Golden State Coach Steve Kerr: Gun Control Is 'My Movement'

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr describes the gun control movement as his movement.

He is quoted in an op-ed in the Hill saying, “My movement is the gun control and gun safety measures.” He then claimed that “over 90 percent of Americans want universal background checks,” a move which would criminalize a citizen for selling a 5-shot revolver to his lifelong neighbor, unless that neighbor receives government permission via a background check.

Kerr did not mention that the two most recent high profile shootings in America occurred in states with universal background checks. The April 27, 2019, Poway Synagogue attack occurred in California, which has had universal background checks since the early 1990s. The May 7, STEM School Highlands Ranch shooting occurred in Colorado, which has had universal background checks since 2013.

Illinois has a de facto universal background check system, as it is illegal for state residents to possess or purchase a firearm without first obtaining a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card. That acquisition of that card involves a background check, only after which may guns can legally be purchased. This did not stop the February 15, 2019, shooting at Henry Pratt Company, wherein five innocents were killed.

Even without the above-listed examples — and there are myriad more — nearly every mass shooter in the last ten years acquired his guns via a background check. The exceptions are those who stole their guns. So expanding background checks to more points of sale, thereby making them more frequent, would have done nothing to prevent any of the mass shootings of the last decade.

But Kerr, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives, and staunch gun controllers like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) continue to advocate for universal checks. A week after the heinous October 1, 2017, Las Vegas shooting, Murphy went so far as to call universal background checks the gun control “North Star.”

It is now common knowledge that the Las Vegas shooter passed background checks for his firearms. Which means universal background checks would not have done a single thing to prevent the shooting from taking place.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.