在与乔·拜登总统会面后，奥斯卡奖得主、得克萨斯州乌瓦尔迪人马修·麦康纳在周二的白宫新闻发布会上热情呼吁枪支改革考虑新的立法这周。
麦康纳提到他是一名持枪者，讲述了他上周在家乡与悲痛的家人会面的感人细节。
“共同的线索——独立于愤怒、困惑和悲伤——是一样的。这些家庭如何通过保持这些孩子和老师的梦想继续纪念这些死亡?我们如何让这些生命的损失变得重要?”他开始说。“虽然我们尊重和承认受害者，但我们需要认识到，这一次，似乎有些不同。”
“双方能否超越眼前的政治问题，承认我们面临着一个生命保护问题?”麦康纳继续说，有时强忍泪水。“我们必须冷静、谦逊、诚实地照照镜子，根据我们真正重视的东西重塑我们自己。”
他的妻子卡米拉·阿尔维斯坐在旁边，带来了Robb小学大屠杀受害者之一Maite Rodriguez的亮绿色高帮匡威运动鞋。麦康纳说她穿着它们是因为她热爱大自然，并描述了她是如何想成为一名海洋生物学家的。他谈到这双小鞋——她在右脚趾上画了一颗心——是“唯一能证明她身份的明确证据”
“这些尸体非常不同，”他谈到19名遇难儿童和两名教师时说。“他们需要大规模的修复。为什么?因为AR-15步枪的出膛伤口特别大。大多数尸体残缺不全，只有DNA测试或绿色匡威才能识别他们。”
“许多孩子不仅死了，而且变得空虚，”他补充道。
麦康纳表示，他们前往华盛顿的目的是会见立法者，并“提醒和激励他们，美国人民将继续推进保护我们儿童安全的使命——因为这不仅仅是我们的权利，也是我们的责任。”
在白宫新闻发布会上，他要求他们“找到中间立场”，他说这是“我们大多数美国人生活的地方，尤其是在这个问题上。”
“因为我向你保证，美国——你和我——我们并不像别人告诉我们的那样分裂，”他补充道。
麦康纳周一和周二在国会山会见了数十名议员，他推动改革，包括普遍背景调查，将购买AR-15式武器的最低年龄从18岁提高到21岁，以及建立购买攻击性武器的等待期，这些措施超出了由于共和党的反对而在参议院达成的任何妥协。
“这些对我们的国家、州、社区、学校和家庭来说都是合理的实际战术规定。负责任的枪支拥有者受够了第二修正案被一些精神错乱的人滥用和劫持，”他在白宫补充道。“这些规定不是倒退。它们是公民社会的一大进步，也是第二修正案的一大进步。”
麦康纳还详细讲述了他在乌瓦尔迪的成长经历，他说他在那里“学会了负责任地拥有枪支。”
“这是我妈妈教幼儿园的地方——离罗布小学不到一英里。乌瓦尔迪是我学习掌握雏菊BB枪的地方...花了两年时间，我才毕业到410猎枪，”他补充说。“在乌瓦尔迪，我学会了敬畏我们称之为枪的工具的力量和能力。”
2022年6月7日，演员马修·麦康纳在白宫新闻发布会上与新闻秘书郭佳欣·让-皮埃尔交谈。
埃文·伍奇/美联社
这位好莱坞演员周二连续第二天回到国会山会见立法者，因为全国各地的一系列大规模枪击事件引发了变革的呼声。
“让我们承认，如果我们只是为了连任而活着，我们就不能真正成为领导人，”他在白宫简报会上补充道。
美国广播公司新闻的Lalee Ibssa在麦康纳离开与众议院少数党领袖凯文·麦卡锡的会议时，问他是否希望他的会谈将导致变化，此前麦康纳也在周二早些时候会见了众议院议长南希佩洛西。
“我永远充满希望，”他回答道。
在与得克萨斯州参议员约翰·科宁举行的另一次会议上，参议院枪支改革谈判的首席共和党谈判代表麦康纳(McConaughey)被美国广播公司新闻(ABC News)的特里什·特纳(Trish Turner)问及他对家乡州参议员的信息时，他只说，“这是我和他之间的事。”
伊利诺伊州参议员迪克·德宾。周二，在参议院关于国内恐怖主义的听证会上，纽约布法罗大规模枪击事件中年龄最大的受害者的儿子发了一张他与麦康纳办公室会议的照片。
“我们，像许多其他人一样，同意枪支安全改革是必要的——我将继续努力实现这一目标，”德宾周一晚上写道。
但是，如果没有10名参议院共和党人的支持，他们需要加入参议院民主党人，以克服参议院阻挠议事规则所要求的60票门槛，国会将在没有通过重大枪支改革的情况下进入另一个十年。
就在他的家乡发生大规模枪击事件几天后，麦康纳访问了乌瓦尔迪，并在社交媒体上发布了他的反应，呼吁采取行动。
“这是一场我们可以控制的流行病，无论我们站在过道的哪一边，我们都知道我们可以做得更好，”他在5月25日，即大屠杀的第二天写道。“必须采取行动，让任何父母都不必经历乌瓦尔迪和之前其他人的父母所经历的一切。”
麦康纳还写了一篇论坛版上个月《奥斯汀-美国政治家》的标题是，“是时候对枪支责任采取行动了。”
他撰文支持普遍的背景调查，将购买突击步枪的年龄从18岁提高到21岁，实施更多的红旗法律，并建立突击步枪的全国等待期——所有这些都是他在白宫新闻发布会上呼吁的。
去年，这位演员变成了政治活动家，曾考虑竞选德克萨斯州州长，但在11月宣布，“政治领导”是“我目前选择不走的道路。”
Matthew McConaughey meets Biden, makes passionate plea for gun reform at White House press briefing
After meeting with President Joe Biden, Academy Award-winning actor Matthew McConaughey, a native of Uvalde, Texas, made a passionate plea for gun reform at Tuesday's White House press briefing, as Congressconsiders new legislationthis week.
McConaughey, noting he was a gun owner, gave moving details of his meetings with grieving families last week in his hometown.
"The common thread -- independent of the anger and the confusion and sadness -- it was the same. How can these families continue to honor these deaths by keeping the dreams of these children and teachers alive? How can we make the loss of these lives matter?" he began."While we honor and acknowledge the victims, we need to recognize that this time, seems that something is different."
"Can both sides see beyond the political problem at hand and admit that we have a life preservation problem on our hands?" McConaughey continued, at times fighting back tears. "We're got to take a sober, humble, and honest look in the mirror and rebrand ourselves based on what we truly value."
His wife, Camila Alves, sitting nearby, brought bright green high-top Converse sneakers from one of the victims in the massacre at Robb Elementary school, Maite Rodriguez. McConaughey said she wore them because of her love of nature and described how she wanted to become a marine biologist. He spoke of how the small shoes -- with a heart she'd drawn on the right toe -- were the "only clear evidence that could identify her."
"These bodies were very different," he said of the 19 children and two teachers killed. "They needed extensive restoration. Why? Due to the exceptionally large exit wounds of an AR-15 rifle. Most of the bodies were so mutilated that only DNA tests or green Converse could identify them."
"Many children were left not only dead -- but hollow," he added.
McConaughey said the purpose of their trip to Washington was to meet with lawmakers and "remind and inspire them that the American people will continue to drive forward the mission of keeping our children safe -- because it's more than our right to do so, it's our responsibility to do so."
From the White House press podium, he asked for them to "find a middle ground," which he said is "the place where most of us Americans live anyway, especially on this issue."
"Because I promise you, America -- you and me -- we are not as divided as we are being told we are," he added.
McConaughey met with scores of lawmakers on Capitol Hill Monday and Tuesday as he pushes for reform -- including universal background checks, raising the minimum age to buy an AR-15-style weapon from 18 to 21, and instituting a waiting period to buy assault weapons -- measures beyond what would appear in any Senate compromise due to Republican opposition.
"These are reasonable practical tactical regulations to our nation, states, community, schools, and homes. Responsible gun owners are fed up with the Second Amendment being abused and hijacked by some deranged individuals," he added at the White House. "These regulations are not a step back. They're a step forward for a civil society and -- and the Second Amendment."
McConaughey also spoke at length about growing up in Uvalde, where he said he "learned responsible gun ownership."
"It's where my mom taught kindergarten -- less than a mile from Robb Elementary. Uvalde is where I learned to master a Daisy BB gun... took two years before I graduated to a 410 shotgun," he added. "Uvalde is where I was taught to revere the power and the capability of the tool that we call a gun."
The Hollywood actor returned to Capitol Hill Tuesday for the second day in a row to meet with lawmakers as a spate of mass shootings across the country have sparked cries for change.
"Let's admit it, we can't truly be leaders if we're only living to reelection," he added at the White House briefing.
ABC News' Lalee Ibssa asked McConaughey as he was leaving a meeting with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy if he's hopeful his talks will lead to change, after McConaughey had also met earlier Tuesday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
"I'm endlessly hopeful," he replied.
Emerging from another meeting with Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the lead Republican negotiator on the gun reform talks in the Senate, McConaughey, when asked by ABC News' Trish Turner what his message was for his home state senator, only said, "That's gonna be between me and him right now."
Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., who was hearing from the son of the oldest victim in the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, at a Senate hearing on domestic terrorism Tuesday, tweeted a photo of his office meeting with McConaughey.
"We, like so many others, agree that gun safety reform is needed -- I'll keep working to make that happen," Durbin wrote Monday evening.
But without the support of 10 Senate Republicans, needed to join Senate Democrats to overcome the 60-vote threshold required by the Senate filibuster rule, Congress will enter another decade without having passed a major gun reform.
Just days after the mass shooting in his hometown, McConaughey visited Uvalde and posted his reaction on social media, calling for action.
"This is an epidemic we can control, and whichever side of the aisle we may stand on, we all know we can do better," he wrote on May 25, one day after the massacre. "Action must be taken so that no parent has to experience what the parents in Uvalde and the others before have endured."
McConaughey also penned anop-edin the Austin-American Statesman last month with the headline, "It's time to act on gun responsibility."
He wrote in support of universal background checks, raising the age to buy assault rifles from 18 to 21, implementing more red flags laws and instituting a national waiting period for assault rifles -- all of which he also called for from the White House press podium.
Last year, the actor turned political activist flirted with a run for governor of Texas, but announced in November that "political leadership" was a "path that I'm choosing not to take at this moment."
