Warriors coach Steve Kerr calls for gun control after Texas shootings; watch video

NBA Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr, 56, declined to talk about basketball during a Tuesday press conference and said he was frustrated by the escalating gun violence in the United States. The speech came shortly after an 18-year-old gunman killed 19 children and 2 adults at a school in Uvalde, Texas.

“When are we going to do something? I’m so tired of coming here and offering condolences to the devastated families. I’m tired of the silence,” said Kerr, who raised his voice at the end of his speech and left the room with reporters without a second thought. say goodbye

The trainer was especially critical of the lack of gun control in the US and, by name, cited Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. “Until when [os senadores] Are they going to put their own desire for power ahead of children’s lives?” asked Kerr, who was born in Beirut, Lebanon, but grew up in the US.

He also mentioned another violent episode, this one on May 14, when a man killed ten black people in the city of Buffalo, New York, in an attack based on racist theories.

The right to bear arms is guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment to the Constitution, and some federal laws regulate the subject. But change is difficult because Republicans, with power in the Senate to block proposals that change the US Charter, place guns as a symbol of freedom and receive strong lobbying from the arms industry.

A report released by the FBI, the US federal police, on Monday (23), shows that the number of incidents caused by shooters has doubled in the US in the last three years. In 2018, 30 actions were carried out by one or more individuals with the intention to kill in populated areas. In 2021, that number reached 61.

The Golden State Warriors coach cited, for example, the need to check the person’s background, preventing individuals with a history of violence or mental disorders from buying weapons. But a federal bill on the subject, passed in 2021 in the House, is stalled in the US Senate.

Steve’s father, renowned academic Malcolm Kerr, who presided over the American University of Beirut (AUB), was killed in January 1984, aged 52, as he walked towards his office on the university campus, shot twice. Two unidentified men fired the shot. Lebanon, at the time, was in a civil war.

Hours later, the Islamic Jihad Organization, an Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia, claimed responsibility for the murder in a report to the AFP news agency, citing the US military presence in Lebanon as a motive for the crime.