As one of the first celebrity voices to speak out following the school shooting in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas, Matthew McConaughey has ramped up his advocacy for preventing gun violence. In a new op-ed for USA Today, the actor passionately argues for “gun responsibility” measures because “the debate about gun control has delivered nothing but status quo.”
“There is a difference between control and responsibility,” McConaughey writes. “The first is a mandate that can infringe on our right; the second is a duty that will preserve it. There is no constitutional barrier to gun responsibility. Keeping firearms out of the hands of dangerous people is not only the responsible thing to do, it is the best way to protect the Second Amendment. We can do both.”
Speaking as both a father and the son of a kindergarten teacher, the native Texan believes there’s a needle that can be threaded that both slows down the “epidemic of indiscriminate mass shootings” and still protect the rights of gun owners. However, McConaughey argues that inaction is no longer an option, and the immediate problem is, in fact, guns. Via USA Today:
The need for mental health care, school safety, the prevalence of sensationalized media coverage, and the decaying state of American values are all long-term societal factors that must be addressed, but right now, we don’t have the luxury of time. We need to focus on corrections and countermeasures that can also and immediately reduce the gun violence tragedies that have become too common in our country.
As for McConaughey’s proposed “gun responsibility” solutions, those include: Background checks for all gun purchases, no assault rifle purchases for anyone under 21 (with an exception for the military), red flag laws, and a national waiting period for assault rifle purchases.
(Via USA Today)