WASHINGTON — Actor Matthew McConaughey joined the White Home briefing on Tuesday to pay tribute to the victims of the Uvalde, Texas, college capturing — and to induce Congress to take motion on gun laws.
“Make the lack of these lives matter,” the Uvalde native pleaded in emotional remarks.
McConaughey stated he and his spouse Camila had spent many of the previous week in Uvalde, spending time with the households of the 19 schoolchildren and two academics who have been murdered within the mass capturing. He received emotional whereas talking about Maite Rodriguez, a 10-year-old lady who cared deeply in regards to the surroundings and dreamed of changing into a marine biologist.
Camila McConaughey was holding the lady’s inexperienced high-top Converse sneakers, with a coronary heart she’d drawn on one of many sneakers to symbolize “her love of nature,” the actor stated.
“She wore these on daily basis, inexperienced Converse, with a coronary heart on the correct toe. These are the identical inexperienced Converse that turned out to be the one clear proof that might establish her on the capturing,” McConaughey stated.
He additionally recounted assembly a cosmetologist who was “well-versed in mortuary make-up.”
“That’s the duty of constructing the victims seem as peaceable and pure as doable for his or her open-casket viewings,” he stated, however “these our bodies have been very totally different. They wanted way more than make-up to be presentable. They wanted intensive restoration. Why? Because of the exceptionally massive exit wounds of an AR-15 rifle, many of the our bodies (have been) so mutilated that solely DNA checks, or inexperienced Converse, may establish them.”
McConaughey’s remarks got here as he is gone to the Capitol to satisfy with lawmakers and urge them to take motion on weapons. White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated McConaughey had additionally “met briefly” with President Joe Biden “to speak in regards to the significance of of taking motion holding our communities secure.”
McConaughey stated in the course of the briefing that Uvalde was the place he received his first shotgun, and “the place I used to be taught to revere the facility and the aptitude of the instrument that we name a gun. Uvalde is the place I discovered accountable gun possession.”
However he stated the Uvalde capturing reveals modifications are wanted.
“We want accountable gun possession,” McConaughey stated. “We want background checks. We have to increase the minimal age to buy an AR-15 rifle to 21. We want a ready interval for these rifles. We want pink flag legal guidelines, and penalties for individuals who abuse them. These are affordable sensible tactical rules.”
He added that “accountable gun house owners are fed up with the Second Modification being abused and hijacked by some deranged people. These rules should not a step again. They’re a step ahead for civil society.”
McConaughey, who flirted with working for governor in Texas final yr, stated, “This shouldn’t be a partisan difficulty. There may be not a Democratic or Republican worth in a single single act of the shooters.”
“We received to get some actual braveness and honor our ethical obligations,” he stated.
