upworthy

gun laws

Pop Culture

Matthew McConaughey avoids being labeled 'anti-gun' during tense moment on 'The View'

"His response is exactly what we need in politics today."

All-Pro Reels from District of Columbia/ Wikipedia

That was not alright, alright , alright

People are applauding the way Matthew McConaughey refused to be reduced down to the partisan label of “anti-gun” during a recent guest appearance on “The View.”

McConaughey had initially been brought on the show to discuss his new children’s book, “Just Because,” but host Sunny Hostin later praised the actor for being “so outspoken against violence, and gun violence in particular,” referencing his previous impassioned speech in the aftermath of the Robb Elementary School shooting.

Hostin then asked McConaughey if he had given any more thought to holding a political office. Previously in 2021 the actor publicly announced considering running for governor of the state of Texas, but then decided to focus on his family.

“If it’s where I would deem myself most useful, yes,” he responded. “Right now, I want to be most useful as a father.”

Co-host Joy Behar then followed up with “Do you think you could get elected in Texas being anti-gun?”


Fully processing the question by repeating it to himself, “Do I think I could get elected in Texas being anti-gun?” McConaughey then delivers a tactful response.

“One thing about me and politics,” he said, pointing a finger at Behar, “to give you a direct statement right there, is me playing a game I’m not interested in playing.”

Behar has no choice but to surrender the conversation. “Ok, don’t do it.”

The moment happened towards the tail end of the video. Watch below.

Most of us would probably agree that in general, politicians and their media cohorts focus too much on stirring up controversy and not enough on having solution oriented conversations. So hearing someone actually put their foot down against it was refreshing, to say the least.

Here’s what other viewers had to say:

“The trap was there and he didn't play. Very well done. Matthew is smarter than most people realize. And I highly respect the focus on his children and family... because that's where mine is.”

“His response to Joy is exactly what we need in politics today.”

“Way to go Matthew so much turmoil in our media everyday.”

“I loved the way this man disagreed with Joy, respectfully, staying authentically himself. He's not into being pushed into anything and will speak when he's ready.”

It was such a brief exchange, but really spoke volumes to how systems are put in place to keep up in cycles of animosity. It takes consciousness and will power to not play “the game.” But it might be the very thing we need to create lasting change.

From Your Site Articles
celebrity
Democracy

Powerful PSA uses reverse psychology to drum up support for assault weapons bill

In 90 seconds, it totally nails the absurdity of how we live.

March Fourth/YouTube

A March Fourth PSA shows how our daily lives are impacted by mass shootings.

Those of us who live in the United States have a strange relationship with gun violence, no matter where we fall on the beliefs-about-guns spectrum. We have to. Our mass shootings statistics are too bizarre, too absurd to be real, and yet here we are, constantly living in a combined state of denial, disbelief, disillusionment and despair.

We don't have to live like this, and yet we do. Thanks to a well-funded gun lobby, our incredibly unhealthy ultra-partisan politics and debatable interpretations of the Second Amendment, most meaningful pieces of legislation put forth to curb our gun violence problem don't get passed. Everything but the guns gets blamed for our mass shooting problem, so we keep reliving the same nightmare over and over and over again.

A group of moms lived that nightmare on the Fourth of July, when a gunman opened fire on a parade in Highland Park, Illinois, killing seven and wounding 48. They immediately banded together with a singular purpose—to convince the government to ban assault weapons, which are increasingly becoming the weapon of choice in mass shootings.

They formed March Fourth two days after the parade shooting and organized a march in Washington, D.C., less than a week later. "I just want to go to DC, scream at the top of our lungs that we want these weapons of war banned, and not shut up until they listen," said founder Kitty Brandtner.

Her quote to WGN9 News was even more succinct: "They f**ked with the wrong moms."

Now March Fourth is holding another march at the Capitol on September 22 and they're inviting anyone and everyone to join them. In a powerful PSA promoting the march, Americans describe what they "love" and "enjoy" about living with mass shootings—a bit of reverse psychology that makes the absurdity of our reality painfully clear.

The truth is no one wants to live this way. And we don't have to. We can choose to take action to at least attempt to prevent mass gun violence. The assault weapons ban that was in place from 1994 to 2004 had an impact. One analysis shared in The Conversation estimated that the risk of a person in the U.S. dying in a mass shooting was 70% lower during the ban.

Before someone swoops in with the "How do you define assault weapon?" argument, the current Assault Weapons Ban of 2021 bill that has passed the House and sits before the Senate offers a lengthy definition of the kinds of firearms it includes right up top. Read it here.

See more information about joining March Fourth's September 22 march at the U.S. Capitol at wemarchfourth.org.

From Your Site Articles
gun legislation
Democracy

Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas bestow 'Bronze Cross' on slain fourth grader after Uvalde massacre

Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas/Twitter

Amerie Jo Garza was one of 19 schoolchildren killed by a gunman at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

Fellow Americans, it's long past time to take a good, hard look in the mirror.

The fact that we just had yet another horrific school shooting, with 19 children and two teachers being massacred in their classrooms by a guy with military-style guns that he easily and legally obtained, is maddening. The fact that we've seen this same story play out in schools across the country over and over and over again is enraging. The fact that too many of our lawmakers refuse to take any legislative action whatsoever to try to curb the constant carnage, completely ignoring the vast amounts of data that show gun laws do work to reduce gun violence, is disgusting.

Sandy Hook should have been enough. Parkland should have been enough. Columbine should have been enough. Every single school shooting should have been the end of it. But here we are.

As the individual stories of the children killed at Robb Elementary School come to light, we can't turn away. We must bear witness to what they experienced, to the terror they and their surviving classmates endured, to the anguish and heartbreak of their loved ones.

But as we do that, let's not embrace "brave hero" narratives for these children the way we do with soldiers on the battlefield. Please. Let's just not.

The Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas posted a tribute to Uvalde fourth grader Amerie Jo Garza on Twitter, sharing that the organization had posthumously bestowed upon the slain 10-year-old the Bronze Cross, one of the highest honors in the Girl Scouts, and it was like a punch right in the gut. I'm not sure if I've ever seen anything so well-intentioned feel so dark.

"The Bronze Cross is awarded for saving or attempting to save life at the risk of the Girl Scout’s own life," the tweet thread read. "On May 24, Amerie did all she could to save the lives of her classmates and teachers. It was our honor as Amerie’s council to present the Bronze Cross to her family, and Girl Scouts will continue to pay tribute at her funeral services today with a Presentation of Colors."

"We will carry her story with us always and ensure her brave actions will endure for generations," they wrote.

I'm sorry, what fresh hell dystopian reality did I just fall into? As a parent, I cannot even begin to fathom how I would process being handed a Girl Scout honor for my daughter for her bravery during a school shooting. Only in America, right?

To be clear, I'm not faulting the Girl Scouts for doing something to honor Amerie Jo Garza. She was a Girl Scout. To say nothing and do nothing would be wrong. But this also feels wrong. Everything about this situation feels wrong, because it is wrong.

The Girls Scouts shouldn't have felt the need to posthumously awarded Amerie a Bronze Cross, because they shouldn't have had to figure out what to do in light of her death, because she shouldn't have had to try to save her classmates before being shot to death in her classroom, because the 18-year-old who murdered her should never have been able to obtain two AR-15 rifles and 1,657 rounds of ammunition. It simply shouldn't have happened. Period.

The Uvalde gunman had more ammunition than soldiers carry into war. Let that sit for a second. There is zero—absolutely zero—reason for any civilian to have access to that much killing power.

And the result of our insistence on repeatedly doing nothing about this reality is that we talk about fourth graders—who should be doing fractions, not hiding from gunfire in their classrooms—with the same heroic language we use for soldiers who make the ultimate sacrifice. It's unbelievably disturbing.

This is it, America. This is the bottom. And it's not like we just got here. We've been dragging ourselves along the bottom for decades now. Are we going to stay there or are we going to finally snap out of our delusion that our country's gun culture equals safety and freedom? Because all signs point to that being a complete and total myth.

When our kids and teachers can't go to school without worrying about being gunned down at their desks, it's clear that we are not free. When little Amerie Jo Garza's parents are handed a Bronze Cross for their 10-year-old's brave actions in a school massacre—when there were armed and trained officials at the scene—it's clear that we are not made safer by guns.

Enough is enough, and enough came and went a long time ago. Our lawmakers need to borrow a backbone and pass the gun legislation most Americans agree on before our kids start earning scout badges for successfully surviving a mass shooting.

From Your Site Articles
Democracy

People parading guns through grocery stores does not make them, or America, great

I love my country, but this is madness.

Photo by seeetz on Unsplash

Americans feeling the need to carry a pistol to buy produce doesn't seem "great."

Last summer, my husband and I went to a grocery store in Sandpoint, Idaho, to pick up some ice cream. As we started walking down the frozen foods aisle, my husband grabbed my arm to stop me. He gestured to the couple ahead of us, and I saw what he saw—a handgun sticking out of the back of the man's pants.

Sandpoint is an idyllic, small mountain town on a pristine lake, where people come to stay for water sports in summer and skiing in the winter. It's also not far from the Wal-mart where a two-year-old had pulled a handgun out of his mom's purse and killed her with it several years ago.

We turned around and left the ice cream aisle, choosing to wait until the openly armed shopper left. And we were irritated. Seeing a man with a gun in a grocery aisle feels like living in a war zone—meanwhile, Sandpoint's violent crime rate is half the national average.

Twitter user "Cacky" shared a similar encounter in an Oklahoma Trader Joe's, with a photo of a man with a handgun in a holster on his hip at the salad display.

"I have no idea if this guy is stable or mentally ill," they wrote. "Is he bothered by the heat and have a short fuse today? What if someone makes him mad and he has poor impulse control? I'm not willing to risk my life for groceries, so I just left Trader Joe's."

I had the same thoughts in the ice cream aisle in Idaho. Not only do we not know this person's mental state, but with a gun so openly broadcast, what's to stop another unstable shopper from grabbing the gun from them? I'm sure these guys think they'd be quick to stop someone from doing so, but there are dozens of scenarios where that confrontation ends very badly for them, as well as for the innocent bystanders who just want to buy some freaking lettuce.

State laws vary when it comes to open or concealed carry, but this isn't an issue of legality. It's an issue of morality, responsibility, and sensibility. "Because I can" or "Because it's my right" is not a good enough reason to do something—not when you live in a community with other human beings. You might have a right to carry a gun in a grocery store, but that doesn't mean that it is the right thing to do.

Your fellow citizens matter. And I would guess that most people feel less safe, not more, when they see someone with a gun sticking out of their pants at the grocery store. You might argue that you carry for your protection or even the protection of those around you, but the "good guy with a gun" idea has been outed as a myth over and over again. That myth and the fairly consistent mass shootings in the U.S. are why most of us see a random person with a gun as a threat, not protection.

I would say, "We aren't living in the Wild West," but even in the West of the 1880s, guns being carried where lots of people gathered was known to be an issue. That's why Wyatt Earp prohibited people from carrying guns in Tombstone, making visitors turn in their guns when they came into town. Other Old West towns had similar laws, so it's not like grocery shopping with a gun is some longstanding, untouchable American tradition.

All I see when I see someone wearing a gun while running errands is fear and paranoia, which is a bad combination when mixed with a deadly weapon. Imagine if someone had a machete sticking out the back of their pants everywhere they went. How insane would that look? How is a loaded handgun any different, other than being able to kill more people more quickly and efficiently with it?

This element of American culture causes people in other developed nations to look at us in utter bafflement. Heck, it baffles me, and I grew up here. We have a gun problem in the U.S. That fact is indisputable. And it's not just because criminals have guns. States with higher gun ownership rates have higher gun death rates. States with stricter gun laws have lower gun death rates. Ideology aside, the math favors fewer guns and stricter laws, not the free-for-all gun culture gripping a decent portion of the country.

Additionally, how can we truly say we're a great nation if people feel like they can't leave the house unarmed? I can't wrap my brain around the mindset. What kind of warped version of "freedom" is that?

I've lived in rural, urban, and suburban areas, in all different regions of the country, and not once in my 46 years of life have I ever felt the need to carry a gun. Pepper spray? Sure, just in case. Self-defense knowledge? Absolutely. A loaded handgun? No. A loaded handgun sticking out of my pants so everyone knows I have it? Crimony, no.

And now we have states like Texas making it legal for people to carry guns without even having to have a license or permit. That means no background checks. No gun safety education. No training to assure that a person knows how to handle a firearm or screening to make sure that they aren't a homicidal maniac. It's pure madness.

People say that the rights guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution are what make America great, and that's true for the most part. But I would argue that the way some Americans choose to exercise their second amendment right does just the opposite. Imagine someone touting their first amendment right while standing on a street corner yelling, "I think every person I see might be out to kill me, and I don't care about the safety or comfort of other people! Yay, America!" Seems pretty kooky, right? I see no difference between that and a person packing heat to pick up some Ben & Jerry's.

Freedom that feels like fear isn't true freedom, and wearing a gun in a grocery store feels like nothing but fear to me. If you have to carry a gun everywhere you go, you're not free, no matter how much you talk about your constitutional rights.

From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
Trending Stories