Sylvester Stallone Backs Assault Weapon Ban

Sylvester Stallone plays a hitman in his latest film Bullet To The Head - but now he has spoken out in favour of new national gun control legislation in the US.

The Rambo star supported the 1994 so-called Brady Bill that included a now-expired ban on assault weapons and says he wants the ban reinstated.

Stallone said: "I know people get (upset) and go, 'They're going to take away the assault weapon.'

"Who ... needs an assault weapon?

"Unless you're carrying out an assault ... You can't hunt with it ... Who's going to attack your house, a (expletive) army?"

December's gun massacre at Sandy Hook elementary school in Connecticut and other recent attacks have intensified the gun debate in the US, prompting President Barack Obama to propose new legislation on assault weapons .

Stallone, 66, said he also hopes there will be an additional focus on mental health to prevent future mass shootings.

"It's unbelievably horrible, what's happened. I think the biggest problem, seriously, is not so much guns. It's that every one of these people that have done these things in the past 30 years are ... crazy. Really crazy!

"And that's where we've dropped the ball: mental health. That to me is our biggest problem in the future, is insanity coupled with isolation."

Bullet To The Head opened in British cinemas on February 1.

Stallone stars as Jimmy Bobo, a New Orleans hitman who forms an alliance with Washington DC detective Taylor Kwon (Sung Kang) to bring down the killer of their respective partners.