McConaughey, a Uvalde native, mentioned he and his spouse, Camila Alves, spent many of the previous week with the households of those that had been killed in his hometown. He confirmed photos of their art work and delivered to the briefing room the inexperienced Converse sneakers that one lady wore daily that had been used to determine her physique after the taking pictures. She had drawn a coronary heart on one of many sneakers.
He mentioned he wanted to inform their tales to point out how motion wanted to be taken to honor the lives of the 19 kids and two lecturers killed at Robb Elementary College final month.
“You already know what each one among these mother and father wished, what they requested us for? What each guardian individually expressed in their very own method to Camila and me? That they need their kids’s goals to dwell on. That they need their kids’s goals to proceed, to perform one thing after they’re gone. They need to make their lack of life matter,” McConaughey mentioned.
He mentioned there was now a “window of alternative” to enact significant gun laws reform and known as for common background checks, elevating the minimal age for buying an AR-15 to 21, a ready interval for buying AR-15s and the implementation of purple flag legal guidelines.
“These are cheap, sensible, tactical rules to our nation, states, communities, faculties and houses. Accountable gun house owners are fed up with the Second Modification being abused and hijacked by some deranged people. These rules will not be a step again — they seem to be a step ahead for a civil society and, and the Second Modification,” McConaughey mentioned in a roughly 20-minute speech from the rostrum.
The Academy Award-winning actor met briefly with President Joe Biden earlier than showing on the podium, White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned.
McConaughey spoke in nice element in regards to the kids and what goals they held earlier than they had been killed — one wished to be a marine biologist, one had been making ready to learn a Bible verse at church the following week, one other wished to go to artwork college in Paris.
“You could possibly really feel the shock within the city. You could possibly really feel the ache, the denial, the disillusion, anger, blame, unhappiness, lack of lives, goals halted,” he mentioned.
McConaughey mentioned, “Because of the exceptionally massive exit wounds of an AR-15 rifle, many of the our bodies so mutilated that solely DNA take a look at or inexperienced converse might determine them. Many kids had been left not solely useless however hole. So, sure, counselors are going to be wanted in Uvalde for a very long time.”
“We obtained to take a sober, humble, and sincere look within the mirror and rebrand ourselves primarily based on what we actually worth. What we actually worth. We obtained to get some actual braveness and honor our immortal obligations as a substitute of our occasion affiliations,” McConaughey mentioned.
He continued, “Sufficient with the counterpunching. Sufficient of the invalidation of the opposite aspect. Let’s come to the frequent desk that represents the American folks. Discover a center floor, the place the place most of us Individuals dwell anyway. Particularly on this situation. As a result of I promise you, America, you and me, we aren’t as divided as we’re being advised we’re.”
McConaughey advised reporters on Capitol Hill on Tuesday he hoped he was making progress in his conferences with lawmakers. He had left a gathering with Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi and was heading to a different assembly with Home Minority Chief Kevin McCarthy.
Whereas the chances of any sweeping reforms stay very steep, lawmakers have expressed optimism {that a} deal for slender and focused invoice might be reached as quickly as the tip of this week. Jean-Pierre mentioned Monday Biden was “inspired” by the Senate negotiations on gun management measures.
CNN’s Phil Mattingly and Kristin Wilson contributed to this report.
