Trump Ally Jon Voight Calls for 'Proper Qualifications for Gun Ownership'

Veteran actor and longtime GOP supporter Jon Voight broke with party lines on Saturday, insisting on "proper qualifications" for gun ownership following Tuesday's deadly mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

"[We must] ensure that we never see this horror again in our lifetime," Voight, a vocal and avid supporter of former President Donald Trump, said in his video statement, which has been viewed over 92,000 times on social media as of Saturday morning. "We must identify every individual for their credentials for their mental capacity to bear arms. There should be proper qualifications for gun ownership. Proper testing. One should only own a gun if they're qualified and schooled."

Voight also offered condolences to the families of the 19 students that were killed in the shooting. Two teachers also died during Tuesday's attack.

"I stand with all," he added. "I stand for the freedom of each soul's truths. I stand for God's truths. I stand for one to be condemned for evil doings, and that they must pay a price. May God watch over all and bring comfort for this loss which may never heal, for each child was so precious."

Voight rose to prominence as an actor in the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s, with celebrated roles in films like Midnight Cowboy, Deliverance, and Coming Home, the latter of which won him the Academy Award for Best Actor. He will next appear among the ensemble cast of The Godfather director Francis Ford Coppola's next film, Megalopolis. He is also notably the father of movie star Angelina Jolie.

Voight publicly espoused liberal and anti-war sentiments early in his career, but starting in the late 2000s became one of Hollywood's most vocal conservative voices. He was an enthusiastic supporter of Trump, endorsing him in 2016 and 2020, later implying that Joe Biden had stolen the 2020 election following Trump's loss.

Trump spoke at a conference for the National Rifle Association (NRA) on Friday in Houston, where he echoed the GOP claim that the proper response to the Uvalde mass shooting would not be gun control laws, but to "harden" schools by heightening security, arming teachers, and decreasing the number of doors.

"What we need now is a top-to-bottom security overhaul at schools all across our country. Every building should have a single point of entry," he said. "There should be strong exterior fencing, metal detectors, and the use of new technology to make sure that no unauthorized individual can ever enter the school with a weapon."