In The Know

Vince Vaughn: ‘Snowden is a hero’

Vince Vaughn says, “Edward Snowden is a hero,” adding that the former National Security Agency contractor and government leaker “gave information to the American people.”

In excerpts released Monday from an interview with British GQ magazine, the “Wedding Crashers” and “True Detective” star said, “I like what [Snowden] did. My idea of treason is that you sell secrets to the enemy. He gave information to the American people. Snowden didn’t take information for money or dogmas.”

{mosads}Vaughn, 45, criticized the American government, telling the mag, “Governments claim to write endless laws to protect us, a law for this, a law for that, but are they working? I don’t think so. The consequences are that there is a staggering loss of freedom for the individual.”

The actor, who endorsed GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney in 2012, said, “I look at the drug wars and they are absolutely f*****g ridiculous. There is a black market and the prisons are overcrowded and it’s not preventing drug use. There’s a corruption that goes all the way to the top.”

The outspoken entertainer also talked gun ownership, saying he supports people “having a gun in public full stop, not just in your home.”

When asked whether guns should be allowed in schools, Vaughn replied, “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.”

Vaughn added, “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.”