Matthew McConaughey Calls on Congress to “Reach a Higher Ground” and Pass Gun Reforms

The Oscar-winning actor offered a highly personal speech during Tuesday’s White House press briefing urging a gridlocked Congress to pass gun legislation that can save lives and make schools safer without infringing on Second Amendment rights.

Matthew McConaughey Win McNamee/Getty Images

Academy Award–winning actor Matthew McConaughey took center stage at the White House briefing Tuesday to call on Congress to “reach a higher ground” and pass gun control legislation in honor of the children and teachers killed in last month’s shooting rampage at an elementary school in his home town of Uvalde, Texas.

In a highly personal 22-minute speech, McConaughey offered a full-throated exhortation for a gridlocked Congress to pass gun reforms that can save lives without infringing on Second Amendment rights.

McConaughey used his star power to make an argument for legislation in a fashion that the Biden administration has not been able to, offering a clear connection to the small Texas town and offering vivid detail on the sheer loss of the 19 children and two teachers in the second worst mass school shooting in U.S. history.

“We want secure and safe schools and we want gun laws that won’t make it so easy for the bad guys to get the damn guns,” McConaughey said.

McConaughey, who earlier this year considered a run for governor in Texas before taking a pass, met briefly with President Joe Biden before addressing the White House press corps from the James Brady briefing room.

McConaughey, who declined to take questions, spoke of learning to become a responsible gun owner as a youngster in Uvalde. He said he and his wife drove back to Uvalde on the day after the shooting and spent time with the families of some of the victims and others directly impacted by the rampage.

He said every parent he spoke to expressed that “they want their children’s dreams to live on.”

“They want to make their loss of life matter,” McConaughey said.

He related the personal stories of a number of the victims, displaying the artwork of one girl and the trademark green tennis shoes worn by another.

McConaughey acknowledged that gun legislation would not end mass shootings but suggested that steps can be taken to lessen the chances of such tragedies happening so frequently.

“We need to invest in mental healthcare. We need safer schools. We need to restrain sensationalized media coverage. We need to restore our family values. We need to restore our American values and we need responsible gun ownership,” McConaughey said.

“Is this a cure all? Hell no, but people are hurting.”

Later in the day, McConaughey discussed his speech during an in-studio segment with host Bret Baier on Fox News’ Special Report. In response to Baier asking whether the star still has political ambitions, McConaughey replied, “I am not running for political office. I’m here because, the 24th of May, I got the news that there was a mass shooting in the town that I was born in, Uvalde, Texas.”

The actor stressed the importance of not letting “the extreme right and extreme left” dominate the gun debate. “I think we’re being told we’re more divided than we are,” McConaughey said about his hope that both sides of the political aisle focus on shared concerns. “I’m much more aggressively centrist like that. And I believe that the people I talk to on both sides are much more reasonable about things than we’re being told we are.”

June 7, 4:50 p.m. Updated with McConaughey’s Fox News appearance.