Politics

This Basketball Coach’s Searing Speech About The Texas School Shooting Has Gone Viral

"I'm tired of the moments of silence. Enough!"

by Reena Gupta  25 May 2022

Want more Junkee in your life? Sign up to our newsletter, and follow us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook so you always know where to find us.

A basketball coach in the US has gone viral for an emotional and exasperated plea for more stringent gun control.

After a gunman killed at least 19 children in a school shooting in Texas earlier this week, professional basketball coach Steve Kerr delivered a no-holds-barred speech about gun control at a pre-game press conference on Tuesday.

“When are we going to do something?” Kerr shouted, slamming his hands on the table. “I’m tired, I’m so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there. I’m so tired — excuse me, I’m sorry — I’m tired of the moments of silence. Enough!”

Kerr also mentioned HR8, a bill that would expand background checks on those who want to purchase firearms, and called out the senators refusing to vote on it. “There’s a reason they won’t vote on it, it’s because they want to hold on to power,” he said.

According to CNBC, the bill was passed by the House of Representatives in 2019, but it requires 60 votes to clear the filibuster — a feature of congress that allows senators to prolong debate and prevent a bill from being voted on.

“We’re being held hostage by 50 senators in Washington who refuse to even put it to a vote, despite what we, the American people, want,” he said. “They won’t vote on it, because they want to hold on to their own power. It’s pathetic.”

“I ask you, [Senate Minority Leader] 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.”

“We can’t get numb to this.”

According to NPR, the US has already seen 199 mass shootings this year.

Watch Steve Kerr’s speech below.