Kerr laments gun laws in wake of Rittenhouse ruling
DETROIT — Warriors head coach Steve Kerr views Friday’s news that Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty of homicide and other charges as further evidence that the U.S. is “treading down a dangerous path.”
“I think the thing that I’m most concerned about is just gun laws in this country,” Kerr said before Golden State’s game against the Pistons at Little Caesars Arena. “The fact that we are seemingly OK’ing a teenager’s right to take an AR-15 into an area where there’s civil unrest, that’s really scary and concerning.
“But, this is where we are with gun laws. This is why we have to have safer gun laws in place to protect ourselves and protect each other.”
Rittenhouse, 18, fatally shot two men and wounded another amid rioting and protests over police brutality in Kenosha, Wis., in August 2020. After 26 hours of deliberation, a jury seemingly accepted Rittenhouse’s explanation Friday that he had defended himself during that chaotic scene 15 months ago.
The non-guilty verdict, which has proven deeply polarizing, left Kerr wondering why Rittenhouse had been able to own a gun in the first place. A vocal advocate for gun safety, he believes that many of the shootings that have devastated communities throughout the U.S. could have been prevented if the country simply made it more difficult to possess a firearm.
No hot-button topic has affected Kerr more personally than gun violence. Kerr, whose father was assassinated in 1984 by two gunmen outside his office in Beirut, has discussed the subject repeatedly, including after mass shootings in rural Texas and Florida.
He believes that, unless lawmakers make significant changes to gun-safety regulations, he will have to address the topic again and again after more tragic killings.
“It wasn’t a shocking verdict,” Kerr said of the Rittenhouse ruling. “But, it’s one that poses great risk going forward if we continue to go down this path of open carry and states determining that people can just carry — even underaged people and weapons of war.”
Injury updates: The Warriors ruled out Stephen Curry (left hip bruise), Draymond Green (right thigh bruise), Andre Iguodala (sore right knee) and Otto Porter Jr. (left foot injury management) for Friday’s game against the Pistons.
“These guys are hurt,” Kerr said. “They’re banged up. We were hoping that they’d be able to play tonight. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the case.”
Kerr is optimistic that Curry, Green and Porter will be available for Sunday’s game against Toronto. However, Iguodala’s status is more in flux.
“We’ll see with Andre,” Kerr said. “He had some swelling in his knee yesterday. He said it’s better today. But just given where he is in his career agewise, it’ll be a day-to-day thing.”