WASHINGTON — In the spotlight of the White House briefing room, movie star Matthew McConaughey described in graphic detail the mutilation inflicted on 19 children and two teachers gunned down in his hometown of Uvalde.

His voice choking, the Oscar winner pleaded with politicians to make such massacres less likely, even if that means tighter regulations on guns.

“Many children were left not only dead but hollow,” he said, describing the “exceptionally large exit wounds of an AR-15 rifle.”

“Responsible gun owners are fed up with the Second Amendment being abused and hijacked by some deranged individuals,” he insisted, moments after meeting with President Joe Biden. “We want secure and safe schools and we want gun laws that won’t make it so easy for the bad guys to get these damn guns.”

McConaughey spoke for 21 minutes, one for each Uvalde victim, holding rapt the journalists and presidential aides crowded into the room as he recounted their lives and deaths.

He held up a photo of 10-year-old Alithia Ramirez, smiling in a graduation robe. Voice choking and eyes tearful, he spoke about her dreams of attending art school in Paris.

He recalled Maite Yuleana Rodriguez, whose body was so mangled by bullets that she could only be identified by the green high top Converse sneakers she’d worn to school that day.

Camila Alves McConaughey sat with Maite’s shoes on her lap as her husband spoke.

The 10-year-old had drawn a heart on them because, the actor and best-selling author said, it “represented her love of nature.”

He left without taking questions after ticking off solutions he described as common sense: “We need background checks. We need to raise the minimum age to purchase an AR-15 rifle to 21. We need a waiting period for those rifles. We need red flag laws and consequences for those who abuse them.”

The proposals face fierce resistance from most Republicans in Congress, including his home state senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn.

“These are reasonable, practical, tactical regulations” that would bring meaning to the deaths in Uvalde, McConaughey said.

“We’ve got to start right now by passing policies that can keep us from having as many Columbines, Sandy Hooks, Parklands, Las Vegases, Buffaloes and Uvaldes,” he said.

Those half-dozen massacres alone claimed 148 innocent lives. Except for Las Vegas, where a 64-year-old sniper killed 58 people at a 2017 concert, the tragedies he mentioned involved shooters younger than 21.

The killers in Uvalde and Buffalo, N.Y., where 10 people were shot dead 10 days earlier, were 18.

The gunmen responsible for 13 murders at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., in 1999 were 17 and 18.

The killer at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., was 20 when he gunned down 28 people in 2012.

The shooter who killed 17 people at a Parkland, Fla., high school in 2018 was 19.

Not an option

Raising the age for gun buyers is not an option under consideration by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, the lead GOP negotiator.

Without naming or even alluding to any particular politicians, McConaughey accused some of playing politics with gun rights and public safety. His venom was clearly aimed at Republicans who have dug in on gun rights.

He urged them to summon the courage to “find a middle ground, the place where most of us Americans live anyway, especially on this issue.”

“Let’s admit it. We can’t truly be leaders if we’re only living for reelection,” he said at the White House.

McConaughey and his wife spent days in Uvalde after a man stormed an elementary school there on May 24, meeting with parents, educators and undertakers.

He has used his star power since then to shame federal and state officials into breaking decades of stalemate between gun rights absolutists and those who would ban the sort of assault rifles used in Uvalde and other massacres.

Hours after the murders he tweeted that “this is an epidemic we can control. ... Action must be taken to see that no parent in Uvalde and the others before them has to experience what they have had to endure.”

McConaughey surfaced at the U.S. Senate on Monday and again on Tuesday, meeting privately with senators and attracting swarms of onlookers befitting People magazine’s 2005 “Sexiest Man Alive” and star of Interstellar, Lincoln Lawyer, Free State of Jones and Failure to Launch.

“Uvalde is where I learned responsible gun ownership,” he said at the White House, where he recalled that his mom taught kindergarten a mile from Robb Elementary, the site of the carnage.

Journalists flinched as he banged the lectern in frustration.

Outside, rhythmic clanging of metal drifted into the briefing room like a church bell calling mourners, as a construction crew replaced a security fence.

The University of Texas graduate, now an Austin resident, won an Academy Award for best actor for his role in Dallas Buyers Club, a 2013 film about the early days of the AIDS epidemic.

Last year he toyed with challenging Gov. Greg Abbott, who has boasted to GOP primary voters about expansion of concealed carry rights and other loosening of restrictions during his tenure.

McConaughey bowed out in late November two weeks after Beto O’Rourke, now the Democratic nominee, entered the race. But he vowed to use his celebrity to promote bipartisan problem solving.

“We’ve gotta start shining a light on our shared values — the ones that cross party lines, the ones that build bridges instead of burning them,” he said at the time.

He kept his views on gun violence vague, though like O’Rourke and Biden, he had previously called for bans on assault-style semi-automatic rifles such as AR-15s and AK-47s, which are widely owned and also often the weapons of choice for mass killers.

In keeping with his call for bipartisanship, he scheduled an interview later Tuesday on Fox News with anchor Bret Baier, whose audience tends to strongly oppose gun restrictions.

Last week, Biden used a rare prime time TV address last week to prod Congress to resurrect a ban on assault weapons that he authored and which expired in 2004. Or, failing that, raising the age to buy rifles from 18 to 21.

“These regulations are not a step backwards. They’re a step forward for civil society and the Second Amendment. Is this a cure all? Hell no. But people are hurting,” McConaughey said.

McConaughey’s path to stardom began with a role in Dazed and Confused in 1993. His 2020 memoir, Greenlights, remains a best seller.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic whip, met with him on Monday, tweeting that, “We, like so many others, agree that gun safety reform is needed.”

Cornyn said Monday evening that he had talked to McConaughey by phone since Uvalde.

“Certainly, his voice is important. But everybody’s voice is important in trying to figure out where the consensus lies for bipartisan legislation,” Cornyn said. “I may see him as a constituent. He’s a Texan after all.”

The policies the actor suggested Tuesday mirrored those in an op-ed he wrote for the Austin American-Statesman, which published it across the top of Monday’s front page.

“I am not under the illusion that these policies will solve all of our problems, but if responsible solutions can stop some of these tragedies from striking another community without destroying the Second Amendment, they’re worth it,” he wrote.

On June 3, McConaughey and his wife announced a Uvalde relief fund through their foundation Just Keep Livin’ to address grief counseling, funeral services and “other immediate and long-term needs of the community.”

Washington correspondent Rebekah Alvey contributed to this report.

Correction: This story originally reported that actor Matthew McConaughey’s wife, Camila, was holding a pair of sneakers worn by a girl who died in the attack. The sneakers were similar, but were not the girl’s shoes.