Actor Matthew McConaughey Reflects On Uvalde Shooting, Says It Was 'Personal' For Him

Actor Matthew McConaughey has shared his thoughts on the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, his hometown, noting that the incident was "personal" for him.

The 52-year-old actor penned an essay for Esquire, in which he shared that he attended school less than a mile away from Robb Elementary School, where the violent incident that claimed the lives of 19 children and two teachers unfolded on May 24.

Recalling his initial reaction to the shooting, McConaughey wrote that he had "just finished a full day's work at a studio in Austin" when the news broke. He called his wife Camila Alves, who was in London at the time and had to take the first flight back home.

The couple traveled to the city of Uvalde, which is about 160 miles from Austin. "I was heading home," McConaughey noted. "We had no sense of how long we'd go for, nor a plan beyond showing up. But we knew that if we did, purpose would intercept us."

The Oscar-winning actor also talked about his relationship with guns, revealing that it was in Uvalde that he was introduced to his first firearm, a Daisy BB gun. He clarified that his father taught him about responsible gun ownership. "He instilled in me the rules of engagement: barrel management, muzzle control, safety catch, secure storage, the awareness of what's behind your target," he explained.

McConaughey then looked back on his trip to Washington D.C., where he rallied for gun reform with his wife. The actor said he hosted a private dinner at a restaurant in Georgetown, and a bipartisan group of members of the Senate and House of Representatives who "were actively negotiating the proposed gun legislation" was invited.

The actor also recalled his meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in June. The two reportedly met minutes before the actor spoke to the media and shared heartbreaking details of his interactions with grieving families in the town he grew up in.

"The most powerful legislators in America playing an implicit political game, one they seemed to be handcuffed to, even systematically imprisoned by, as if it were the price of entry," the actor noted further in his essay.

The suspect in the Uvalde massacre, which is among the deadliest mass shootings in the modern U.S., was identified as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who was wielding an AR-15-style rifle. He was fatally shot by Border Patrol officers more than an hour after he gained entry to the building.