Matthew McConaughey was born and raised in Uvalde, Texas. And, like so many parents of young children (including me) who have lost many hours of sleep over the unspeakable act that occurred there at Robb Elementary School on May 24, McConaughey is fed up with the same tired talking points recycled after every school shooting that leaves children dead and parents and teachers scarred for life.
McConaughey went to the White House this past week to deliver remarks in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room (fittingly, named for President Reagan’s press secretary who was shot by a would-be assassin) to reporters and the country as a whole. And it’s hard to recall anyone in Washington hitting as many right notes with such a unifying tone as did the 52-year-old actor.
McConaughey made his remarks not as a Hollywood activist or supporter of the current president, but as a father of three who happens to have been a gun owner for most of his life.
Unlike most of our leaders on the left, who vilify gun owners and the NRA after every school shooting, McConaughey took a different approach.
“These are reasonable, practical, tactical regulations to our nation, states, communities, schools and homes,” he declared. “Responsible gun owners are fed up with the Second Amendment being abused and hijacked by some deranged individuals. These regulations are not a step back — they’re a step forward for a civil society and, and the Second Amendment.”
“Enough with the counterpunching. Enough of the invalidation of the other side. Let’s come to the common table that represents the American people. Find a middle ground, the place where most of us Americans live anyway. Especially on this issue. Because I promise you, America, you and me, we are not as divided as we are being told we are,” he added.
McConaughey rightly acknowledged that not all the proposals he put forward are 100 percent foolproof or that they would eradicate the crisis. They won’t.
But many of our leaders and those paid to give partisan opinions on cable news are only interested in telling you what’s wrong with a proposal instead of how they’re going to fix it themselves with specifics that exist in the real world. The trick to compromise is finding the areas both sides agree on and going from there. But this is an election year, so don’t expect much to happen on that front.
In a world where the U.S. spends trillions of dollars per year, we should be spending billions on fortifying our schools, one of the many proposals McConaughey listed on Tuesday. If that means hiring two trained officers and limiting the number of entry points at each school to two while staggering the start and finish of the school day by grade, so be it in the name of safety.
We should, as the actor noted, raise the minimum age of owning an AR-15 and similar weapons from 18 to 21, given that the data show almost all school shooters of the past decade were under 21, including the shooter in Uvalde, who purchased two AR-15s on or after his 18th birthday. The only exception to this rule would be if an individual is fully trained in the military under the age of 21. Proper training in that kind of setting? No problem. According to Gallup, more than two-thirds of Americans support raising the age at which people can buy certain firearms to 21.
Increased background checks are another proposal that Americans overwhelmingly support. According to a Public Policy Polling survey, 83 percent of gun owners support expanded background checks on sales of all firearms, including 72 percent of all National Rifle Association members.
Overall, per Gallup, 92 percent of Americans support background checks for gun owners.
“How can the loss of these lives matter?” McConaughey reflected on Tuesday. “We need to recognize that this time it seems something is different.”
“We are in a window of opportunity right now that we have not been in before. A window where it seems like real change, real change, can happen,” he added.
We heard the same thing after Sandy Hook. Nothing got done after 28 people were killed in that tragedy, starting with the shooter’s mother and ending with 20 children and six teachers.
Matthew McConaughey is a refreshing voice of reason in a word where, as he put it, the extremes on both sides have the microphone.
“We have got to pull that veil off, quit drinking the Kool-Aid, because we’re hearing it from both sides, extreme right and extreme left, and they have the microphones. The masses have the numbers, we’ve got to take the mic back. Kick them off democracy’s boat, and say, ‘No, you’re not steering this Boat.’”
The masses do have the numbers. Make your voices heard. Enough is enough. We owe our children so much better than this.
To his credit, again, McConaughey understands how suspicious both sides are of each other on the gun issue. So instead of only making his remarks at the White House, he also went to Fox News to speak with “Special Report” anchor Bret Baier, where he took matters to a personal level with the chief anchor.
“Are you a father?” he asked Baier, to which the host responded, “Yeah. I have two boys.”
McConaughey concluded, “Me too. Now, I bet you and I can get something done talking about being dads, giving a damn about our kids and their futures. I bet we can come to an agreement on that.”
Amen.
Joe Concha is a media and politics columnist.