Matthew McConaughey Instagram – For Matthew McConaughey, growing up in Uvalde, Texas, in the 1970s was the stuff of small-town dreams. So when news broke on May 24 of a mass shooting at Robb Elementary school in Uvalde, it hit him hard. Without a game plan, he and his wife Camila headed to Uvalde to see how they could help, spending weeks visiting and listening to families before taking those “frontline stories” to Washington, D.C. where Congress passed its first major gun-safety legislation in nearly 30 years. Six months after the tragedy, the Oscar winner and one of PEOPLE’s 2022 People of the Year reflects on the life-changing experience and how it spurred him to take lasting action: “We want those lost lives to matter.” Pick up an issue on newsstands Friday and tap the link in our bio for more. |📷: Brett Costello/Newspix/Headpress/Redux