NBA basketball boss Steve Kerr slammed US politicians and pleaded for gun reform during an emotional press conference just hours after a fatal school shooting in Texas.
Nineteen young children and two adults died in a shooting in south Texas after a gunman opened fire at Robb Elementary school in the city of Uvalde.
A visibly shaken Kerr, coach of San Francisco-based Golden State Warriors, began his press conference by refusing to talk about basketball before his team's play-off defeat to the Dallas Mavericks on Tuesday, instead using the platform to passionately plead for change to stop gun violence in the United States.
"When are we going to do something?" Kerr shouted at his pre-game press conference. "I’m tired. I am so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there. I am so tired of the, excuse me, I am sorry, I am tired of the moments of silence. Enough!"
He condemned senators, particularly Republican leader Mitch McConnell, for failing to act on gun legislation, saying: "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 was also referring to a mass shooting 10 days ago at a Buffalo grocery store, where a racist gunman targeted mainly black people, as well as an attack on Asian parishioners at a California church that is being investigated as a hate crime. Both occurred within the past two weeks.
He also mentioned HR8, CNBC reports, which is a bill that would expand background checks for gun purchases. The Democratic-controlled House passed it in 2019, but the measure would need to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold in the evenly-divided Senate. Republicans, many of whom are backed by the National Rifle Association, have successfully swatted away several attempts to impose restrictions on access to guns.
