by Apparently angry and shocked, Steve Kerr condemned the senators, especially Republican leader Mitch McConnell, for failing to act on gun law hours after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Texas’s Uvalde.
“When are we going to do something? Kerr, the head coach of the Golden State Warriors, shouted at a press conference before his team was ready to face the Dallas Mavericks in the fourth game of the NBA Western Conference Finals. The teams were playing in Dallas, more than 300 miles from the scene of the massacre.
“I ask you, Mitch McConnell, I ask all of you senators who refuse to do anything about violence and school shootings and supermarket shootings – I ask you, you put your desire for power over the lives of children. us; and our elders and our churchgoers? ». he said. “Because that’s how it looks.”
McConnell’s Twitter account wrote Tuesday afternoon that he was “terrified and devastated” by the “disgusting violence against innocent students.”
“The whole country is praying for the children, the families, the teachers and the staff and the first to respond on stage,” the tweet read.
Kerr, who declined to discuss basketball during his remarks, also referred to a mass shooting 10 days ago at a Buffalo grocery store where a racist gunman targeted mostly blacks, as well as an attack on Asian parishes in California Church. is being investigated as a hate crime. Both have happened in the last two weeks.
He also cited HR8, a bill that would extend arms background checks. The Democrat-controlled House approved it in 2019, but the measure will have to clear the 60-vote threshold in the Senate. Republicans, many of whom are backed by the National Rifle Association, have successfully made many attempts to impose restrictions on access to weapons.
“We are being held hostage by 50 senators in Washington who refuse to even put it to the vote, despite what we, the American people, want,” Kerr said. “They will not vote for it, because they want to keep their power. It is pathetic.” The coach knocked on the table for emphasis several times during his call.
Kerr made the remarks shortly before President Joe Biden addressed the nation Tuesday night. “We as a nation must ask when in the name of God we will stand in the arms lobby. When in the name of God do we do what we all know must be done?” said the president.
The Golden State Warriors official Twitter and YouTube accounts posted the video of Kerr’s emotional appeal for real action against armed violence. Businessman Joe Lacob is the majority owner of the team.
Kerr’s father, Malcolm Kerr, was killed by gunmen in Lebanon in 1984 while serving as president of the American University of Beirut. The coach and former NBA player has often been responsible for social issues and has advocated gun control.
“We can not stay numb to this,” Kerr said Tuesday night.
