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'When are we going to do something?' NBA coach Steve Kerr explodes after Texas shooting

Warriors coach makes a case for gun control in impassioned speech after Texas school massacre

By Andy Leal Cerdá

May 25, 2022 8:41am

Updated: May 27, 2022 8:38am

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr called for more gun control and criticized U.S. senators who he claimed are holding Americans "hostage" in the wake of Tuesday's mass shooting at Robb School in Uvalde, Texas. Kerr spoke on the verge of tears before the Western Conference Finals game against the Dallas Mavericks and appeared quite emotional during his remarks, which were more of a speech than a press conference.

"I'm not going to talk about basketball. Nothing has happened with our team in the last six hours," began the Warriors coach, who are one win away from playing in the NBA Finals.

"We're going to start the same tonight. Any basketball questions don't matter. Since we left practice, 14 kids have been killed within 400 miles of here. And a teacher. And in the last ten days we've had elderly black men murdered in a supermarket in Buffalo. We've had Asian churchgoers murdered in Southern California. And now we've had children murdered in 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 out there. I'm so tired of the, I'm sorry, I'm tired of the moments of silence. Enough," Kerr said indignantly and on the verge of tears.


"There are 50 senators right now refusing to vote on H.R.8, which is a background check rule that the House passed a couple of years ago. It's been held up there for two years. And there's a reason they don't vote on it: to maintain power. So I ask you, Mitch McConnell. I ask all the senators who refuse to do anything about 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 seniors, and our parishioners? Because that's what it looks like. That's what we do every week. So I'm fed up. I'm sick of it. We're going to play the game tonight, but I want every person here, every person listening to this, to think about their own child or grandchild or mother or father or father or sister, brother. How would they feel if this happened to them today? We can't become desensitized to this," the Golden State coach sentenced in his harsh criticism of politicians.

"We can't sit here and just read about it and say, Well, let's have a moment of silence. We're going to play a basketball game. And 50 senators in Washington are going to hold us hostage. Do you realize that 90 percent of Americans, regardless of political party, want universal background checks? Ninety percent of us! We are being held hostage by 50 senators in Washington who refuse to even bring it up for 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'm sick of it."

Kerr was not the only high-profile NBA figure to call for change in the wake of another mass shooting in the United States. Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, who has a personal connection to education after helping to create the I PROMISE school in Akron, Ohio, also weighed in. "My thoughts and prayers are with the families of the loved ones lost and injured at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, TX! That's enough man!" posted LeBron.

Mavericks coach Jason Kidd also commented on the issue. "As coaches, as parents, we have kids, people in this room have kids. The news of what's going on, not just here in Texas, but across our country, is sad," he told reporters. Kidd joined Kerr in his complaint, as the Warriors coach has long been a public advocate for stricter gun control measures after his father, Malcolm Kerr, was killed by gunmen when the coach was in college. 

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