PORTLAND, Ore. — Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr lamented that he was again speaking about gun violence before a game in Portland seven years after he addressed the horrific mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.
Kerr spoke Sunday night before Golden State's game at the Trail Blazers, a day after two people were killed and nine others were wounded in a shooting at Brown University.
''It's just a reminder to me that these shootings continue to happen and there is something we can do about them,'' Kerr said. ''The loss that all of the people involved last night, the loss that they're feeling, it's exactly the same loss as all the Parkland families, and every other mass shooting. Nobody asked me about it today. I didn't expect anybody to ask me. ... It's human nature just to think `This is so horrible. Let's just not even think about it.' But, we have to think about it.''
Kerr, whose father father Malcom Kerr was killed in Beirut in 1984, has been an outspoken advocate for gun control laws.
In 2018 before a February game in Portland, Kerr expressed his frustration that accused shooter Nikolas Cruz legally bought an AR-17 before killing 17 people and wounding more than a dozen at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
On Sunday, Kerr said the vast majority of gun owners in the United States are responsible, law abiding citizens who have every right to own a gun. But he added that a majority of Americans support reasonable measures to stem gun violence.
''We know that there are common-sense measures we can take that will save people's lives. And I just want people out there, it doesn't matter if you're Democrat or Republican, or a gun owner or non-gun owner, I just want people thinking, what if it were my child, my brother or sister, would you would you be willing to stand up to your representatives and say, `You know what? Enough.'''
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