‘When are we gonna do something?’ NBA coach lashes senators after Texas shooting

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‘When are we gonna do something?’ NBA coach lashes senators after Texas shooting

By Angus Thomson
Updated

Three-time NBA championship-winning coach Steve Kerr has blasted Republican senators, including Mitch McConnell, for refusing to pass gun control legislation after at least 19 students and two adults were killed in a shooting in Texas before the 18-year-old gunman was killed.

The visibly emotional Golden State Warriors coach, speaking before his team’s Western Conference finals match against the Dallas Mavericks, said he was tired of offering condolences to “devastated families” and moments of silence.

He urged Republican senators to stop blocking legislation that would require background checks for people wanting to buy guns.

“In the last 10 days we’ve had elderly black people killed in a supermarket in Buffalo and Asian churchgoers killed in Southern California, and now we have children murdered at school. When are we gonna do something?” he demanded.

“We’re gonna go play a basketball game, and 50 senators in Washington are going to hold us hostage.

“I ask you, Mitch McConnell ... 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.” McConnell leads Republicans in the Senate.

Golden State Warriors basketball coach Steve Kerr speaks to the media.

Golden State Warriors basketball coach Steve Kerr speaks to the media.Credit:San Francisco Chronicle

Kerr, whose father was shot dead in Beirut in 1984, said most Americans supported tighter gun legislation, but Republican senators were refusing to vote on a bipartisan bill mandating universal background checks that was passed by the US House of Representatives in March.

“You realise that 90 per cent of Americans, regardless of political party want background checks ... They won’t vote on it because they want to hold on to their own power. It’s pathetic. I’ve had enough,” a fired-up Kerr said before storming out of the press conference.

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Kerr’s Warriors led Dallas 3-0 in their best of seven series heading into Wednesday’s game (AEST), but the Mavs kept the series alive with a 119-109 win off the back of 30 points, 14 rebounds, and nine assists from star guard Luka Doncic.

The death toll from the shooting at Robb Elementary School, in Uvalde, Texas, has risen to 21, with a further three people wounded in the attack in hospital in a serious condition.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott identified the shooter as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, who reportedly also shot his grandmother before travelling to the school.

The shooter was also killed, but it is unclear whether his death was included in the updated figures.

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