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Uvalde, Texas native Matthew McConaughey on mass shooting: "This is an epidemic we can control"

By FOX 7 Austin Digital Team
Published  May 25, 2022 8:18am CDT
Uvalde, Texas School Shooting
FOX 7 Austin

Matthew McConaughey, others react to school shooting in Uvalde, Texas

It was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since the shocking attack at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut, almost a decade ago.

AUSTIN, Texas - Uvalde, Texas native Matthew McConaughey says "action must be taken" after a mass shooting in his hometown left 21 people dead, including 19 children, two teachers, and the suspected gunman.

"Once again we have tragically proven that we are failing to be responsible for the rights our freedoms grant us," the Academy Award-winning actor wrote in a statement on his social media pages.

McConaughey wrote that the "true call to action now is for every American to take a longer and deeper look in the mirror, and ask ourselves, "What is it that we truly value? How do we repair the problem? What small sacrifices can we individually take today, to preserve a healthier and safer nation, state and neighborhood tomorrow?"

"We cannot exhale once again, make excuses, and accept these tragic realities as the status quo," McConaughey added.

McConaughey also said "it's time we re-evaluate, and renegotiate our wants from our needs" and said it was time "to rearrange our values and find a common ground."

"This is an epidemic we can control, and whichever side of the aisle we may stand on, we all know we can do better. We must do better. Action must be taken so that no parent has to experience what the parents in Uvalde and the others before them have endured."

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McConaughey was one of several high-profile Texans to offer condolences and respond to the shooting.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was the first lawmaker to publicly respond to Tuesday’s school shooting. 

"(The suspect) shot and killed, horrifically, incomprehensibly, 14 students and killed a teacher," Abbott said in a press conference. 

Beto O’Rourke said, "our broken hearts are with Uvalde."

FOX News contributed to this report.