(CNN) Country music star Tim McGraw has found himself in the middle of the nation's ongoing debate over gun control after agreeing to perform at a benefit concert for the Sandy Hook Promise foundation.

McGraw defended his decision to appear at the concert -- scheduled for July 17 in Hartford, Connecticut -- in a statement, after gun-rights activists took to McGraw's Twitter and Facebook page and derided him for what they view as turning his back on support for the Second Amendment.

"As a gun owner, I support gun ownership," McGraw said, according to a report from the Connecticut Post on Thursday. "I also believe that with gun ownership comes the responsibility of education and safety -- most certainly when it relates to what we value most, our children."

The Sandy Hook Promise foundation -- a nonprofit organization run by family members who lost a loved one in the shooting at the elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012 -- is focused on improving access to mental health programs in addition to its promotion of firearm safety, according to the group's website.

According to the Connecticut Post's report, McGraw's fiddle player -- Dean Brown -- is personal friends with a father who lost his 7-year-old son in the shooting.

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