Practically every American celebrity who isn’t Ted Nugent speaks out for gun control

The video features Jon Hamm, Steve Carell, Jamie Foxx, Paul Rudd, Jason Bateman, Sarah Silverman, Amy Poehler, Aubrey Plaza, Amanda Peet, Busy Philipps, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Adam Scott, Cameron Diaz, Courteney Cox, Christina Applegate, Zooey Deschanel, John Slattery, Debra Messing, Elizabeth Banks, Max Greenfield, Kristen Bell, Peter Dinklage, Brooke Shields, Joel McHale, Conan O’Brien, Rashida Jones, Will Ferrell, Aziz Ansari, Olivia Munn, Julianne Moore, Jeremy Renner, Jennifer Garner, Jessica Alba, Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres, Selena Gomez, Kate Hudson and Gwyneth Paltrow. (List via E! Online)

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings, in which a disturbed 20-year-old man fatally shot twenty children and six adult staff members with his mother’s semi-automatic guns, the conversation about gun control in the United States has become heated.

While many other countries treat gun control as a basic public safety issue, Americans have a constitutional right to bear arms. Just what arms civilians should have access is the passionate debate of the moment, with President Obama supporting a new assault weapons ban and gun advocates opposing any changes to existing regulations.

In any major social campaign, the borrowed interest of celebrity can always make headlines. But even as I see many of the performers I admire step up to the camera and make their momentary statement, I wonder how much good this will do. Changes to gun control laws in the United States will require broad popular support if they are going to succeed. Celebrities get people to watch, but it is the grassroots activists who will need to do the heavy lifting. (As with Planned Parenthood and the gay rights movement in the last election.)

This is window dressing. But perhaps it’s window dressing that can inspire someone willing to do the real work of social change.