Madonna has made her opinion clear on gun control. In the video for 'God Control,' a shooting at a nightclub is shown, and a call for gun control closes out the visual.
After the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting, Ben Stiller said "No one should have to go through airport security to go to pray in a synagogue or church or a mosque. This is not the fault of the synagogue..."
See some of the celebrities on the other side of the issue here.
The influential singer posted a photo of Trump’s tweet following the back-to-back mass shootings on August 5, 2019. “A terrorist was able to LEGALLY purchase an assault rifle (AK-47) in Vegas," she wrote. "Imagine a world where it’s easier to get an AK-47 than a VISA!"
Following the police shootings of Daunte Wright, 20, and Adam Toledo, 13, Madonna took to social media with an impassioned call for stricter gun control, claiming it should be treated as "the new vaccination." On April 17, 2021, she shared a video of herself putting up posters with the hashtags “#GunControlNow” and “#WakeUpAmerica," and she wrote, “There’s a new Vaccination!! Its called GUN CONTROL! Should be mandatory. It will SAVE LIVES!” In a second Instagram post, she wrote further about Toledo and Wright's deaths: “The Officers who killed them are only being charged with manslaughter. This is insanity. Horrific. And yet it has become normalised in our society.” She explained that if guns "were outlawed then no one would feel the need to own a gun to protect themselves from those who have guns," and added that police "Shooting and suffocating and brutalising innocent people ... should go immediately to jail for the rest of there [sic] lives. No trial, no corrupt justice system.”
Matthew McConaughey had also previously taken to Twitter to call the American people into action. Speaking of the massacre that occurred in his hometown of Uvalde, the actor began his lengthy message: "Once again, we have tragically proven that we are failing to be responsible for the rights our freedoms grant us."
“The true call to action 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?'" he continued. "We cannot exhale once again, make excuses, and accept these tragic realities as the status quo.”
Though he didn't reference guns specifically, he said Americans must "renegotiate our wants from our needs." Later in the message he wrote, “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.”
In the wake of the tragic school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Texas in May 2022, where an armed 18-year-old killed 19 children and two adults, Matthew McConaughey delivered an impassioned speech at the White House press briefing on June 7 about the victims in his hometown of Uvalde. In his emotional 21-minute speech, he called on Congress as both a father and a gun owner himself to act on this moment with change. "This should not be a partisan issue," McConaughey said. "There is not a democratic or republican value in one single act of these shooters, but people in power have failed to act."
McConaughey and his wife Camila visited with victims' families and heard numerous stories about the lives lost, and they realized all the families had a similar goal: "How can the loss of these lives matter?" McConaughey added, "While we honor and acknowledge the victims, we need to recognize that this time, it seems that something is different. There is the sense that perhaps there is a viable path forward [for enacting gun safety legislation]."
The actor urged Congress to take "reasonable" and "practical" steps toward protecting Americans through measures like mandating background checks for gun ownership, strengthening "red flag" laws, raising the minimum age to purchase a semi-automatic rifle to 21, requiring a waiting period for those rifles, and investing in mental health care. "Responsible gun owners are fed up with the Second Amendment being abused and hijacked by some deranged individuals," he said. "These regulations are not a step back, they're a step forward for a civil society and for the Second Amendment."
"Will you please ask yourselves: Can both sides rise above? Can both sides see beyond the political problem at hand and admit that we have a life-preservation problem on our hands?" McConaughey concluded, "We can't truly be leaders if we're only living for re-election."
In 2023, Nashville-based actress Melissa Joan Hart came terrifyingly close to the Covenant School shooting. A 28-year-old shooter, reportedly a former student, approached the elementary school armed with two rifles and a handgun, shooting through the windows and killing three nine-year-old children and three adults.
The actress posted a video to Instagram the next day to share her close brush with the horrific tragedy, and took the opportunity to ask for stricter gun control legislation. But she isn't the only star to use their platform to voice their opinion.
Click on to meet the celebrities who have spoken out about gun control.
Celebrities who have spoken out about stricter gun control
Which side of the debate are these stars on?
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Gun control is a topic that divides millions of people. The right to bear arms is written into the United States Constitution, but calls for revised gun laws have been made for years.
In 2023, Nashville-based actress Melissa Joan Hart came terrifyingly close to the Covenant School shooting. A 28-year-old shooter, reportedly a former student, approached the elementary school armed with two rifles and a handgun, shooting through the windows and killing three nine-year-old children and three adults.
The actress posted a video to Instagram the next day to share her close brush with the horrific tragedy, and took the opportunity to ask for stricter gun control legislation. But she isn't the only star to use their platform to voice their opinion.
Click on to meet the celebrities who have spoken out about gun control.