Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr has long been outspoken on hot-button issues, and on Tuesday following the shooting at an elementary school in Texas that left 19 students and two teachers dead, Kerr made perhaps his most impassioned speech yet.
Speaking at his customary pregame press availability before Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals between his Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks in Dallas (the shooting took place about 380 miles away from Dallas), Kerr declined to answer any questions about basketball or anything else and instead spoke for nearly three minutes.
Getting emotional at times, Kerr observed that what happened Tuesday followed incidents in New York and California this month alone in which a gunman opened fire on innocent people in a public setting.
“When are we going to do something?” Kerr yelled, slamming his palm against the table he was sitting at. “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.”
Kerr then blasted senators for refusing to vote on H.R.8, a bill that, according to an official summary, “establishes new background check requirements for firearm transfers between private parties (i.e., unlicensed individuals).
“Specifically, it prohibits a firearm transfer between private parties unless a licensed gun dealer, manufacturer, or importer first takes possession of the firearm to conduct a background check.”
The House of Representatives passed the bill on Feb. 27, 2019, but Kerr said “there’s a reason (senators) won’t vote on it: to hold on to power, so I ask you, (Senate minority leader) Mitch McConnell, I ask all of you senators who refuse to do anything about the violence and 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.”
Kerr continued, “I’m fed up. I’ve had enough. We’re going to play the game tonight, but I want every person here, every person listening to this to think about your own child or grandchild or mother or father or sister or brother.
“How would you feel if this happened to you today? We can’t get numb to this. We can’t sit here and just read about it and go, ‘Well, let’s have a moment of silence. Go (Warriors), come on, Mavs. Let’s go.’
“That’s what we’re going to do. We’re going to go play a basketball game, and 50 senators in Washington are gonna hold us hostage.”
Kerr again said a vote on H.R.8 has not occurred because “they want to hold on to their own power. It’s pathetic. I’ve had enough,” and he walked away.
Kerr’s father, Malcolm Kerr, was shot and killed by two gunmen in 1984 while he was president of the American University of Beirut in Lebanon.
Warriors star Stephen Curry quote tweeted a video of Steve Kerr’s comments and said, “watch this as much as you watch the game tonight….”
Mavs coach Jason Kidd said pregame, “As coaches or fathers, you have kids. People in this room have kids, elementary school, you just think about what could take place with any of your family or friends at school.”
Kidd observed that his team, on the brink of elimination, need to find a way to win despite the circumstances, “but the news of what’s happening not just here in Texas but throughout our country is sad.”