McConaughey on Texas school shooting: We need gun laws that make it harder for the ‘bad guys’

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Uvalde native Matthew McConaughey met with President Biden and different lawmakers in Washington Tuesday urging them “to talk with one another” and make legislative modifications following the Texas faculty capturing that left 19 college students and two academics lifeless.

McConaughey met with the households of most of the victims of the capturing, he stated. The favored actor shared a few of their tales throughout a information briefing Tuesday together with the story of 1 younger sufferer who wore inexperienced high-top converse with a coronary heart drawn on the toe to remind herself how a lot she beloved nature.

“These are the identical inexperienced converse on her toes that turned out to be the one clear proof to establish her after the capturing,” McConaughey stated. He smacked the rostrum together with his fist earlier than persevering with. “How about that?”

McConaughey stated by means of his conversations with individuals in Uvalde — together with accountable gun house owners, border patrol and households of the victims — it’s clear that folks overwhelmingly are calling for “safe and protected colleges” together with “gun legal guidelines that received’t make it really easy for the dangerous guys to get these rattling weapons.” 

He listed the next as options he needs lawmakers, together with the president, to contemplate:

• Investing in psychological well being care
• Making colleges safer
• Restraining sensationalized media protection of mass shootings
• Restoring household and American values
• Background checks
• Elevating the age to purchase a rifle to 21
• Implementing a ready interval
• Passing ‘purple flag’ legal guidelines and penalties for individuals who abuse them

“Accountable gun house owners are fed up with the Second Modification being abused and hijacked by some deranged people,” he stated.

Texas doesn’t at the moment have a purple flag legislation, which typically permits legislation enforcement or household to petition a decide to take away somebody’s weapons for a time frame if that individual is deemed to be a hazard to themselves or others.

Beneath Texas legislation, you solely must be 18 to purchase a rifle and 21 to purchase a handgun. You may learn extra about Texas gun legal guidelines right here.

“We begin by making the precise selections on the difficulty that’s in entrance of us as we speak. We begin by making legal guidelines that save harmless lives and don’t infringe on our Second Modification rights.”