A couple weeks back, we mourned, and continue to mourn, the 21 innocent lives taken away from us way too early after the school shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas.
Tons of people, including celebrities, have shared their thoughts and opinions on gun violence that has seemed to drastically increase over the past few years here in the United States, including no other than Matthew McConaughey.
McConaughey is a native of Uvalde, so the tragedy hit home a lot more than it did for others.
He posted a deep cutting “call to action” on his Instagram after the shooting:
With that being said, he’s calling for action again, as he wrote a column in the Austin American-Statesman.
In the column, he was very vocal about his belief in law-abiding American citizens’ rights to bear arms in the Second Amendment, but believes there needs to be some way to “take steps toward slowing down the senseless killing of our children.”
He posted his solution to the problem in the following three steps:
“1) All gun purchases should require a background check. Eighty-eight percent of Americans support this, including a lot of responsible gun owning Texans. … I’ve met them.
Roof, who killed nine people in a black church in South Carolina in 2015, got his pistol without a completed background check due to a legal technicality. The system failed. Gun control activists call this a loophole. I call it incompetence.
2) Unless you are in the military, you should be 21 years old to purchase an assault rifle. I’m not talking about 12-gauge shotguns or lever-action hunting rifles. I’m talking about the weapon of choice for mass murderers, AR-15s.
The killer in my hometown of Uvalde purchased two AR-15s for his eighteenth birthday, just days before he killed 19 students and two teachers. He obeyed the law. Had the law been different, perhaps I wouldn’t be writing this today
3) Red Flag Laws should be the law of the land. These measures, which are already in effect in 19 states and Washington, D.C., empower loved ones or law enforcement to petition courts to temporarily prevent individuals who may be a threat to themselves or others from purchasing or accessing firearms. These laws must respect due process, judicial review, and hold account individuals who may abuse such laws.
4) We need to institute a national waiting period for assault rifles. Individuals often purchase weapons in a fit of rage, harming themselves or others. Studies show that mandatory waiting periods reduced homicides by 17 percent.
Gun suicides account for the majority of U.S. gun deaths. A waiting period to purchase an assault rifle is an acceptable sacrifice for responsible gun owners when it can prevent a mass shooting crime of passion or suicide.”
McConaughey and his wife Camila have been on the ground in Uvalde, helping to provide support and raise fund through his Just Keep Livin’ Foundation.
For McConaughey, it comes down to one word… responsibility.
