Editor’s note: This story contains details of a mass casualty event and gun violence.
After his team’s loss to the Mavericks in Game 4 on Tuesday, Warriors guard Damion Lee was asked about the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, earlier that day. His answer caught some attention for the comparison he made.
“It’s just sad. Obviously everyone saw Steve’s [Kerr] pregame presser. Those are my exact same sentiments,” he said. “It’s sad the world that we live in. We need to reform that. Guns shouldn’t be as easily accessible … like it’s easier to get a gun than baby formula right now. That’s unbelievable in this country that we live in.”
Lee's comments also reference a nationwide shortage of infant formula, which the Biden administration is working on addressing.
The suspected gunman was an 18-year-old man who abandoned his vehicle and entered the school with a handgun and possibly a rifle, governor Greg Abbott said. The suspect is dead and acted alone, police later said in a press conference.
Golden State coach Steve Kerr used his entire pregame presser Tuesday to address the shooting that left 19 children and two adults dead and pleaded for change. He said there were “50 senators, right now, who refuse to vote on HR8.” The bill would implement background check requirements for firearms, and it was passed by the House in February 2019, per Congress.gov.
“So I ask you, 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 said.
Lee added he doesn’t like talking about his personal life publicly but said he has a young child, and it’s scary to think schools could be dangerous.
“I don’t like bringing things on myself, but I have a kid now,” Lee said. “Me and my wife were talking before the game just about how scary it is. … You have a child, obviously not old enough to go to school, but when that does happen how crazy the world is.”
