Playwright David Mamet defended private gun ownership this week, stating in an article published in Newsweek that he ardently supports citizens' rights to keep and bear arms.

"The individual is not only best qualified to provide his own personal defense, he is the only one qualified to do so: and his right to do so is guaranteed by the Constitution," Mamet writes.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author went on to contest President Obama's position on gun control, calling the "so-called" assault weapons ban a "hoax" and a "political appeal to the ignorant."

Today, Michael Tomasky takes on Mamet's "bizarre rant" in The Daily Beast. The columnist writes, "Almost every 'fact' is wrung through an ideological thresher and pulverized," and laments near the end that Mamet is "another rich white man yelping about his taxes..." (Newsweek; The Daily Beast's response)

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Linda Lighton's "Taking Aim" series confronts the gun control debate...