Director Spike Lee has become the latest film industry figure to publicly support President Obama’s recent gun control measures, describing politicians who oppose them as receivers of “blood money” from the National Rifle Association.
Speaking to the Wrap, Lee said: “Ninety Americans die every day due to gun violence. This is no joke … Those politicians, the conservatives, they’re in cahoots with the NRA and the gun manufacturers. They’re making money, it’s blood money. I’m gonna say it — it’s blood money.”
Lee follows the likes of Julianne Moore and Amy Schumer in supporting Obama’s executive actions that will force gun dealers to perform background checks, after long-term deadlock in Congress. Lee’s latest movie, Chi-Raq, addresses the issue of gun violence, with a Chicago-set retelling of the classical comedy Lysistrata.
Lee led an anti-gun violence march in New York after the premiere of Chi-Raq in December, “in solidarity” with Chicago shortly after protests erupted over the case of the police shooting of unarmed black teenager Laquan McDonald. Lee said: “The film just came out at the perfect time.”
