OAKLAND — Warriors Coach Steve Kerr, whose father Malcolm Kerr was assassinated in 1984 by gunmen in Lebanon, on Friday endorsed stronger background checks on gun purchases, saying “our government is insane” for failing to adopt such measures.
Kerr’s remarks came at the end of a podcast with Bay Area News Group columnist Tim Kawakami. As Kawakami thanked him for appearing on “The TK Show,” Kerr asked to speak on one more topic, saying, “I just have to get this off my chest.”
Kerr expressed frustration that despite the support of “90 percent of our country,” Congress has failed to pass laws requiring background checks on gun sales, specifically to people on the no-fly list.
“Let’s have some checks. It’s easier to get a gun than it is a driver’s license. And it’s insane. And as somebody who has had a family member shot and killed, it just devastates me every time I read about this stuff, like what happened in Orlando, and then it’s even more devastating to see the government just cowing to the NRA and going to this totally outdated Bill of Rights, right to bear arms, you know, if you want to own a musket, fine. But come on.”
Kerr said he believed the Founding Fathers would not have allowed automatic weapons to be sold. The right to bear arms, he said, dates back to 1776 when “you had to have a musket in case the Redcoats were coming.”
The “beautiful thing about the Constitution is they left open amendments to change things because, things change over time.”
Kerr criticized North Carolina Sen. Mark Walker for saying this week’s congressional sit-in was a “disgrace” to the 1960s Woolworth sit-ins, which were for rights. The Democrats in the congressional sit-in were trying to take away rights, Walker tweeted.
“That is one of the most disgusting things I’ve heard,” Kerr said. The Woolworth sit-ins were about the fight for “real civil rights.” What the congressional sit-in was about was trying to prevent people on a terrorist list from buying automatic weapons, he said. “We’re going to call those rights?”
“The rest of the world thinks we’re insane, and we are insane,” Kerr said. “Until we vote these senators and congressmen and women out of office, the same thing” is going to happen.
“It’s infuriating and I had to get that off my chest.”
It wasn’t the first time Kerr has spoken out in favor of gun control. When the Warriors visited the Oval Office in February to commemorate their 2015 NBA championship, Kerr thanked President Barack Obama for his work on the issue.
At the time, Kerr told this newspaper gun control “is an important political issue for me and my family. We believe very strongly there needs to be greater measures, so how often am I going to get the chance to thank the president for something that he’s working on? He seemed very appreciative.”
Malcolm Kerr, then president of the American University of Beirut, was gunned down by Islamic terrorists in the hallway outside his office. Kerr had been at the university for 16 months when he was killed by two shots from a revolver on the morning of Jan. 18, 1984.
Steve Kerr was a freshman at the University of Arizona when his father was murdered. A pro-Iranian group calling itself the Islamic Holy War claimed responsibility, according to the New York Times.
“How many times do we have to go through this before our government actually does something about it?” Kerr said during Friday’s podcast. “It’s just incredible.”
Contact Mark Gomez at 408-920-5869 and follow him at Twitter.com/MarkMgomez.
