Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr gave an emotional pre-game news conference Tuesday hours after a gunman in Texas killed at least 21 people, including 19 children, at the Robb Elementary School.
“Since we left shoot-around, 14 children killed 400 miles from here and a teacher,” Kerr, who made the remarks in a press conference before the latest death toll was reported, said. “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.”
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“When are we going to do something?!” Kerr, getting visibly emotional, shouted. “I’m so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there. I’m so tired … of the moments of silence. Enough!”
The coach added that there are 50 senators who “vote on HR-8,” the Bipartisan Background Checks Act of 2021, that the House “passed a couple years ago. It’s been sitting there for two years.”
“There’s a reason they won’t vote on it, to hold onto power,” he continued, calling out Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and senators “who refuse to do anything about the violence and school shootings and supermarket shootings.”
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Kerr is an advocate for gun control after his father, Malcolm, was killed by a gunman in 1984, per the Los Angeles Times. At the time, the coach’s dad was president of the American University of Beirut.
“I ask you, 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,” Kerr expressed, adding how he’s “fed up” and has “had enough.”
He concluded his remarks by stating how he wants people to “think about your own child or grandchild, or mother or father or sister, brother. How would you feel if this happened to you today? We can’t get numb to this.”
“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,” he exclaimed before getting up and leaving the room.
As of Tuesday night, at least 19 children and two teachers were confirmed dead. The shooter, who is also deceased, went to the school after allegedly killing his grandmother. NBC News reported the suspected shooter might have had two weapons with him. He was fatally wounded amid law enforcement response.
President Joe Biden was also briefed on the attack and addressed the nation Tuesday evening.
“I’d hoped, when I became president, I would not have to do this again,” Biden began from the White House Roosevelt Room. “Another massacre. Uvalde, Texas. An elementary school. Beautiful, second, third, fourth graders.”