Vince Vaughn has declared his support for the Second Amendment, the right of American people to bare firearms, despite a series of shootings in US schools recently.

The True Detective actor, 45, likened it to “freedom of speech” and claimed that mass shootings “only happened in places that don't allow guns”.

Asked whether, in light of recent gun attacks, firearms should continue to be available to civilians for protection, he told GQ Magazine: “Of course. You think the politicians that run my country and your country don't have guns in the schools their kids go to? They do.

“And we should be allowed the same rights. Banning guns is like banning forks in an attempt to stop making people fat. Taking away guns, taking away drugs, the booze, it won't rid the world of criminality.

“I support people having a gun in public full stop, not just in your home. We don't have the right to bear arms because of burglars.

“We have the right to bear arms to resist the supreme power of a corrupt and abusive government. It's not about duck hunting, it's about the ability of the individual.

“It's the same reason we have freedom of speech. It's well known that the greatest defence against an intruder is the sound of a gun hammer being pulled back.”

He further claimed that historic shootings in the US, bar few examples, “have happened in non-gun-free zones”.

“Take mass shootings,” he said. “They've only happened in places that don't allow guns. These people are sick in the head and are going to kill innocent people.

“They are looking to slaughter defenceless human beings... In all of our schools it is illegal to have guns on campus, so again and again these guys go and shoot up these ... schools because they know there are no guns there. They are monsters killing six-year-olds.”

His comments stand at stark contrast to that of Liam Neeson’s earlier this year. A US arms manufacturer severed ties with the Taken franchise after the star blamed recent shootings on America’s lack of gun control.

“There's just too many f**king guns out there,” he told Gulf News when asked about the recent shootings in Paris at the office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.