Warriors coach Steve Kerr speaks out on gun reform after Santa Fe High School shooting

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr is generally quick to speak on issues taking place in the United States away the basketball court.

Things were no different following the mass shooting at Santa Fe High School outside of Houston on Friday morning.

“It never surprises me anymore,” Kerr told the San Jose Mercury News on Saturday. “This is a part of our culture now. We need to have laws in place in every state that your guns need to be locked up.”

A 17-year-old student killed 10 people and injured 13 others at Santa Fe High School on Friday morning, marking the 22nd school shooting this year. The shooter was armed with a shotgun and a revolver, which are owned by his father.

The biggest issue in this specific shooting, Kerr said, is that there is no law in Texas requiring the safe keeping of guns in the home.

“The fact that there is no law against that and 10 people were killed and maybe those 10 people wouldn’t be killed if the father had locked up the guns,” Kerr told the Mercury News. “It’s pretty obvious, let’s make that a law. It’s not infringing on anybody’s Second Amendment rights.

“We don’t hand the keys to a car when a kid gets to be 16. We make him go through driver’s [education]. We make him pass a test, we make him get a license, you keep a database on that person, you register the car. We need to do all the same things with guns and if we do that, we’ll save lives and anybody who’s going to argue with that, I would say, ‘Imagine if it was your kid who doesn’t come back from a school shooting.’ Maybe you’ll agree that schools should have more safety laws in place.”

Kerr has long advocated for gun reform. After the mass shooting in Las Vegas last year that resulted in the heath of 59 people, Kerr said that the country needs to offer more than just thoughts and prayers. After the mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas just a month later that left 26 dead, Kerr described gun violence as a “public health crisis.”

He even hosted a town hall event on gun violence in March after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglass high school in Florida that left 17 dead.

He is far from the first major sports figure to speak out about the Santa Fe shooting, too. Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch was initially at a loss for words when he was asked about it on Friday, and Rockets star Chris Paul opened up his press conference talking about the shooting on Friday night. Texans defensive end J.J. Watt even reached out to the school, offering to pay for the funerals for the victims of the shooting.

And even though Kerr said he wasn’t surprised that another mass shooting took place, he did say that he can see the issue progressing forward.

“It’s already in play,” Kerr told the Mercury News. “The tide shifted with the Douglas shooting because you were dealing with a bunch of kids who are old enough to put up a fight and to become of voting age. Things are going to change when young people in this country decide to vote. And as we speak, young people are registering to vote all around the country. This is going get to a point where it’s not a partisan issue. It’s going to get to point to where if you want to hold a spot in public office, you’re going to be held accountable, regardless of your party affiliation.”

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