Matthew McConaughey reflected on his pointed decision to advocate for “gun responsibility” instead of “gun control” following the mass shooting at an elementary school in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas, in a new interview with People.
McConaughey emerged as one of the most prominent and outspoken voices after 21 people, including 19 children, were killed at Robb Elementary. The actor and his wife, Camila Alves, spent a significant amount of time in Uvalde in the aftermath of the tragedy, talking with the victims’ families. McConaughey also wrote op-eds and spoke at the White House about potential reforms.
But throughout his efforts, McConaughey chose his language carefully: In an initial statement on social media, he didn’t mention guns or the second amendment at all, while in an Austin American-Statesman op-ed, he spoke only of greater gun responsibility. The strongest stance he took was calling for a host of common-sense reforms at the White House.
In the new interview, McConaughey suggested his approach was partly based on the fact that he wasn’t an expert on gun control and the second amendment but tried to approach the situation as “someone who’s going, ‘Come on, this can’t become status quo. Bullshit.’” But McConaughey also noted that he specifically tried not to be polarizing while discussing such a polarizing issue.
“It’s twofold. One, go in there with the human heart and raw stories from the families that they want shared. Now, I also know there’s thousands of those stories. Parkland, Buffalo, you can go back in time. There’s a million tears that can fall from two million different eyes… from families that lost [loved ones]. Nothing’s changed. So now on the other side, left side of the brain, we have to be tactical.”
Part of that tactical thinking was framing the issue as gun “responsibility,” not “control,” a choice he defended and explained: “It became very clear to me early on, as a lover of words, that to the right, so-called staunch Second Amendmenters — these are my people in the South, I know them well — ‘control’ is a dirty word. It’s like a mandate. Whoa, whoa, whoa, don’t you tell me what to do, I got my right to bear arms. So that word, out of the gate, is shutting about 80 percent of their ears… I flipped it to ‘responsibility.’ Responsibility is to give the person the power of choice. It’s forward-moving. It’s affirmative. I’m responsible. Don’t tell me I ain’t responsible.”
Acknowledging the criticism such framing might garner from those on the left, McConaughey said, “On the other side, there was the need to also talk to the left, [and] some of them are like ‘One gun’s too many,’ and [you] go, ‘That ain’t going to fly. Let’s be practical.’ So if the right comes over a little bit, will you look them in the eye and actually go, ‘Thank you’? Or will you go, ‘That’s not enough’? So much of it is knee-jerk [on both sides].”
To the extent that McConaughey’s pointedly cautious advocacy worked, President Joe Biden did sign a bipartisan gun bill into law back in June. While the law didn’t go so far as banning assault weapons — which have been used in numerous mass shootings since Uvalde — it did contain measures intended to keep dangerous people from accessing firearms while also boosting investments in the mental health system.