A Tuesday mass shooting at an elementary school in Texas led to the deaths of 19 children and two teachers.
Several members of the sports world including Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James and Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr expressed their anger and called for change. Kerr urged Americans to not get numb to events like these and wondered when the U.S. will do something about the mass shootings that seem to be happening more frequently.
“Since we left shootaround, 14 children were killed 400 miles from here, and a teacher,” Kerr said a few hours prior to his team’s playoff game in Dallas against the Mavericks on Tuesday. “In the last 10 days, we’ve had elderly Black people killed in a supermarket in Buffalo, we’ve had Asian churchgoers killed in Southern California, now we have children murdered at school.” Kerr’s comments came before the death toll from the attack has risen again.
“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 that are out there. I’m so tired. Excuse me. I’m sorry. I’m tired of the moments of silence. Enough,” Kerr continued.
This video of Steve Kerr has been viewed on Twitter over 27 million times.
James, one of the most famous athletes in the world, also commented on the Texas shooting in multiple tweets, with one claiming “there simply has to be change!”
Several other NBA players including the Chris Paul and Jayson Tatum gave their thoughts on the attack on Twitter TWTR, +3.03%.
In the WNBA, Washington Mystics player Natasha Cloud gave an impassioned speech following her team’s game on Tuesday.
In the NFL, several athletes offered their feelings, including Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, who wrote in a tweet that this “has to stop man.”
The gunman, an 18-year-old, was killed by a Border Patrol agent who ran into the school without waiting for backup, law enforcement officials said.
In the immediate hours following the shooting, President Joe Biden repeated his call new gun legislation in a White House speech.
See also: Gun-control groups respond to Uvalde, Texas shooting: ‘Schools should be sanctuaries of safety for our children, not where they go to die’
Any pushes for enhanced gun control measures face a difficult path in an evenly split 50-50 Senate. The filibuster, a rule which requires 60 votes to end debate on most items, is seen as a major roadblock, as MarketWatch’s Victor Reklaitis has reported.
If you’re looking to take action or help the victim’s of the shooting, that information can be found within this story.