Country music star Tim McGraw advocated “common sense” gun control just weeks after the shooting in Las Vegas that killed nearly 60 people and injured hundreds more at a country music festival.
In an interview with Billboard, along with his wife and fellow musician Faith Hill, McGraw said that gun rights are “not about the Second Amendment,” and that common sense needs to be a part of the conversation.
“Look, I’m a bird hunter — I love to wing-shoot,” he said. “However, there is some common sense that’s necessary when it comes to gun control. They want to make it about the Second Amendment every time it’s brought up. It’s not about the Second Amendment.”
{mosads}The Las Vegas shooting took place when the gunman opened fire on a crowd listening to Jason Aldean perform at an outdoor country music festival. Other country musicians have spoken up about gun control since the shooting.
“In reference to the tragedy in Las Vegas, we knew a lot of people there,” McGraw said. “The doctors that [treated] the wounded, they saw wounds like you’d see in war. That’s not right.”
McGraw and Hill performed at the Country Music Association Awards earlier this week, which received backlash after telling reporters not to ask questions about the Las Vegas shooting, gun control or politics.
He added that military-style assault weapons should not be available to civilians, and called on the National Rifle Association to acknowledge the danger of civilians having such weapons.
“Military weapons should not be in the hands of civilians,” he said. “It’s everyone’s responsibility, including the government and the National Rifle Association, to tell the truth. We all want a safe country.”
Senate Democrats introduced legislation on Thursday that would ban the sale, production and transfer of assault weapons. It would also ban bump stocks, the device that the Vegas gunman used to give a semi-automatic weapon the capacity to fire at a faster rate.