Michael Moore: Americans Buy Guns Because 'We're a Very Frightened People'

Controversial liberal filmmaker Michael Moore said on Thursday that many Americans purchase guns because “we're a very frightened people” and stated that “fear is used to the point where everybody feels like they’ve got to have a gun in the house.”

Moore made the comments the day before his 10-year-old film, “Bowling for Columbine,” was to be aired on the liberal cable channel Current TV on Friday, one week after 20-year-old Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 adults and 6 children at the Shady Brook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., along with his mother and himself.

As noted by by Jeff Poor at the Daily Caller, the liberal activist said that gun ownership “cuts down to the heart of our race problem that we still haven't resolved.”

“I think we’re a very frightened people,” Moore said. “I think we’ve been frightened ever since we landed on these shores.”

We were frightened of the native people;  we were frightened of the slaves we brought over, as we should have been. And those in power have known how to manipulate us with fear.

The filmmaker added that “we’ve started wars over being told lies about, you know -- whether it was in the Spanish-American War, the Mexican-American War. You can go through so many of these wars we’ve been in throughout history -- right up through the Iraq War -- where we’re just lied to because those in power knew if they just put enough fear out there," people would go along with what they want.

Moore also asserted that “the best kind of fear is the one that has the kernel of truth, so you have 9/11 happened -- that’s a real incident, nearly 3,000 people lose their lives. Very easy at that point to use that fact in a way to tell a fiction.”

The liberal activist continued by stating “it’s that fear that causes Americans to want to own a gun.”

He then added:

I was fascinated in that subject when making “Bowling for Columbine,” of how fear is used to the point where everybody feels like they’ve got to have a gun in the house.

While acknowledging that not every house has a gun, Moore stated that “we’ve got over a quarter-billion guns in people’s homes. And they’re mostly in the suburbs and rural areas where there is virtually no crime and no murder.”

“So why is that?” he asked. “What are they really afraid of? What do they think of -- who’s going to break into the house?

Do they think it’s little freckled-face Jimmy down the street? I don’t think so. I don’t think that’s who they’re afraid of. And it cuts down to the heart of our race problem that we still haven’t resolved. And I thought it would be interesting to take a look at that in the movie.

Moore's schlockumentary focused on the shooting at the Columbine High School in Colorado on April 20, 1999, when pupils Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold gunned down 12 students and one teacher while injuring 21 other pupils and then committing suicide.

His next production was 2007's “Sicko,” a harsh look at health care in America, and his most recent film is “Capitalism: A Love Story,” which was a bust at the box office.

Nevertheless, Moore occasionally vents his frustration on a truly deserving target. One of those times was in March of 2011, when the filmmaker proclaimed that President Obama “raised troop levels in Afghanistan; increased the number of drone attacks in Pakistan; kept the terrorist detention center in Guantanamo Bay fully intact” and then bombed Libya.

As a result, the liberal activist tweeted a message calling for the Democrat in the White House to return the Nobel Peace Prize he received in 2009.

It's worth noting that Friday night is the unofficial start of the holiday season since Christmas will arrive next Tuesday, and tonight many people will likely be traveling to spend the time with friends and/or relatives, so showing the 10-year-old “Columbine” film will probably not have much of an impact on Current TV's constantly low ratings.

And it would be interesting to find out how many weapons Moore owns. After his lies about not being a One Percenter, it could be quite ironic to see if the liberal activist abides by the principles he preaches to others.