Actor Matthew McConaughey holds a picture made by Alithia Ramirez, 10, who was killed in the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, as he speaks during a press briefing at the White House, Tuesday, June 7, 2022, in Washington. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
Previous Post
Next Post

By Lee Williams

The Biden-Harris administration has more than 70 staffers working on its social media and external communications, yet they have proven completely incapable of delivering a single message that the American people will believe and support. That’s apparently why they turned to Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey to sell their gun control package to the American people.

The vaunted White House press briefing room, where news of wars declared and wars ended has first been broken to the American people, was the setting Tuesday afternoon for what may be one of McConaughey’s most memorable performances.

Wearing an open-collar white shirt and bespoke black blazer, McConaughey, 52, told the American people of the need for “responsible gun ownership,” which he said includes expanded background checks and much more – all taken from Joe Biden’s gun-control plan.

“We need to raise the minimum age to purchase an AR-15 rifle to 21. We need a waiting period for those rifles. We need red flag laws and consequences for those who abuse them,” McConaughey told the White House press corps, who sat completely silent which the actor read from a script.

Matthew McConaughey, a native of Uvalde, Texas, talks about the mass shooting in Uvalde, as he joins White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre for the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Tuesday, June 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

McConaughey, who is from Uvalde, Texas – the scene of the most recent mass murder that claimed the lives of 19 children and two heroic teachers – said he immediately drove to his hometown with his family once he learned of the carnage. He met with victims’ families, consoled them during their grief and promised he would make sure their loved ones did not die in vain.

“We are in a window of opportunity right now that we have not been in before. A window where it seems like real change, real change can happen,” he said.

McConaughey’s flawless delivery of prepared remarks wooed even the allegedly conservative FOX News, which described his call for additional firearm restrictions as an “emotional plea,” and a “smart move by the White House.”

Takeaways

At a 2018 March for Our Lives event, McConaughey called for a complete ban of modern sporting rifles, which he called “assault weapons.” He has been very vocal in his calls for additional gun control and is a powerful anti-gun advocate. So, the news actors at FOX aren’t the only ones who believe it was a “smart move by the White House” to bring in a fresh – in this case a well-tanned – face to help sell gun control to the skeptical American people.

Certainly, neither Biden nor his latest press secretary are up to the task. Biden struggles to read from a teleprompter without a gaffe, and Karine Jean-Pierre can’t answer a single question without reciting it from a voluminous briefing book.

During McConaughey’s presentation, it became clear the White House could not have picked a better messenger. However, it is a message that hasn’t changed. While there is little doubt of McConaughey’s sincerity, his calls for expanded background checks, infringing on the Second Amendment rights of 18-20-year-olds, waiting periods and national red flag laws might as well have been delivered by Biden himself. He has been advocating for these unpopular for decades.

It’s clear that the Biden-Harris administration is using the Uvalde mass murder as a cudgel for even more Second Amendment limits. After all, that’s what they do. But the unprecedented use of an award-winning actor shows how desperate they have become, and how little the public is buying what they’re selling. The polls show no one trusts them, and even fewer think they’re doing a credible job.

As he finished his remarks, McConaughey quickly turned and began to walk off the stage – exactly as we have seen Biden do time and time again. An unknown member of the White House press corps shouted one question at him: “Were you grandstanding up there, sir?”

I really wish McConaughey would have answered the question.

 

The Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project wouldn’t be possible without you. Click here to make a tax deductible donation to support pro-gun stories like this.

This story is part of the Second Amendment Foundation’s Investigative Journalism Project and is published here with their permission.

Previous Post
Next Post

74 COMMENTS

  1. The GOP is prepared to pass gun control. They know their pathetic voters have no choice. They’ll style it a “compromise” by which you get nothing in return.

    • The white house turns to a POTHEAD. FIFY. Now he wants “responsible gun owners” to be good. 4 years ago druggie boy wanted an AR ban…

      • Thanks for pointing that out. The drug legalization crowd has always supported gun control. They are utopians. They believe if you make drugs legal then all the crime will just go away. And to them there will be no need for anyone to have guns.

        • It’s funny how they don’t apply that same logic to legalizing all firearms. Drug overdose deaths vs firearms used to murder: compare and contrast.

    • McConaughey who is a good actor, one of my favorite movies is The Lincoln Lawyer where his character uses a firearm obtained from the streets to save his life after the mother of his client shoots him.

      Nonetheless he jumped in bed with democRat Gun Control zealots whose racist and genocide based Gun Control agenda does nothing but supply murderous criminals with soft targets.

      Obviously the school in question was no way prepared for such an attack. That is because the people running the show were asleep at the wheel and refused advice from people who know the nature of insane criminals.

      McConaughey joins the very people who set up those kids for targets and points his fingers of blame and responsibilty at the NRA, guns and gun owners. He regurgitated the same crap used by knee jerk people who run around using preventable tragedies to advance their Gun Control rot. Rot that history confirms is rooted in racism and genocide.

      Cut the crap McConaughey…You can do better than talking on the behalf of Gun Control. So shame on you…using the History confirmed agenda of racists and nazis to solve a problem attributed soley to insane criminals.

  2. I’ll believe his BS when he stops taking any acting roles that have a firearm anywhere in them. Until then, he should do what he’s paid to do. DANCE MONKEY! DANCE!

    • “I’m here today…to try to turn this moment into a reality,” Matthew McConaughey says as he calls for gun control.

      >>>>>”We are in a window of opportunity right now…a window where it seems like real change can happen.”<<<<<<<

      "4) We need to institute a national waiting period for assault rifles. Individuals often purchase weapons in a fit of rage harming themselves or others…"

      Therefore, things we do while still angry may not make the best policy. Cooler heads should prevail.

      And Matthew McConaughey agrees and says not to act on your first "rage-full" emotion….. UNLESS it's a power grab to remove sacred Civil Rights.

      Then it's Titanic Time and full steam ahead.

  3. I am not sure Joe has all his marbels. Needs more than a actor to sell his BS. It appears Joe is not in controll. I believe he is a puppet on a very thin string. We are paying him and his staff for doing nothing. But then again, gas, prices, boarder issues and cost of living seem to be going well for him. Next he will be making the military a green machine.

    • Bite your tongue! He’s the most popular president in history. Just look at the number of votes. He’s more popular than Obama and Hillary. He’s governing exactly how he said he would govern. Everyone is getting what they wanted, so why would so many people be unhappy?

    • “I am not sure Joe has all his marbels“

      What’s a “marbel”?

      “Joe is not in controll“

      Joe is in Washington, where is this “controll” you speak of of?

      “boarder issues“

      Are you having trouble with someone who lives at your house?

      • MINOR Miner49er. Give it a rest. Sleepy Joe is a sandwich short of a picnic. A French Fry short of a Happy Meal. Sleepy makes more gaffs in a day than you have fingers and toes. So he used the wrong word. You knew damn well what he meant. You Leftists want more illegals coming in and you want to eventually give them the vote.

  4. The real fault lies with every member of the public who views these overpaid carnies – the least intelligent, least thoughtful, least knowledgeable or educated segment of the population, and frankly the degenerate scum of the Earth – as role models or opinion leaders. Every rational era of history viewed them as con men, slaves, or prostitutes.

    • Yeah sure, but do we want rational?

      “We are in a window of opportunity right now that we have not been in before.”

      That window is called emotion. There’s nothing rational about pushing through legislation through in the wake of an emotional tragedy. If people stop to think about it, they may not go through with it.

      • If people stop to think about it, they may not go through with it.

        This applies to much of what high school and college girls do at parties as well.

        There’s a reason every frat has a drink they call the “mind eraser” and that this drink is always sweet.

        • strych9,

          Oh, trust me, having been a “high school and college” guy, we did PLENTY that, HAD we stopped to think about it, wouldn’t have gone through with it. But your point is well taken. I did own a T-shirt, for years, that said “Alcohol. Helping ugly people get laid for over 5,000 years.” And that message was absolutely true then, and it’s true now.

  5. Regarding the green Converse sneakers. According the Mathew and the NYpost stated that the girl wore those green Converse every day. Yet, they look brand new, out-of-the-boxand unused without a trace of blood or other evidence. Did anyone else catch this ?

    • Yeah, pretty despicable. Yet how fitting that this pandering clown circus of an administration chooses to draft an empty headed, virtue signalling idiot whose entire career consists of playing make believe and dress up to play to their base. I’ve never thought he was ok. Hell, I can’t even watch movies anymore, not for years now, because of people like him.

  6. Go get an education about the subject matter McBlowhard. Another former A-List actor looking for relevance and using their platform to put on an audition while supporting their pet leftist agenda. We live in a new and violent time. Schools, hospitals, elderly facilities all need to harden their security posture. Violent terrorists committed numerous hijackings and killings and it encouraged other groups to exploit the lack of security to prey on innocent folks. The world responded and hardened their posture. It’s inconvenient, but almost totally stopped this activity. How about applying this approach to these other soft targets? Especially if they REALLY care about children…which is highly doubted given their support of murdering them in the womb.

  7. lol. These people.
    At least they didn’t get that social media influencer creature with the man purse and six inch long finger nails.

    I’d ask who their target audience is but we all know: druggies, groomers, mental patients and degenerates.

  8. Sometimes timing really is everything. Casey called me this morning. He told me something I wasn’t aware of. A couple of years ago Casey and I and friends were shooting quail on Southwind Plantation. I remember it well. A large time was had by all. Anyway, according to Casey, a couple of weeks later McConaughey and friends arrived to shoot quail. One of the party shot the windshield out of one of the plantation jeeps. The staff heard McConaughey and his friends laughing about it later that evening. Yeah, that’s who I want to take firearms advice from. Before anyone asks, this is very accurate information.

    • Ok, good. I was hoping for accurate information, but since it’s very accurate…

    • How is it “career suicide” to join the essentially unanimous chorus of Hollywood leftism? That makes no more sense than people who praise the “courage” of leftist-activist celebrities, ignoring the fact that everyone they’ll ever work with or for (possibly everyone they’ll ever meet) agrees with them.

  9. The word hypocrite ultimately came into English from the Greek word hypokrites, which means “an actor” or “a stage player.” The Greek word itself is a compound noun: it’s made up of two Greek words that literally translate as “an interpreter from underneath.”

    In ancient Greece it was more respectable to be seen amongst whores then in the company of ‘actors’. 🤔

    Everything old is new again. 😄

    Matt M is a monkey, just dance to entertain others. That’s your lane. Know it, learn it, live it.

  10. In 2018 this guy was all in for AR bans and told gun owners they just needed to “take a hit for the team.” So that gives you an idea about how far he can be trusted with what he says today.

    How about this solution: we innocent gun owners don’t give up a damn thing but criminals do! Stop scapegoating people who aren’t the problem and put the blame on those who do.

    Ultimately, this has nothing to do with stopping “gun violence.” We are engaged in an all out war centered on culture and control. Very powerful forces are doing their damndest to consolidate all power in a very few hands. It’s a war between those who believe in individual rights and liberties, and those who believe in collective rights and highly centralized government.

    FJB

  11. Well, at least they got a chick flick and drama actor instead of Robert DeNiro, or another very violent movie actor…The republicans need to ask why the Hollywood elites Roll around in billions of profits, from what they deem “WEAPONS OF WAR”…AND MUCH MORE BLOODY VIOLENT MOVIES ON DECK TO COME…In these movies, they make it so stylish and cool to horribly murder people with fully and semi automatic weaponry (the most people can”t even possess), without any repercussions of LAW…The characters can murder 20, with a crafty punchline after doing it, Then live happily ever after…The movies glorify gang culture and street murders, too…Even the Police characters, in these movies, shoot a bus load people, blow up half the city and get promoted to Captain or Chief….The sad part is the young generation not only idolizes it, but believes it, too…

    • He is a CLUELESS good actor. He should stick to what he is “good” at.

      • “Whoosh” just doesn’t seem adequate here, wally. Well done. Perhaps you should “edificate” him yet another time with your profound grasp of your very own native tongue and all its blatant subtleties. But I guess a mere six years as a cop ain’t quite enough to learn all the linguistic twists and turns one should know at your age. Shame you didn’t spend longer at it, say, maybe… ten years?

        • Hey, TTAG, care to explain exactly why that went in to Moderation Camp? Here’s a thought: if you can’t explain exactly whatever good reason you have for it, then STOP FUCKING DOING IT FOR FUCKS SAKE. I mean honestly, what the fuck?

  12. I do like his movies. And like his fellow actor Rosie O’Donnell. He will always be surrounded by strong masculine men carrying guns.

  13. So… police chief of the school district said back off and let the creep shoot people… and then the situation is eventually resolved by somebody acting against orders… and then we find out the chief in charge was supporting BETO and Beto’s gun grab… and then the local cops quit cooperating with the DPS investigation… and now we have a professional actor who is doing the anti second amendment PR… how convenient.

    Gee, what an amazing coincidence.

    • And it this point I strongly suspect the event itself was very likely “Brought to us by Pfizer”… and a few close friends.

  14. Why would they bother with an actor when they have the most popular elected official in the history of the world? How often does an incumbent president get more votes for reelection and lose? I believe the answer is zero. Incumbents only lose when they get fewer votes for reelection. Obama actually got fewer votes and still won reelection! The Puppet defied those odds! We have bellwether states and counties that have accurately predicted the president for decades. Guess what? The Puppet defied those odds as well! He is a once in a lifetime phenomenon! So why aren’t they utilizing the greatest asset in the history of Democrats?

  15. Perhaps Matthews next movie should be about a violent mentally ill man. Whose family members are trying to get him help. But the bureaucracy and the legal system, refuse they’re desperate pleas to help their family member.

  16. GUN PORN: How the greed monger Gun Industry appealed to children with adds depicting assault rifles.

    “What you are seeing is the industry, in marketing these to kids, is priming youth for the day they turn 18 and go out and buy their first assault rifle,” said Josh Sugarmann, executive director of the gun-control group Violence Policy Center, which looked at the gun industry’s marketing to youth and children in a 2016 report called “Start Them Young.”

    Makers of semi-automatic weapons tend to use three strategies to appeal to younger consumers, Sugarmann said. First, some ads depict the gun owner as a hero on a mission, while a second approach is to align their weapons with those used by the military or law enforcement. Lastly, gun owners may be portrayed as fighting against some unseen force, like government control.

    “You have children who are exposed to this,” he said. “There is no one controlling the websites, unlike tobacco or alcohol where you have to say you are 21” to access the site.

    While gun culture in America has historical roots in hunting, that activity has dwindled since the late 1970s, according to the Violence Policy Center. In 1977, about 32% of households included an adult hunter, but that figure had fallen to 15% by 2014, it found. Today, about 4% of the U.S. population hunts, and one-third of hunters are baby boomers, according to research from North Carolina State University.

    But gun purchases haven’t declined. Instead, sales have surged in recent years, partly as gunmakers emphasized a new reason for gun ownership: self defense.

    “They created this myth specifically because they needed a ploy to increase sales in the light of a declining market for hunting and recreational firearms,” Siegel said. “It was brilliant and it worked extremely effectively.”

    He added, “Today, the majority of gun owners state that the primary purpose of their buying a gun was for self-defense.

    • dacian, the Dunderhead, what part of an AR-15 is NOT an “assault rifle, don’t you understand? It is an semi-automatic rifle. It can’t fire a “three round burst”; it can’t fire full auto. Is there something you are again missing here?

      • AR15s need to be banned, immediately, or you hate children, want them to die, and are a racist.

  17. When your argument lacks sources, logic or rational thought, tug as hard as you can at those heart-strings because who cares about statistical facts with sound sources (soundness is just as important as validity, if not more so) when you can virtue signal on a purely emotional basis.

    More people were killed as a result of falls in 2020 (42,114), ref #1, than ALL MURDERS FROM RIFLES in the year prior (364), ref #2, by a factor of 115 (that’s 11,400% more people being killed by the natural force of gravity we have zero control over than by rifles).

    (1)
    https://www.statista.com/statistics/527298/deaths-due-to-falls-in-the-us/

    (2)
    https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/topic-pages/tables/expanded-homicide-data-table-11.xls

  18. This dude is about as “native” to Uvalde as Bezos and Gates are “native” to their birthplace. I grew up in SD, CA – and I went back for a year around 2016… Literally doesn’t mean shit because I recognized nothing, nobody is the same, and the place I grew up had changed so much that claiming to know it would be like growing up there 20 years later is fucking stupid. These anti gunners are trying so hard.

  19. I normally try to avoid knowing what people’s political ideologies are; but when they push it in my face, I pay attention.

    If he wants to use his acting expertise to push a political agenda which 2/3 of the country despises, I will abide by his implied political favoritism and no longer watch his movies. Your career depends on public adoration, and so let it be washed up.

  20. Let’s just tie all of the gun control proposals to voting rights. 21 to buy an AR, 21 to vote. Mental health competency. Red flag. All of it.
    Let’s go a step further. Tie abortion to it…21 for that, as well. Mental health evaluation, etc.
    Signing contracts like a 6 year enlistment I signed at 17. No one under 21 in the military.
    If full frontal lobe development keeps you from buying a semi-auto MSR, it should certainly keep you from other things.

    • Hormone blockers and gender reassignment surgery too. 21 years old.
      If your mind is not developed enough to own a firearm, it’s not developed enough to question your birth gender. 👍

  21. “We are in a window of opportunity right now that we have not been in before.”

    Translated: Never let a good crisis go to waste.

  22. The truth of the matter is that as mass shootings escalate it becomes harder and harder to not pass any gun control.

    In my view this is the gun control that needs to be passed:

    Raise the age to purchase any firearm, Alcohol, tobacco/nicotine, and join the military to 25.

    Then have a shall issue license that starts a hierarchy of what gun you can get.

    First year you only purchase single shot muzzle or breech loaders.

    second year you can purchase bolt action firearms with a fixed magazine of 10 rounds

    third year you can purchase level action with a fixed magazine of 10 rounds

    fourth year you can purchase pump action firearms with a fixed magazine of 10 rounds

    fifth year you can purchase single and double action revolvers as well as semi-automatics with a fixed magazine of 10 rounds.

    After five more years after the fifth year, so a grand total of 10 years, you are allowed to purchase semi-automatics with detachable magazines in any capacity.

    You can only sell your firearms in a private trade that has the correct license, so if you have a semi-automatic with a detachable magazine you can only sell to others who have that license. You have to keep a copy of a bill of sale for any firearms you sell in a private sale.

    If you do the above it will dramatically cut down on straw buyers, gun runners, mass shooters like the ones in Texas and New York, of professionally made firearms.

    The above laws wouldn’t ban any weapons types or magazine capacities, it would just increase the length of time in which you would get legal access to them.

    • And what of the tens of millions of sub twenty five year olds that aren’t progressive liberal idiots? Your handle suits you well.

      • Rider/Shooter – The policies that I’m proposing are not based on political identity.

        • Yeah, they kinda are, being based on an assumption that there are no “inherent rights” that all humans have. Of course, if you want to parse Clintonisms (“It depends on what the definition of ‘is’ is”), and believe that your PROJECTED outcomes will justify the means employed to achieve them (both of which make you a Leftist/fascist), you can probably sell yourself on all manners of bullshit.

          For those of us who believe in the existence and sanctity of inherent human rights, AND require some proof? Not so much. But, nice try.

        • LampOfDiogenes – No, they are not based on any assumptions that there are no “inherent rights”, the fact that the licenses would be shall issue shows that it is based on the fact that you have an inherent right.

          By your definition of Leftist/fascist that would make all laws passed, including GOP backed laws, in the history of the USA to be Leftist/fascist.

          Freedom of religion is an important inherent human right, correct? Does that mean religions that believe in human sacrifice should be allowed to practice that?

    • Perfect. Truly a movie for the times. Wonder how Arec Bardwin, the World’s Greatest Actor is doing? Badry I hope.

  23. I saw his complete speech this morning on Newsmax. Right after he walked away they showed a picture titled “Also Mc Conaughey” depicting several of the movies he’s recently made where he uses a gun. Just what I need, another Hollywood hypocrite telling me I should disarm myself to please the current administration of gun grabbing liberals.

    No thank you, I’m not buying what you’re selling!

  24. I wonder how the shareholders and patrons of the Wild Turkey brand will feel with “one of their own” pushing an agenda I’m sure that the majority of them do not agree.

  25. I have a couple questions about these recent mass murder shooters no one is answering. first is how do kids working part time minimum wage jobs come up with a couple grand for expensive rifles and a shit pot full of ammo?
    Second is these creatures posted their intentions on social media. No one thought to either call the police, or forward it to any LE agency? . In the Texas case the local cops were shot at while the idiot was still outside the school and ran away instead of engaging and stopping the threat. In the Buffalo case, the shooter had a rifle and body armor. But none of the responding officers thought to grab their own rifles fro their vehicles and stop the fool?
    Not making any claims or accusations here. Just pointing out things in these cases don’t pass the smell test here. Either the cops were extremely incompetent, or something worse is happening.

    • Friends in high places. And “proudly brought to you by Pfizer”. Not one of these killings has ever passed the smell test, but they all certainly do smell of exactly the same thing. What are the odds on that…

    • Well, NTexas it seems that it is you who is traitorous, not Trump. Why do you hate the Constitution so much? Could it be because it frustrates your Leftist agenda?

Comments are closed.