Actor Matthew McConaughey was, for a while, pretty apolitical, at least by Hollywood standards. Sure, he’d toyed with the idea of running for governor of Texas, but that fizzled. Then Uvalde happened. McConaughey, a Uvalde native, decided he needed to get involved. In and of itself, that’s not an awful thing. There’s plenty of work that could be done in the wake of the horrific mass shooting there.
But he jumped in calling for gun control right off the bat and he got some pushback from that. A lot.
However, while he doesn’t talk about it as much now, McConaughey is still out there wanting gun control, and his comments in a recent interview made it clear just how little he understands about the gun debate.
“A lot of people that consider themselves strong Second Amendment [supporters], they think any measure is a measure towards confiscating all guns. So how do you speak to those people?” Karl asked.
McConaughey said his solution starts simple.
“I’d change the word from [gun] ‘control’ to ‘responsibility,'” he said.
“No one wants to be controlled,” he continued. “But responsibility is still something that we can all go, ‘Yeah, I’ll take responsibility.’ … The Second Amendment defenders could talk responsibility. They could look you in the eye and talk responsibility with someone from the other side of the aisle.”
They’re way ahead of you on that one, Matthew. Why do you think we don’t see as many self-described “gun control” groups and more “gun safety” groups these days?
But taking the word “control” out and replacing it with something else doesn’t change the nature of what a thing is. As Shakespeare once wrote, “Would a rose by any other name not smell as sweet?”
The issue with gun control isn’t the name, it’s the thing itself. You could call it “free naked carwashes” if you want and it won’t change the fact that it’s still, ultimately, about control.
Karl noted polling that shows broad support for further regulations, such as universal background checks and waiting periods for firearm purchases — “yet none of those things have been done.”
McConaughey said he believes that the majority public view on the issue is not being represented by politicians right now. “That math should add up. And right now, it doesn’t,” he said.
Except, I believe it is.
See, the polling being referred to here is very questionable. It asks a very simple, broad question, then records the answers. There’s little clarification or explanation about exactly what the question is really about, either.
Back in March, we learned some interesting data about what happens when the pollsters do explain it, and a lot of that support for gun control evaporates.
The truth is, gun control is gun control, and yes, people don’t like being controlled. Once they understand how the laws apply–and, more accurately, apply to them–that support disappears.
But McConaughey doesn’t exactly understand that because he doesn’t really understand the issues or the debate into which he’s inserted himself.
“Do you have advice to, particularly Democrats on this issue … do you have any advice on how they can speak?” Karl asked.
“There’s a whole lot of Americans that need you to at least meet them where they are and what they’re understanding and how they’ve grown up on this issue with guns in their lives and how they, most of them, do handle them responsibly,” McConaughey said. “So don’t cast them down as being archaic or cavemen.”
This, however, isn’t bad advice.
I’ve had my opinions dismissed on everything by some people simply because I’m pro-gun. I’ve been told I have blood on my hands, that I don’t even deserve to live.
For the record, if someone wants to convince me to give up my guns, threatening me isn’t exactly a winning strategy. Just saying.
However, McConaughey actually gets this big right because yeah, pretending that we’re cavemen or whatever isn’t going to make the debate go any smoother.
Where he’s wrong is in thinking a change of tone will somehow convince us that no, the end result of gun control won’t really be confiscation.
Because that’s what this is and has always been about.
No, I don’t think McConaughey supports a total gun ban or gun confiscation or anything of the sort. However, we’ve watched what happens when we give ground. We had decades of evidence of what happens.
The moment we give a bit of ground on something, the gun control crowd immediately starts tooling up for their next push. Their only purpose is to keep taking and taking and taking from us until we’re eventually going to be left with nothing.
But we’ve seen that and we know that’s where it will go, so pretending that we’re not vile excuses for human beings would be nice, but it’s not going to change where we stand on the issue. We know where this will go and McConaughey either doesn’t or thinks we don’t.
