Steve Kerr: ‘Somebody could walk in the door in the gym right now and start spraying us with an AR15’

Authored by mercurynews.com and submitted by deadskin
image for Steve Kerr: ‘Somebody could walk in the door in the gym right now and start spraying us with an AR15’

LAS VEGAS – At this point, Steve Kerr should feel relaxed.

The Warriors’ coach has vacationed for about six weeks in San Diego and in England. Even if the Warriors lost Kevin Durant and Andre Iguodala this summer, Kerr still remains encouraged with the Warriors’ direction since the franchise still has Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green.

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Warriors’ Steve Kerr offers a sneak preview on how he will handle next season’s roster Although they will have a busy itinerary with the FIBA World Cup in China (Aug. 31- Sept. 15), Kerr’s role as an assistant coach for the U.S. Men’s national team hardly compares to his Warriors gig. After all, that has coincided with plenty of hearty meals and wine with Team USA coach Gregg Popovich.

Still, Kerr sounded irritated. There have been three mass shootings in the past week in Gilroy (Calif.), El Paso (Texas) and Dayton (Ohio). And the Warriors’ coach has become increasingly irritable at Republican lawmakers for their refusal to pass any gun control legislation.

“I think about it all the time. Somebody could walk in the door in the gym right now and start spraying us with an AR-15,” Kerr told Bay Area News Group as he eyed the practice court on Monday. “They could. It might happen because we’re all vulnerable, whether we go to a concert, a church, the mall or go to the movie theatre or a school. It’s up to us as Americans to demand change from the gutless leadership that continues to allow this to happen and continues to somehow claim the second amendment is doing its job. The second amendment is about the right to defend yourself. The only thing that second amendment is doing is leading to mass murder right now. This is all just insanity.”

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It does not seem surprising Kerr refused to stick to sports. Kerr’s father was assassinated as a diplomat in Lebanon in 1984 in what was considered an act of terrorism. Kerr has commented publicly any time a mass shooting has happened in the United States, both to express sympathy to the victims’ families and to call for stricter gun laws. That has left Kerr speaking out a lot. There have been 256 mass shootings in the United States this year, and eight of the 25 most deadliest mass shootings have happened in the past three years.

Despite those dire developments, Kerr remained optimistic the mass shootings will stop.

“It’s going to happen. The momentum is building,” Kerr said. “People are more and more frustrated in our country. I think at this point, the vast majority of people in this country have had it. Now it’s a matter of taking action.”

What has been that action? The Democrats have a 222-196 majority in the House after gaining 27 seats in the 2018 midterm elections. Kerr cited growing gun safety groups, including the Brady Campaign, the Sandy Hook Promise, March for Our Lives and the Giffords’ group. Kerr has held out hope that President Donald Trump will not be reelected and the Republican senators will not have a majority following the 2020 elections.

No wonder Kerr expressed more outrage recently by questioning lawmakers directly in 140 characters.

In the past week, Kerr has retweeted 26 posts either promoting an article or commentary on gun violence on his Twitter account. He cited articles critiquing to the country’s lack of stricter gun laws and the rise of white supremacists. Kerr also endorsed posts that condemned Trump for his divisive rhetoric. Kerr also criticized Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell directly for his inaction after failing to hold a vote on gun control legislation that passed in the House last year.

That explains why Kerr said he has donated an undisclosed amount of money to support Democratic candidate Amy McGrath, who is challenging McConnell in the U.S. Senate (KY). That explains why Kerr criticized how the U.S. government reacts differently to gun violence, depending on if the shooter is white or a minority.

“We have to get people in place who are going to actually vote on gun measures and value human life over their support for the NRA,” Kerr said. “You get enough people to do that to replace [McConnell] and get somebody with a soul and a conscience leading the Senate. Then if we have enough people in the Senate that actually value human life rather than their jobs and their funding from the NRA, then we’ll have change.”

Kerr has already exhausted plenty of energy on this issue. He participated in a town-hall style meeting with Rep. Ro Khanna and high school students at Newark Memorial High School in March, 2018 about mass shootings. He participated in the “March for Our Lives” protest in San Francisco that same month. Following all of the nine mass shootings in the past three years, Kerr has criticized the NRA’s strong influence on gun control legislation.

In the past week, Kerr struggled processing the three most recent shootings in Gilroy, Calif. (four killed, 13 wounded), El Paso, Texas (22 killed), Dayton, Ohio (nine killed).

“More and more people in the country are so fed up. The vast majority of gun owners believe that, too,” Kerr said. “You think the average gun owner some 22-year-old white supremacist to own an AR-15? Of course not.”

Kerr reached those conclusions after living in San Antonio for five years during part of his NBA career when he played for the Spurs (1999, 2003).

“A lot of my friends have had guns. They’ve had them in gun lockers. It was kept safely away. They weren’t carrying around AR-15’s,” Kerr said. “They had hunting rifles. This is not what it’s about. This is not about someone’s ability to own a gun. “It’s about someone’s ability to have a military style assault rifle with huge magazines. The cops got there in Dayton in one minute after the shooting started. In one minute, the shooter was killed from what I gather. But he killed nine people in one minute because of the gun and the weapon he had. We’re really going to say as Americans we should allow him to carry an AR-15? It’s ridiculous.”

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StepFatherGoose on August 7th, 2019 at 17:34 UTC »

Wait, somebody could just walk in the door? Damn, I headed there now to ask for an autograph.

JeffVanGundyBurner on August 7th, 2019 at 14:51 UTC »

I don't think the majority of this sub realizes that; the very idea that you could be at a random place and a random person not the police is legally permitted to carry a gun at that place (even if they are a good guy) is shocking to most people outside America, whatever their political leaning may be.

TheAmazing_Sarah on August 7th, 2019 at 14:44 UTC »

I didn't even know what happened to his father till now, He had first hand experience with terrorism/gun violence. It's fucking scary that what he said could easily happen.