Matthew McConaughey spoke out after the horrific shooting in his hometown

Matthew McConaughey, who was born in Uvalde, Texas, spoke out on Tuesday night about the horrific mass shooting in his hometown. “Once again, we have tragically proven that we are failing to be responsible for the rights our freedoms grant us,” he began in a statement posted on Twitter. “We can not exhale once again, make excuses, and accept this tragic reality as the status quo,” he continued.

He implored, “As Americans, Texans, mothers and fathers, it’s time we re-evaluate, and renegotiate our wants from our needs. We have to rearrange our values and find a common ground above this devastating American reality that has tragically become our children’s issue.” Speaking to how politicized the issue has become he wrote, “This is an epidemic we can control, and whichever side of the aisle we may stand on, we all know we can do better. Action must be taken so that no parent has to experience what the parents in Uvalde and the others before them have endured.”

McConaughey did not explicitly call for gun control reform, however the actor participated in a March for Our Lives rally in Austin in the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 that left 17 dead. At the time he gave an impassioned speech in which he appealed to gun owners, saying, “I’m not here to talk about politics. I’m not a politician. Now like many of you from the south and many of us here in Austin, Texas, and all around our great state, we grew up hunting. We killed a deer, eaten venison, we proudly mounted the horns on our walls. But I want to be clear that today’s march is not about taking away the rights of the law-abiding American citizens to buy, own, and bear arms. Let’s be clear about that.”

He went on though to discuss common sense gun regulations, “One, let’s ban the assault weapons for civilians. This is a no-brainer. And to my friends out there that are responsible owners of these recreational assault weapons that they use for recreation, please let’s just take one for the team here and set it down. That issue saves lives.” He continued, “Number two, let’s restrict the capacity of the magazines. Look here: in the state of Texas, we have a three shell limit to hunt migratory birds. Do the math. You get my point.” Lastly he added, “The third one...Let’s better regulate the background checks that are already in place and close the loopholes that exist in those background checks.” In true McConaughey fashion he ended with, “Now, those are the three main stipulations and for those three I can say it, you can say it with me: alright, alright, alright.”