Matthew McConaughey reacts to shooting in his hometown of Uvalde: 'We must do better'

Matthew McConaughey is joining a chorus of voices calling for action after a school shooting that hit close to home for the actor.

The Oscar winner is from Uvalde, Texas, where at least 19 children and two adults were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday. McConaughey said the massacre proved "we are failing to be responsible for the rights our freedoms grant us," and he wrote that the United States "cannot exhale once again, make excuses, and accept these tragic realities as the status quo."

The actor, who weighed a run for governor of Texas last year, described gun violence as an "epidemic we can control," adding, "Action must be taken so that no parent has to experience what the parents in Uvalde and the others before them have endured."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Steve Kerr, head coach of the Golden State Warriors, also delivered an impassioned speech Tuesday emotionally pleading for the U.S. to "do something" and slamming senators who won't support a background check bill.

"I ask all of you senators who refuse to do anything about the violence and school shootings and supermarket shootings, I ask you, are you going to put your own desire of power ahead of the lives of our children and our elderly and our churchgoers?" he said. "Because that's what it looks like."

This sentiment was endorsed by Taylor Swift, who tweeted that she's "filled with rage and grief" and that Kerr's "words ring so true and cut so deep."