NBA coach Steve Kerr condemns U.S. gun control in powerful speech | Mashable.
NBA coach Steve Kerr condemns U.S. gun control in powerful speech
"They won't vote on it because they want to hold on to their own power. It's pathetic. I've had enough." Credit: Tom Pennington / Getty Images Staff |
Steve Kerr, head coach of the Golden State Warriors, has given a powerful speech about gun control following a school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas that left 19 children and two teachers dead on Tuesday.
Kerr was speaking at a press conference ahead of the NBA Conference Finals game between the Golden State Warriors and the Dallas Mavericks — but he made it clear at the start that he wasn't going to be talking about basketball, instead using the platform to condemn Senators who've yet to vote on H.R.8, a bill that would require a background check prior to private firearm sales.
"When are we going to do something?" Kerr asked. "I'm tired, I'm so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there. I'm tired of the moments of silence. Enough."
You can read Kerr's speech below, in full:
"I'm not going to talk about basketball, nothing's happened with our team in the last six hours. We're going to start the same way tonight. Any basketball questions don't matter.
Since we left shootaround, 14 children were killed 400 miles from here, and a teacher. And in the last 10 days we've had elderly Black people killed in a supermarket in Buffalo, we've had Asian churchgoers killed in Southern California, and now we have children murdered at school.
"When are we going to do something? I'm tired, I'm so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there. I'm tired of the moments of silence. Enough.
"There's 50 senators, right now, who refuse to vote on H.R.8, which is a background check rule that the House passed a couple of years ago, it's been sitting there for two years. And there's a reason they won't vote on it: To hold onto power. 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. It's what we do every week.
"So 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, yeah, go Dubs, come on Mavs, let's go.' That's what we're going to do, we're going to play a basketball game. And 50 Senators in Washington are going to hold us hostage.
You realise 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 a vote, despite what we, the American people, want. They won't vote on it because they want to hold on to their own power. It's pathetic. I've had enough."
SEE ALSO: GoFundMe has launched a verified fundraising hub for the Robb Elementary School shooting
Kerr has been vocal on gun control in the past, going viral in 2018 with a speech he made following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida that saw 14 students and 3 staff members killed.
He's previously argued that gun laws should be considered a "public health issue," and he's been critical of the U.S. government in the past regarding their lack of action on issues like background checks and for "cowing to the NRA." Kerr's own father, university professor Malcolm Kerr, was shot and killed by two gunmen outside his office in Beirut, in 1984.
Kerr's comments about gun control have been echoed by President Joe Biden in the aftermath of the Texas shooting, with the U.S. leader asking on Tuesday when the country would stand up to the gun lobby and "do what needs to be done."
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The only 'incomprehensible' aspect is that Americans continue to excuse these horrors with infantile bleatings about the imaginary threat of an oppressive government. The end of the Trump era showed just how incompetent the proponents of this argument are.
ReplyDeletehaha now you have opresive govermant in usa..right??
DeleteI'm Australian....
Deletestay in your lane then. Worry about your blade based crimes, we’ll worry about gun based here.
DeleteWhat blade based crimes?
Deleteall you foreigners love to tote the fact you don’t have guns. Sure, law abiding don’t, criminals find a way, ALWAYS. I know blade based crimes are prevalent overseas so I always assume that’s what they go for whenever somebody talks crap behind a keyboard
DeleteIts pretty straight foreward, read some stats.
Deleteit’s pretty simple: worry about your own
Deletedude! 🤦♀️ Australia had a mass shooting! Guess what they did? Got rid of guns. Guess what they don’t have since then? Mass shootings!
DeleteSo how about you stay in your lane, the uneducated one, even though your lane sucks.
get rid of guns, criminals find a way. You people are so stupid. People will ALWAYS find a way to do harm. The world is NOT sunshine and bunnies.
Deleteno it’s you that is dumb. Thinking you can just get rid of something and all will be fixed
DeleteI assume you never left your country, therefore, you have no idea how safe the majority of people live in countries with strict gun laws. Try to buy an assault rifle in Australia or Germany on the black market! You can’t because you absolutely can’t afford it, peanut.
Deleteagain, if it’s not guns, it’s something else, explosives, knives, improvise something, you’re never gonna stop people from causing harm. Apparently common sense is a foreign concept to you isn’t it “peanut”?
Deleteyou are the last person who should refer to common sense. And please educate me, when was the last time someone blew up a school with explosives in the US?
Deleteyeah, was fun watching you be treated like slaves during Covid nightmare, what insanity. Why? You guys stupidly gave up your guns, you still haven't learned anything.
DeleteYou forget your insane draconian Government during Covid.
DeleteYou win the prize for the most pointless, clueless comment for the day.
DeleteWhy do people so rapidly forget there is something far more deadly than a few school shootings. That is the corpses that have been stacked by Governments that have disarmed their citizens. The count is 262 million in just the last 100 years alone.
Deletethinking that you can fix it and still keep your guns Is idiocy, if you can’t see that well then you have just proved my point.
Deletebut Kaepernick said America is the most oppressive nation on Earth?
DeleteI had to Google that one. Yeah... Nah.
DeleteNothing will ever change when an amendment means more to these people than a human life. All these children dead and all people care about is still their rights to own a gun and they will send thoughts and prayers as per norm and get on with their lives because it doesn't affect them.
ReplyDeletethe tricky part here is that the bad guys don't care about gun laws. They're going to have them whether the rest of us do or not.
DeleteYes I understand that but been quite a few cases where a young person with mental health issues as got the gun from their parent's home and then went on a shooting rampage. I understand an American owning a hand gun because of the crime over there but so many have loads of weapons and the law needs to crack down on these
DeleteChicago IL has some of the most strict gun laws in the country.... And is also famous for shootings. Outlawing them makes the rest of us as helpless as those children. The parents have to be held responsible for how these kids are raised. No one loses their mind and goes on a shooting rampage out of the clear Blue sky for no good reason.
Delete18 year old people cannot buy beer...but can buy guns....mmm
ReplyDeleteIs there any sort of mandatory psychological test pre-requisite to be done so gun can be bought in the US?
Steve Kerr, you are most welcome to reside in Australia 🇦🇺.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely frightful that the people in the US are putting up with this. It will keep on happening because the Government or powers that be that support the gun laws over there & want the support & money that this lobby generates is greed & stupidly.
not that hard to get guns here
DeleteThe NRA supports and gives this money to our politicians that’s why they don’t pass the law on gonna control Who needs automatic weapons for hunting
ReplyDeleteNo one lol and no one hunts with a fully automatic weapon you don't even know what your talking about. Do your self a favor look up who can legally be given the rights to a fully automatic weapon without a military background of sorts lol the list is quite short unless your In a Field that requires you to have said legal means
Deletehey dude. guess ford and Chevy pay politicians to keep cars on the highway although the cars kill 30 thousand people a year in America!
DeleteWe’re talking about guns stupid
Deletehey pendaho who’s stupid wey? A mechanical device is operated by a person! Savy?
DeleteSteve Kerr did what most celebrities could not do. That is of course to point out the reason for better gun control is being held hostage by 50 US senators who are thinking only of their tenure in office. Steve Kerr is simply echoing what
ReplyDeletemost Americans feel about the recent shootings of innocent people. Find out which Senators belong to that list of self serving people who do not agree to stricter gun control and stop them on election day. Self serving heartless people!
So well said
DeleteHe’s rich enough to move out of USA. Get out if you don’t like it
ReplyDeleteYou like it?
Deletethat tells everyone about how you feel about school kids being gunned down log dogs . Why don’t you leave .
DeleteGun control is not the answer. Mentally unstable people will still get guns on the black market. Its the idiots not the gun .
ReplyDeleteWhat is an 18 year old doing with body armor let alone 3 guns? Where did he get them??? Who sold this to an 18 year old? I’d be looking for that guy???
ReplyDeletethe only thing you have is a firearm body armor is not a thing you need permission not a ID to purchase stick to fire arms body armor is not tangible
Deletein some states drinking is 25 how hard can it be to do the same with guns for a start , usa is Wild West their racism was so prominent , never forget the series roots as a kid
Deletehe bought them legally. That's the problem. No one, regardless of age, should be able to buy them.
DeleteAnyone hear of Timothy McVeigh? Anyone can buy those items. What about what the guys used in Boston, during that marathon? Anyone can buy those items. What about the people who use vehicles?
Deleteyeah obviously guns aren’t walking around killing people. Can we stop the sophomoric responses any time this debate comes up? Why don’t we see this type of gun violence in other 1st world countries? What makes America so unique to have an estimated 12 children a day lose their life to gun violence? If only we could point to one key differentiator between us and other developed nations.
ReplyDeleteLiberal indoctrination. Morality in this country is in the abyss.
ReplyDeletesomeone here has definitely been indoctrinated.
ReplyDeleteAw Daaang let’s ban cars too that will end all car deaths
ReplyDeleteLets put antidepressants into the drinking water so nobody ever does this again.
ReplyDeletethen everyone will do it.
DeleteDon't let them have one. Licences, minimum age, justification +++. It's all about big money
Deletehe bought two AR 15s a couple days before. No license and had a prior felony. Just amazing.
Deleteand zero vetting. Crazy.
DeleteI am sorry about this great loss. You can have the tightest gun control acts or amendments. The criminals are always going to have the guns to harm the public. If the law abiding citizen can't protect their homes or families. Ask Australia about their gun controls and how their home invasions and spike of criminal activity is out of control?
ReplyDeleteI am Australian and you are talking absolute rubbish. Home invasions in Australia are extremely rare and I don't know what "spike in criminal activity" you are talking about. Guessing you simply made that up. The current laws have been in place since shortly after the Port Arthur massacre 25 years ago where a mentally ill person went on a rampage killing 35 people. The reforms were overwhelmingly supported by the public as there has not been a mass shooting since. Few people disagreed with the reforms which include background checks and you can still buy guns and keep them in your house if you wish as long as you are licensed and the guns are registered.
DeleteWhat are you talking about? Who is taking away people to concentration camps? What kind of gibberish is this?
Deleteas an Australian, I can affirm that you have subscribed to drivel.
DeleteHe's obviously getting his info from a bs gun lobby site trying to sell guns or conspiracy theory site. Nothing he claims is remotely true and all Australia has to do is look to the US to see what a mess it is with the number of mass shootings to know that they are going in the completely wrong direction and we want nothing like that in Australia.
Deleteare you high?? We don’t have concentration camps. For most of Covid life went by as normal. Businesses were open and we could do what we wanted. We (mostly) all agreed with the lockdowns to take the pressure off our health system. The result is one of the lowest death rates in the world.
DeleteWe don’t need guns to stand up to our government. We just vote and rely on the rule of law.
It’s funny how you guys just don’t get it…. We used to laugh at your countries ignorance but now we just feel sad for you guys because basic logic is beyond your grasp. You’ve surrendered your govt to the NRA and a weapons industry that just isn’t needed.
wow, this proves my worst fears about your subscription to far right conspiracy theories.
DeleteAs I said, there is nothing stopping sane, law abiding Australians from purchasing guns and keeping them in their home for personal protection if they choose. It is undeniable that less guns in a society results in fewer crimes being committed with guns as well as fewer people being killed with guns.
Deletei rather be locked down and in any form of camps than children getting shot at.
DeleteThat's nonsense. You can put forward these silly arguments but all the data shows when guns are taken away then gun crime and deaths all go down significantly. Whatever about having small arms, why people are allowed to use fully automatic weapons is beyond me. It's based on a rule from a time that doesn't exist any more and is so far from normal.
Deleteyou do talk alot of nonsense 😆
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-TWbnLvjRB8
DeleteFrom Australia here. What a load of codswallop. You watch the gun lobby fake news. Or you just straight out lie. We watch the gun carnage in the US with horror. It's clear folks like you love guns more than children.
Deletemost of the criminals hurt each other, drug rings +++. The public rarely are involved. Like all countries there are some horrible family situations. Gun control in Oz and the control has made our country so much safer. This guy was a nutter and if gun licensing and ownership was tighter he would not have had guns flack jackets ++++ as an 18 year old
DeleteRight tell the government when it turns against its own people and become tyrannical it happened in China and Russia.
DeleteAnother facile argument!
DeleteJust thinking about of the box since insanity prevails. How about all gun owners are required to undergo a mental evaluation annually. You can't do mental evals on guns.
ReplyDeletein Russia (in USSR) ownership of guns is (was) prohibited - do we have less murders???...
ReplyDeleteStay in your lane. This isn’t a gun control issue. It’s a human issue.
ReplyDeletestay in your lane? Lol. These are posts from people having a discussion with both points of view being represented. No “lanes” or telling people how to behave.
Deleteplease. Has he ever talked about it before yesterday? Nope.
DeleteWhy is it that there is no security in every school in US?
ReplyDeleteMOAR GUNZ FAR EVERYON TO PROTECC THEM FROM SCHOOL SHOOTERS 🤡
Deletebecause these clowns in charge would rather give $40 billion to Ukraine
DeleteMissing the point there wil.
DeleteIf it is a school the Head of school and the teachers are the security of our children
DeleteIn my country, every school have arm security guards. Not just two but 6-7 guards checking the bags for arms and gates are way up high.
DeleteThat is very sad. You make the point why do or would these children have arms or weapons in their bags and where and how did they get them? 6 to 7 guards is a huge cost taking money from education of the kids
DeleteNo it is the school policy since kidnapping is very rampant here where children's internal organ are their source of income of the kidnappers.
DeleteWhich country are you in?
DeleteI guess the Philippines a country I love visiting
Deleteonly in america do these mass shooting occur....its just insane.
ReplyDeleteMy hat's off to you Mr. Steve Kerr!
ReplyDeleteAthletes and coaches need to worry about their sport. They shouldn’t be talking about non sport issues when they are on team functions.
ReplyDeleteEspecially when they have no idea what they are talking about.
Wrong
Deletewow what a great argument. I bet you sway everyone you speak with since you are so eloquent.
DeleteI appreciate your kind comments, thanks
DeleteNothing you can do about a crazy person with a gun. Nothing.
ReplyDeleteSo sad. Unbelievable that this continue to go on 😪
ReplyDeleteYour presidents doesn't takes responsibility for destroying other countries how do you expect the peoples to be responsible with a gun
ReplyDeleteThen run for office Kerr. Until then, shut the F up and talk about basketball
ReplyDeleteWhen money matters no more... Which means NEVER...
ReplyDeleteBetter idea to psych test the numptys I think. People kill people, not guns
ReplyDeletehttps://media1.tenor.co/images/51f01229c348185323ed0f764b7b1867/tenor.gif?c=VjFfZmFjZWJvb2tfd2ViY29tbWVudHM&itemid=25392204
ReplyDeleteAmerica will never change. It's more of the same.
ReplyDeletePro life: all life is precious, can’t let people choose individually, let’s save those one-inch “babies” inside a woman’s womb…
ReplyDelete… so they can go to school and be shot along with other kids and teachers because guns are an essential individual choice.
Why gun control - for Texas elementary schools?
ReplyDeleteDo something!!! Have The Senate VOTE. Have Mitch McConnell VOTE
ReplyDeleteWe need to arm all children with assault rifles and grenades.
ReplyDeletedon’t forget the Samurai Swords
DeleteYou 'll never learn with ur stupid gun control laws.
ReplyDeleteIllogical lunatic
ReplyDeleteNational referenda on these topics would wrestle back control from the grizzled, power hungry morons in DC...end of story
ReplyDeleteCongress will never do anything. The NRA controls them with $$$
ReplyDelete50 senators voting against any reform paid by the NRA so disgusting … time to end .. this .. for once and for good .. Yesss he is right .. Time has come to do something .. it cannot continue … no way ..
ReplyDeleteVote the republicans out
ReplyDeleteI dont think many people in the US realise how different it is everywhere else. This DOES NOT HAPPEN in other countries to anything like the exten of the US. I think there are millions and millions of people who think all this is normal while the rest of the world looks at events like this in pure shock and disbelief how a country can be so f*cking stupid.
ReplyDeleteThey have kept most of America in the dark and isolated from the rest of the world since WW2. The media is government controlled, so is education- travel is so expensive regular everyday people cannot afford it. Fluoride is kept in the public water supply, 'to reduce cavities,' for your own good...the list goes on.
DeleteIt is hard to watch. 😞
Sorry sir but your country is madcow and will never ever change this will pass like another shooting before and forgotten as another headlines news coming hot
ReplyDeleteDO NOT GIVE UP YOUR GUNS WHATEVER YOU DO
ReplyDeleteThere is no such thing as random and nothing is a coincidence. In a world where the ruling party will kill American soldiers at a whim and will do everything they can to kill unborn babies. Do you really think having brainwashed Mules with guns is beneath them!
ReplyDeleteIs Noone going to talk about the SSRIs that all the mass murderers have been given by doctors who aren't being taken in for their terrible malpractice?
ReplyDeleteThere is nothing a tyrannical government love more than an unarmed population...those who ignore history are destined to repeat it.
ReplyDeleteGuns how about pointing your finger at that idiot joe boy and his clowns you elected coach Kerr ranting and blaming the gun that kid is to blame bright eyes
ReplyDelete🙄🤔 Wow you're sharp as a bowling ball and twice as dense with matching personalities and IQ's !!
Delete