An NBA-champion coach has delivered an emotional appeal to people and politicans to affect change after the Florida school shooting, writes
.At least 17 people died after a gunman opened fire at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
According to data from the Gun Violence Archive, it's the 30th mass shooting in the US so far in 2018. There were 346 mass shootings in America in 2017 and 383 in 2016, more than one a day.
Steve Kerr, whose father Malcolm was shot dead in 1984 while serving as president of the American University of Beirut, has been an outspoken critic of the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms.
Before the Golden State Warriors' loss to the Portland Trail Blazers, he spoke of the lack of action to prevent such shootings.
Steve Kerr’s powerful message on the shooting massacre in Florida. pic.twitter.com/Lo4k66JG4G
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) February 15, 2018
"Nothing has been done," said Kerr.
"It's not enough, apparently, to move our leadership, our government, the people who are running our country, to actually do anything and that's demoralising.
"But we can do something about it. We can vote people in who actually have the courage to protect people's lives, and not just bow down to the NRA (National Rifle Association) because they have financed their campaign for them.
"Hopefully we'll find enough people, first of all to vote good people in, but hopefully we can find enough people with courage to actually help our citizens remain safe and focus on the real safety issues.
"Not building some stupid wall for billions of dollars that has nothing to do with our safety, but actually protecting us from what truly is dangerous, which is maniacs with semi-automatic weapons just slaughtering our children. It's disgusting."