Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr responded to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, on Tuesday by calling for more gun control and claiming that U.S. Senators refuse to pass such measures for fear of losing their grip on power.
During Tuesday’s press conference before the matchup against the Dallas Mavericks, a visibly emotional and outraged Kerr scolded the U.S. government for refusing to “do something” about gun violence – talking points he pushed following the shooting in Sacramento this past April.
“When are we going to do something!” exclaimed Kerr. “I’m tired, I’m so tired of getting up here and then offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there and I’m so tired of the moments of silence. Enough!”
Without having any specifics of Tuesday’s shooting and whether or not the shooter obtained the firearm illegally, Kerr then called on U.S. Senators to pass the HR8 bill for universal background checks. According to Kerr, the senators will not pass the bill for entirely selfish reasons.
“There are 50 senators right now who refuse to vote on HR8, which is a background check rule that the house passed a couple of years ago. It has been sitting there for two years and there was a reason why they won’t vote on it. To hold on to the power,” he asserted.
“So I ask you, Mitch McConnell, I ask all of you senators who refuse to do anything about the violence in school shootings and supermarket shootings, 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,” he continued.
Kerr virtually repeated statements he made following the Sacramento shooting in April, which, as Awr Hawkins noted at the time, occurred despite the fact that California already passed the very laws that Kerr proposes.
Background checks via the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) have existed in every state since the mid-1990s. Moreover, California adopted universal background checks in the 1990s, which means every gun sale in the state–retail or private–requires a background check in order to be legal.
So the background checks Kerr is pushing already exist in California.
In his impassioned speech on Tuesday, Kerr admitted to feeling “fed up” with the current state of affairs and challenged people to break out of their moments of silence.
“We can’t get numb to this,” he said. “We can’t sit here and just read about it and go, ‘well, let’s have a moment of silence.’”
“50 senators in Washington are going to hold us hostage,” he continued. “Do you realize that 90 percent of Americans, regardless of political party, want background checks, universal background checks? 90 percent of us. We are being held hostage by 50 senators in Washington who refuse to even put it to 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 concluded as he stormed away.
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