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Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey called for gun “responsibility” but not “control” on Monday in the aftermath of the school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
McConaughey, a Uvalde native, said the country should raise the legal age to purchase a gun from 18 to 21 and implement a national red flag system, along with background checks and a waiting period.
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“I am a father, the son of a kindergarten teacher, and an American. I was also born in Uvalde, Texas,” McConaughey wrote in an article for the Austin American-Statesman. “I believe that responsible, law-abiding Americans have a Second Amendment right, enshrined by our founders, to bear arms. I also believe we have a cultural obligation to take steps toward slowing down the senseless killing of our children.”
McConaughey added the current discussion about gun control has not led to change, and lawmakers should therefore focus on gun responsibility instead of control.
“There is a difference between control and responsibility,” he wrote. “The first is a mandate that can infringe on our right; the second is a duty that will preserve it. There is no constitutional barrier to gun responsibility.”
The red flag system McConaughey recommended included a background check, along with a waiting period to allow law enforcement or family members to file petitions that would block someone’s ability to purchase a gun for a certain period of time. He also said there should be a waiting period because people sometimes purchase guns in a fit of rage and use them to harm others.
McConaughey’s comments come nearly two weeks after a gunman killed 19 children and two adults at a Texas elementary school. The suspected shooter was killed at the scene the day of the shooting.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The shooting came 10 days after a mass shooting at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, left 10 black people dead. The two shootings have prompted the call for Congress to pass stricter gun legislation.
At least 15 people have died, and 60 have been injured in mass shootings over the weekend. The most prominent was a shooting in Philadelphia, where three people were killed and another 11 were injured.
