Matt Damon's gun ban

Jul 24, 2007, 13:00 GMT

07/16/2007 - Matt Damon - © Peter Langone / PR Photos

Matt Damon was banned from playing with guns as a child.

The Hollywood star - whose stars as former CIA assassin Jason Bourne in the 'Bourne' trilogy - was not allowed to play with toy firearms because his mother thought they glorified violence.

Damon said: "My mother wouldn't let me play with guns as a kid, and I still think about what roles I take and the way I handle guns in a film.

"It's about the desensitising of violence, which happens particularly in American culture. Often on TV and in films when someone is killed there is no consequence for the person doing the killing."

Damon, 36, was trained to use a number of firearms for the first movie in the action series, 'The Bourne Identity'.

He said: "I went to a former Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) shotgunner and he took me out into the desert outside Los Angeles and we would work seven or eight hours at a time, firing handguns, rifles - you name it we used it.

"I wanted it to be that when Bourne handles a weapon on screen he looks like he knows exactly what he is doing and you only get that sort of authenticity from familiarity."

The third film in the series, 'The Bourne Ultimatum', is due in cinemas next month.

(C) BANG Media International