In the aftermath of the Texas school shooting on Wednesday, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr made an emotional call for gun control.
In a pre-game news conference conducted hours after a young shooter opened fire at a school in the Texas town of Uvalde, Kerr declined to discuss his team’s NBA playoff matchup with the Dallas Mavericks.
Kerr, one of the most prominent and incisive voices on social concerns in American sport, banged his palm on a table as he accused US politicians of “holding the American people hostage” by refusing to vote on tighter gun legislation.
“Any basketball questions don’t matter,” Kerr told reporters.
“Since we left shootaround, 14 children (speaking before the updated numbers) were killed 400 miles from here. And a teacher. And in the last 10 days, we’ve had elderly black people killed in a supermarket in Buffalo. We’ve had Asian churchgoers killed in Southern California, and now we have children murdered at school.
“When are we going to do something?” Kerr screamed, banging his fist on the table. “I’m tired, I’m so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there.
“I’m sorry, I’m tired of the moments of silence. Enough. There’s 50 senators right now, who refused to vote on H.R.8., which is a background check rule that the house passed a couple years ago, it’s been sitting there for two years.
“And there’s a reason they won’t vote on it — to hold onto power.
“So, I ask you, Mitch McConnell, I ask all of you senators, who refuse to do anything about the violence and school shootings and supermarket shootings, are you going to put your own desire for power ahead of the lives of our children and our elderly, and our churchgoers? Because that’s what it looks like.
“It’s what we do every week. So, I’m fed up. I’ve had enough. We’re going to play this game tonight. But I want every person here, every person listening to this, to think about your own child or grandchild, or mother, or father, or sister, or brother. How would you feel if this happened to you today?
“We can’t get numb to this. We can’t sit here and just read about it, and go, ‘Well, let’s have a moment of silence. Yeah, go Dubs. Come on Mavs, let’s go.’ That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go play a basketball game.
“And 50 senators in Washington are going to hold us hostage. You realise that 90 percent of Americans, regardless of political party, want universal background checks. 90 percent of us.
“We are being held hostage by 50 senators in Washington, who refuse to even put it to a vote despite what we the American people want.
“They won’t vote on it because they want to hold onto their own power. It’s pathetic. I’ve had enough.”
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