the police. That year, the Los Angeles City Council voted 12-2 to cut $150 million from the police budget. What was the result in Moore’s Hollywood? The Los Angeles Police Department actually sent out a press release warning would-be victims to “cooperate and comply” with criminals who might be attacking them.

“Be a good witness,” the LAPD said.

And now, after decades of acting and making millions of dollars from films that include violence, firearms and criminal behavior, Moore has had suddenly an epiphany and wants no more. How noble of her.

Here In the Real World

Moore, and her gun control activist colleagues, may be having a difficult time processing what is actually happening now across the country. After all, they’ve spent decades living and working in a bubble of unreality.

As of 2025, NSSF estimated that there are over 26.2 million new first-time law-abiding gun owners in America, since 2020. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court, which Moore rallied outside of for a new federal “assault weapon” ban, issued the Bruen decision, striking down New York’s—and other similar states’ — restrictive and subjective may issue concealed carry permit scheme, meaning millions and millions more Americans now lawfully conceal carry their firearms than did in 2022 before the Court’s decision.

And what has happened? Despite claims by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, major gun control groups like Everytown and Shannon Watts herself, that there would be “bloodshed” in the streets and America would become a “warzone”, the exact opposite happened.

2025 saw the lowest level of violent crime, homicide and criminal gun misuse in more than a century. That includes Moore’s home of New York City.

Moore, her Hollywood coworkers and those privileged elites who so often reside in protected, gated enclaves far away from the reality of American communities can keep their self-reflection naval gazing about “violence” and “bloodshed” to themselves.

What’s happening in real America is that millions and millions of Americans are choosing to exercise their God-given rights own a firearm. And the country has never been safer. That’s no Hollywood movie script. That’s reality.

 

Matt Manda is Manager, Public Affairs for the National Shooting Sports Foundation.