Actor Matthew McConaughey Says Gun Rights Fight Needs Reframing

Matthew McConaughey speaks onstage during the 2022 Sandy Hook Promise Benefit at The Ziegfeld Ballroom in New York on Dec. 6, 2022. Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images

A little more than a year after the Robb Elementary School shooting in Uvalde, Texas, actor Matthew McConaughey is continuing his efforts to nail down gun violence solutions by asking those on both sides of the aisle to change the way gun policy laws are framed.

“Quit patronizing. There’s a whole lot of Americans that need you to at least meet them where they are and what they’re understanding and how they’ve grown up on this issue with guns in their lives, and how they, most of them, do handle them responsibly. So don’t cast them down as being archaic or cavemen,” Mr. McConaughey said during an interview on ABC News’ “This Week” with Jonathan Karl, which aired on July 30.

Mr. Karl had specifically asked Mr. McConaughey about advice he might give, particularly to Democrats on the issue.

‘Gun Responsibility’ Instead of ‘Gun Control’

Mr. McConaughey, a Uvalde native who became more vocal in advocating for change after the school shooting in his hometown, said he thinks gun control activists should use the term “gun responsibility” instead of “gun control” in order to win support from Second Amendment advocates.

“Well, one of the things—it was one word. I went in there and flipped, seemed to get those hard Second Amendment defenders’ ears to at least listen, and that was—I changed the word from ‘control’ to ‘responsibility,’” said Mr. McConaughey.

On May 24, 2022, 18-year-old gunman (and former student of the school) Salvador Ramos fatally shot 19 students and two teachers while injuring 17 others.

Mr. McConaughey announced his new Green Lights Grant Initiative, which he founded with his wife, Camilla, to help schools follow through and access federal grant money for safety and security.

He said that despite Congress passing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA) last year—which approved funding for mental health services and school security in response to the Uvalde shooting—the money has not gone out to the schools. To date, only 12 schools in the area have applied for funding, but none have received it.

“It’s the first time it’s happened, bi-partisans, come together. It’s there. And it’s already working in some ways. But there’s billions of dollars that are still left to be spent,” he explained.

The frustration led the actor and his wife to do their research on what was going on in schools across the country.

“Congressman Gonzales comes to me about three months after Uvalde and says, ‘Matthew, Camilla, 119 schools, 100—and 12 applications, zero awards.’ ... What are we doing? That math does not add [up]—that’s a zero success rate. One, way too few—few applications. Number two, the 12 applications, we went 0 for 12?” said McConaughey. “The government admits that it shouldn’t be this complicated.”

Green Lights Grant Initiative 

“We know such a problem all over—all over America. You got 14,000-something schools. This grant initiative is going to connect those districts to those billions of dollars that’s there, available, and wants to be used to make our kids safe,” he explained.

It’s not the first time the “Dallas Buyers Club” actor has spoken up about gun rights.

At a 2018 rally for the anti-gun March For Our Lives group in Austin, Texas, Mr. McConaughey said that law-abiding gun owners needed to “take one for the team” and give up some of their gun rights, including the ability to own semi-automatic long guns and magazines that can carry certain amounts of ammunition, according to a Daily Wire story.

During this recent interview, Mr. McConaughey said that more gun control had not been implemented after tragedies because of the general divisive rhetoric surrounding it. Polarization can be a powerful force, Mr. McConaughey acknowledged, but so can compromise.

“Well, control sounds like a mandate, and nobody wants a mandate. No one wants to be controlled. But responsibility is still something that we can all go, yeah, I'll take responsibility, and a lot of the far right or the Republicans, they almost feel like responsibility is a value that they have ownership of, and it’s a sense of —a sense of almost pride and honor to be responsible,” said Mr. McConaughey.

“So when the narrative got changed and the questions, and started calling gun responsibility, a lot more conversation that I even noticed in the few days that we were there, were able to be had from both sides because the Second Amendment defenders could talk responsibility. I could look [at] you now and talk responsibility with someone from the other side of the aisle.”