The Warriors coach: “Murdering children in their classrooms has become a political issue. What are we doing?”
Editor’s note: This story contains details of a mass casualty event and gun violence.
Just over a week ago, an 18-year-old man shot and killed 21 people, including 19 children, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
In wake of the tragedy, Warriors coach Steve Kerr refused to talk about basketball before the team’s playoff game against the Mavericks that night, making an emotional plea to lawmakers. Now, as they prepare to face the Celtics in Game 1 of the NBA finals on Thursday, he’s using his platform again to speak out.
“I think my message is for people to remember that a vast majority of us Americans … want sensible gun laws,” the Warriors coach said Wednesday on NBA Today. “It’s important to remember that because we’re a democracy. If we truly are a democracy, then we’re not being represented right now by the people in Washington because if so many of us want sensible gun laws to protect our children, to protect the elderly, to protect all of us and they’re not happening, you got to ask why.
“At some point, the will of the people has to win out.”
This marked the 27th school shooting in 2022 and the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook Elementary in December 2012 that left 28 people dead, including 20 children.
Kerr commented last week on how there’s “50 senators, right now, who refuse to vote on HR8.” The bill would implement background check requirements for firearms, and it was passed by the House in February 2019, per Congress.gov.
“Murdering children in their classrooms has become a political issue. What are we doing?” Kerr said Wednesday. “So let’s put pressure on the people that are making these decisions to act on our best interests.”
Kerr’s comments come after athletes and teams across the country have spoken out and supported Uvalde as well as Buffalo, N.Y. and Laguna Woods, Calif., all locations affected by mass shootings in recent weeks.