Jim Carrey has taken to Twitter to apologise for insulting assault-rifle owners in the US.
The Canadian-born comic and actor, whose "Cold Dead Hand" skit lampooning gun control opponents and their one-time president Charlton Heston broke viewing records on the Funny Or Die site in March, said he was sorry for calling rightwing critics "bullies" and "thugs" in a subsequent blogpost.
"Asslt rifle fans, I do not agree wth u, nor do I fear u but I do love u and I'm sorry tht in my outrage I called you names. That was wrong," Carrey tweeted, before adding: "Btw I don't need a crisis mgr, just a conscience. Calling ppl names is inappropriate but my position on assault weapons hasn't changed. Only love is cool."
Carrey has hardly left the public eye since coming out as a proponent of gun control in the wake of the Sandy Hook massacre in December. Last month he shocked producers of his forthcoming film Kick-Ass 2, in which he stars as a baseball-bat-wielding masked crimefighter, by denouncing the "level of violence" that permeates the film. "I did Kick-Ass 2 a month b4 Sandy Hook and now in all good conscience I cannot support that level of violence," he tweeted at the time. "My apologies to others involve[d] with the film. I am not ashamed of it but recent events have caused a change in my heart."
In his blogpost in April, Carrey wrote:
"To the bullies who will try to marginalise and discredit me by saying, 'Shut up, you're just an actor' – while they brag about what a great president the ACTOR Ronald Reagan was – who threaten me with the demise of my acting career and much worse, I say SO BE IT! How shallow do they think I am? I would trade my money, my fame, my reputation and legacy if there were the slightest chance of preventing the anguish of another Columbine, Virginia Tech, Aurora or Sandy Hook elementary school. I ask you, truly, what manner of human being would not?" He added: "These thugs, though menacing, are a minority but they will have their way if good people don't step forward now and make a difference."
Twenty children and six adults died in the shooting at Sandy Hook in Newtown, Connecticut, on 14 December 2012, in an event that reignited debate over US gun control laws.
