Matthew McConaughey has called on society to "build better people".
Matthew McConaughey wants people to be better
The 'Dazed and Confused' actor campaigned to change gun legislation following a school shooting in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas, earlier this year and though he welcomed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act introduced by President Joe Biden in the summer, he thinks people need to change in order for everyone to live more safely.
He wrote in a lengthy piece for America's Esquire magazine: "If we want safer communities, more freedom, and better leaders, we’re gonna have to build better people. As parents, parental figures, role models and mentors, it’s on us to guide our children – to be more active in their lives – to show them we care, show them how to care for themselves and hence how to care for others: to teach them responsibility.
"From what I can tell, when a child has a healthy understanding that their own life matters, they have a healthier understanding that other lives matter as well."
Matthew and his wife Camila Alves - with whom he has three children - met with "dozens" of lawmakers in the aftermath of the tragedy and he is concerned politicians have "lost sight" of their "values and vision" and called on them to "meet in the middle" when it comes to complex issues.
He wrote: "It seems that each party is so harmfully consumed by despising the opposition that they’ve become little more than counterpunches – so focused on the parry and the party defense that they’ve become reactive by default.
"They’ve lost sight of their own values and vision, thereby ceding their power to the fringes. That’s a problem.
"Because most Americans, myself included, don’t stand on the political fringes. We are reasonable and responsible, and we share more values than we’re being told we do – and we believe that meeting each other in the middle is in service of the greater good. We have the majority. We have the numbers."
The 52-year-old actor - who advocates for "gun responsibility" - admitted mass shootings in the US have left him "sickened" but the 19 kids and two teachers who lost their lives in Uvalde felt "more personal" to him.
He said: "I’m sickened by the spate of mass shootings in America – especially those at schools, which are supposed to be some of the safest of spaces for our children and the closest extensions of our own homes.
"But this time felt different, more personal.
"Now, for the first time, my innocent childhood memories of Uvalde felt naive – more like dreams than memories, slightly hazy and suddenly overly sacred. Times like these make us all feel a bit more foolish.
"We hug our kids a little longer, knowing their innocence won’t last as long as ours did, hoping their children won’t know the same."
Tagged in Matthew McConaughey Camila Alves Joe Biden