Texas school shooting: Matthew McConaughey responds to hometown tragedy
McConaughey has addressed the tragic shooting which took place in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas, where a lone gunman killed at least 19 students and two adults at Robb Elementary school, at the time of writing.
Eighteen-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos, a student at the Uvalde High School, carried out the mass shooting alone before being shot dead by law enforcement on Tuesday 24 May, officials said.
In his statement, McConaughey said that Americans needed to find “common ground” in “an epidemic we can control”. “As you are all aware, there was another mass shooting today, this time in my hometown,” the 52-year-old actor, who spent most of his childhood in Uvalde, Texas, said.
He highlighted how important it is for “every American to take a longer and deeper look in the mirror, and ask ourselves, ‘What is it that we truly value? How do we repair the problem? What small sacrifices can we individually take today, to preserve a healthier and safer nation, state and neighbourhood tomorrow?”
“We have to rearrange our values and find common ground above this devastating American reality that has tragically become our children’s issue,” 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. We must 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 is one of a number of celebrities who have spoken out over the shooting. Taylor Swift ended her Twitter hiatus to share a video of grief stricken Golden State Warriors coach discussing the incident at an NBA press conference.
US president Joe Biden addressed the nation following the shooting saying “I am sick and tired of it. We have to act. And don’t tell me we can’t have an impact on this carnage.”
