Academy Award–winning actor Matthew McConaughey made an appearance at the White House Tuesday to call on Congress to “reach a higher ground” and pass gun control legislation in honour of the children and teachers killed in last month’s shooting rampage at an elementary school in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas.

In a highly personal 22-minute speech, McConaughey exhorted a gridlocked Congress to pass gun reforms that can save lives without infringing on Second Amendment rights.

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McConaughey, a gun owner himself, used his star power to make an argument for legislation in a fashion that the Biden administration has not been able to muster, offering a clear connection to the small Texas town and vividly detailing the sheer loss of the 19 children and two teachers in the second worst mass school shooting in US history.

He specifically called on Congress to bolster background checks for gun purchases and raise the minimum age to purchase an AR-15-style rifle to 21 from 18.

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“We want secure and safe schools and we want gun laws that won’t make it so easy for the bad guys to get the damn guns,” McConaughey said.

McConaughey, who earlier this year considered a run for governor of Texas before taking a pass, met briefly in private with President Joe Biden before addressing the White House press corps from the James Brady briefing room.

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McConaughey has also met with key lawmakers this week, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee that handles gun legislation, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, and the panel’s ranking Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

Also Tuesday, the son of Ruth Whitfield, an 86-year-old woman killed when a gunman opened fire in a racist attack on Black shoppers in Buffalo, New York, last month, called on Congress to act against the “cancer of white supremacy” and the nation’s epidemic of gun violence.

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“Is there nothing that you personally are willing to do to stop the cancer of white supremacy and the domestic terrorism it inspires?” Garnell Whitfield Jr. asked members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

McConaughey, who declined to take questions, spoke of his own connections to the town. He said his mother taught kindergarten less than a mile from Uvalde’s Robb Elementary School, the site of the May 24 shooting. He also noted that Uvalde was the place where he was taught about responsibilities that come with gun ownership.