Uvalde native Matthew McConaughey pleads for legislative action on guns

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Actor Matthew McConaughey, a Uvalde native, referred to as for bipartisan action on psychological well being reform, stricter gun laws and penalties for individuals who violate gun legal guidelines in his look on the White House on Tuesday.

The Austin-area resident was visibly choked up whereas sharing tales of the households affected by the mass taking pictures at Robb Elementary that left 19 fourth graders and two academics lifeless and at the least 17 others injured.

“There is a sense that perhaps there’s a viable path forward,” McConaughey mentioned at a press briefing within the James S. Brady briefing room after he met with President Joe Biden. “Responsible parties in this debate seem to at least be committed to sitting down and having a real conversation about a new and improved path forward, a path that can bring us closer together and make us safer as a country, a path that can actually get something done this time.”

McConaughey didn’t take questions from reporters after his remarks, which adopted a not too long ago revealed op-ed within the Austin American-Statesman, during which he declared that “business as usual isn’t working.”

McConaughey flirted with the thought of operating for Texas governor final 12 months however later opted out, saying he needed to as a substitute focus on “creating pathways for people to succeed in life.” The self-proclaimed accountable gun proprietor was noncommittal to a political social gathering on the time, describing himself as “aggressively centrist.”

“We need responsible gun ownership. … We need background checks,” he mentioned Tuesday. “We need to raise the minimum age to purchase an AR-15 rifle to 21. We need a waiting period for those rifles. We need red flag laws and consequences for those who abuse them.”

In Texas, 18 is the authorized age to purchase a rifle. The Uvalde shooter bought two AR-platform rifles inside days of turning 18 final month.

Since the taking pictures in Uvalde, Texas Republican officers have repeatedly made calls for action on psychological well being however have in any other case been noncommittal to reforming gun legal guidelines. Gov. Greg Abbott not too long ago requested the state Legislature to kind particular committees to make suggestions within the aftermath of the bloodbath.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, the lead GOP negotiator within the Senate’s efforts to go bipartisan gun security laws, expressed little curiosity in Democrats’ proposals, which embrace elevating the age to buy semi-automatic weapons to 21 and outlawing the sale, manufacture, switch or possession of large-capacity magazines.

“What I’m interested in is keeping guns out of the hands of those who, by current law, are not supposed to have them,” Cornyn mentioned Monday in a Senate flooring speech. “People with mental health problems, people … who have criminal records.”

Standing within the White House with a Texas-shaped pin on his black swimsuit jacket, McConaughey mentioned responses to the Uvalde taking pictures ought to be “a nonpartisan issue.”

“There is not a Democratic or Republican value in one single act of these shooters,” McConaughey mentioned. “But people in power have failed to act. So we’re asking you and I’m asking you … can both sides rise above? Can both sides see beyond the political problem at hand and admit that we have a life-preservation problem on our hands? We got a chance right now to reach for and to grasp a higher ground above our political affiliations.”

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