Steve Kerr, NBA coach of the Golden State Warriors gave a vibrant speech at a press conference on Tuesday, when a shooting in Texas had just left 21 dead, including 19 children.
It was a cry from the heart that Steve Kerr pushed on Tuesday. The NBA coach of the Golden State Warriors took advantage of a pre-game press conference between his team and the Dallas Mavericks to react to the shooting of Uvalde. At the end of the morning, 21 people including 19 children were killed in an elementary school in Texas. The shooter, armed with an assault rifle, was 18 years old. He was shot dead by the police.
To read : “There is a shooter at primary school”: 11:32 a.m. in Uvalde, story of a tragic shooting
This new massacre, which adds to the list of numerous shootings in the United States, has once again brought to light the delicate question of the regulation of firearms in a country where the NRA lobby is king. “I’m not going to talk about basketball today. Basketball doesn’t matter,” commented Steve Kerr, particularly moved and angry, in the face of journalists. At the time of his speech, the toll was 14 children and a teacher killed. “In 10 days, we saw elderly black Americans killed in a supermarket in Buffalo, we saw Asian worshipers killed in a church in California. And now children have been killed at school. When are we going to do something?” he lamented, barely holding back tears.
Steve Kerr on today’s tragic shooting in Uvalde, Texas. pic.twitter.com/lsJ8RzPcmC
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) May 24, 2022
“I’m tired. I am so tired of standing here offering my condolences to devastated families. I’m exhausted. Excuse me. I’m sorry. I am exhausted from the minutes of silence. That’s enough”. In the video, which has been posted on Twitter and has already been viewed more than 18 million times, he calls on American politicians to take responsibility, denouncing the “50 senators who are currently refusing to vote” for better gun regulation. , in particular by imposing stricter rules concerning background checks on those who want to own one. “There’s a reason they’re not voting. They want to keep power. “So I ask you, all of you senators who refuse to take action against this violence in schools and supermarkets, I ask you: put your thirst for power first in the lives of our children and our elders. ? Because it looks like it. It looks like it every week.”
Steve Kerr went on to ask everyone never to get used to these tragedies, to react to the “fifty senators in Washington who are holding us hostage”. “It is pathetic ! I’ve had enough,” he concluded. These words have been shared hundreds of thousands of times on social networks, by anonymous or stars. They resonate with those spoken by President Joe Biden, who also said he was “exhausted” and “disgusted”. “When for the love of God are we going to face the gun lobby?” he said on Tuesday after the tragedy. “Those who block or delay common-sense gun laws, we will not forget,” he warned.