Gavin Rossdale Says ‘You Can’t’ Prepare Kids for School Shooting, Feels Gun Control Is a ‘Human Issue’ (Exclusive)

Gavin Rossdale and his band Bush are playing an anti-gun violence show at NYC's Irving Plaza to benefit Artist for Action and Sandy Hook Promise on Sept.22. As a father, gun control is an issue Rossdale has a personal stake in.

"Anybody with a brain was horrified at the 400 mass shootings this year," the English rocker told The Messenger in an exclusive interview. (In fact, as of Sept, the US has surpassed 500 mass shootings in 2023. The amount, tragically, is a record amount.)

When asked about how he teaches his children about gun safety, he replied, "You can't." Rossdale continued, "How can you prepare your kids? There could be a maniac or…You can't. I mean, they see it. It's just awful." (Rossdale has three sons with his now ex-wife Gwen Stefani: Kingston, 17, Zuma, 15, and Apollo, 9, and has a daughter Daisy, who is now 34, from a previous relationship with the English designer Pearl Lowe.)

Thinking about these atrocities, Rossdale believes it's important to consider the motivations of someone who would commit a mass shooting: "It's a lot to do with looking at the reasons of why....Then you'd get to the heart of it. And so you imagine these 400 maniacs, maybe they're all psychopaths or maybe some of them had terrible treatment and were ostracized and isolated and abused. Who knows what horror they went through."

"You've got to go through a lot of horror to do that stuff," Rossdale went on. "It's not political, it's not politically-sided, it's neutral. It's just a human issue. And it is beyond the sort of 'assault rifles, not assault rifles.' It's to do with how can we change the climate so that these people don't feel this compulsion to do these terrible things."

In addition to tonight's benefit concert, Rossdale is looking forward to seeing his sons this weekend. "I'm seeing my boys for two weeks and I can't wait to see them. They'll be at my house when I get there on Saturday." His son Zuma is a Zach Bryan fan so Rossdale is learning one of his songs. "He is really been bitten by the country bug," he said. "So when I go home on the weekend, we're going to jam together."