U.S. actor Matthew McConaughey has delivered a poignant and powerful speech at the White House on the need for “responsible” gun legislation.
His emotional appearance followed the shooting in Uvalde, Texas last month of 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School, one of the worst school shootings in America.
Uvalde-born gun owner McConaughey appeared to hold back tears and suffocate, while holding photos of some of the child victims and talking about their families, what they wore the day they were shot and what they wanted. be when they grew up.
In a very personal 22-minute speech in a quiet White House press conference room, the Hollywood star described how he and his wife Camilla had spent the past week with grieving families and talked at length about their loss and the need to “make these lives matter.”
Image: Matthew McConaughey showed photos of some of the child victims
He reviewed a brief biography of each victim, at one point punching the lectern in such frustration at the loss of life.
Salvador Ramos, who dropped out of high school, committed murder at school with an assault rifle. He was eventually killed by law enforcement.
And while acknowledging the right of Americans to bear arms in the Second Amendment, McConaughey said he believed that constitutional law did not mean that there could be no effective legislation on arms control.
Learn more about Texas school shooting
This included, he said, more background checks, limiting the sale of certain high-powered weapons, introducing so-called “red flag” laws that highlight people with mental health issues or extremists trying to buy weapons, and increasing minimum age to buy them. AR-15 like the one used by Ramos, 18, up to 21 years old.
“These are reasonable, practical and tactical regulations,” he said. “This regulation is not a step backwards, it is a step forward for a civil society and for the Second Amendment.”
He added that all the parents of all the victims had told him and his wife that they wanted their “dreams of their children to continue to live … to continue to achieve something after they left”, which had been the his impulse to speak.
Everyone he spoke to, “families of the deceased, mothers, fathers, Texas rangers, hunters, responsible gun owners,” he said, had joined in: “Everyone said we want responsible gun laws that don’t. make it so easy for the bad guys to get these damn weapons. “
President Joe Biden’s administration has called on Congress to approve gun control measures following Uvalde’s assassinations and a separate racist attack, also in May, at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, which left 10 dead.
But historically, gun control laws have been very difficult to pass in an equally politically divided Congress, as the issue tends to be voted on almost entirely between Republicans and Democrats.
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McConaughey also said, “We need to look at the mirror sober, honest, and humble.
“We need to get some courage and honor our immortal obligations, rather than our party affiliations.
“There’s enough backlash, there’s enough invalidation on the other side. We’re going to look for a middle ground, the place where most Americans live anyway, especially on this issue.
“Maybe setting an example for our kids, giving us reasons to tell them … these are great American leaders right here, I hope you grow up to be like them.
“We can’t really be leaders if we only live for re-election.”
Read more: Why are gun sales rising in the United States after mass shootings? The maps reveal the scale of armed violence in the United States. Is America too divided to deal with the gun problem?
His appearance came a day after McConaughey, known for his roles in films such as The Wedding Planner and the Dallas Buyers Club, wrote an opinion piece for the Austin American-Statesman entitled It’s Time to Act on Gun Responsibility. .
In it, McConaughey said U.S. lawmakers should understand that there was a difference between “control” of weapons and “responsibility.”
“I believe that responsible and law-abiding Americans have the right of the Second Amendment, enshrined by our founders, to bear arms. I also believe that we have a cultural obligation to take steps to curb the senseless murder of our children, “he wrote.
“There is no constitutional barrier to gun responsibility,” McConaughey said. “Keeping guns out of the hands of dangerous people is not the only responsible thing, it’s the best way to protect the Second Amendment. We can do both.”