'I continue to educate myself': Patrick Mahomes explains why he didn't call for gun control after Super Bowl parade shooting

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes said that he was not quick to jump into a gun control narrative after a shooting at the Super Bowl parade because he needed more education on the subject.

After winning Super Bowl LVIII, the Chiefs gathered with approximately 1 million of their fans in the streets of Kansas City, Missouri, to celebrate their second consecutive championship.

At the event, a shooting left 24 people injured with one 43-year-old mother killed. At least six people fired weapons that day.

While Mahomes and his wife, Brittany, visited kids in the hospital and donated to a victims' fund, the quarterback did not make any statements on gun control following the incident; the norm for many celebrities. He decided to tell TIME why he felt it was inappropriate to make comments at the time.

"I continue to educate myself," he told the outlet. "I don't want to make a quick response to something that takes a lot of education to really learn and make a swaying comment based off that. But I know we have to find a solution of some way to make this stuff stop."

Mahomes' teammate, kicker Harrison Butker, said directly that he believed strong fathers were the solution to crimes like gun violence.

"I know gun violence was a big discussion, but at the end of the day, this is degenerate violence, and it should not be occurring," he said.

"I don't think guns are the issue. I think we need fathers in the home that are being great examples for our youth," Butker emphasized.

MVP Mahomes has not been shy about jumping into political activism in the past, however. In 2020, he joined other black NFL players to make a video that asked, "What if I was George Floyd?" which directed the NFL to condemn racism.

The video also asked the league to "admit" it was wrong about "silencing our players from peacefully protesting," while showing images of Colin Kaepernick, who started the trend of kneeling during the national anthem.

Mahomes has also joined the very politically active LeBron James for voting campaigns in the past, but he said that while it is likely he would do something similar for the 2024 presidential election, he would not endorse a candidate.

"I don’t want to pressure anyone to vote for a certain president," he said. "I want people to use their voice, whoever they believe in. I want them to do the research."

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