An emotional Steve Kerr slammed US Senators for not passing gun laws after the Texas school shooting

• After a shooting in an elementary school left 21 dead in Uvalde, Texas, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr slammed US Senators for not passing gun laws.
• Kerr said the Senate is holding people "hostage" by not voting on gun laws, like background checks.

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr chastised US Senators in an emotional plea for gun law reform after a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, left 21 people dead Tuesday.

Speaking to reporters before Game 4 between the Warriors and Dallas Mavericks, an emotional Kerr slammed the table while yelling, "When are we gonna do something?"

Kerr began his comments by saying he wouldn't discuss basketball, saying the questions "don't matter."

"I'm so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there," Kerr said, as he rubbed his hands over his face.

"I'm tired of the moments of silence. Enough! There's 50 Senators right now who refuse to vote on H.R.8, which is a background-check rule that the House passed a couple years ago. It's been sitting there for two years. And there's a reason they won't vote on it: to hold onto power."

According to Congress' website, H.R.8, or House Resolution 8, "prohibits a firearm transfer between private parties unless a licensed gun dealer, manufacturer, or importer first takes possession of the firearm to conduct a background check."

CBS reported in 2019 that the Democrat-controlled House passed H.R.8 by a 240-190 vote in an attempt to close firearm sale loopholes. However, McConnell, the Senate minority leader, had not put the resolution up to a vote.

"So I ask you, Mitch McConnell," Kerr said. "I ask all of you Senators who refuse to do anything about the violence and the 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 church-goers? Because that's what it looks like."

At the time of this writing, the shooting in Uvalde killed 18 children and 3 adults, making it the deadliest school shooting since Sandy Hook in 2013.

The Texas shooting comes just 10 days after a gunman opened fire in a grocery store in Buffalo, New York, killing 10, — the deadliest mass shooting in the US this year.

Kerr asked everyone listening to consider the hypothetical of losing their own loved ones to a mass shooting.

"I want every person here, every person listening to this to think about your own child or grandchild, or mother, sister, brother, how would you feel if this happened to you today?" he said.

Kerr, for one, does know how it feels. His father, Malcolm Kerr, was murdered by two gunmen in a hallway outside his office at the American University of Beirut, in Lebanon, where he served as president.

"We can't get numb to this," the outspoken Warriors coach said. "We can't just sit here and read about this and go, 'Well, let's have a moment of silence. Go Dubs. You know. Go Mavs, let's go. That's what we're gonna do — we're gonna go play a basketball game. And 50 Senators in Washington are gonna hold us hostage.

"Do you realize 90% of Americans, regardless of political party, want background check, universal background check? 90% of us! We are being held hostage by 50 Senators in Washington who refuse to even put it to a vote, despite what we the American people want."

Kerr stormed out of the press conference, yelling: "It's pathetic! I've had enough!"

Watch the video below:

—Golden State Warriors (@warriors) May 24, 2022