'Thank God Trump wasn't hit': Team USA's Steph Curry and Steve Kerr call for gun control after Trump assassination attempt

NBA star Steph Curry and his Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr both expressed sadness over the attempted killing of former President Donald Trump but also called for stricter gun control.

Following the shooting of Trump, members of the Team USA Olympic basketball team were asked by reporters for their reactions to the horrific events.

Kerr, who is both the coach of the NBA's Warriors and Team USA, said his team would be paying special attention to how they conduct themselves on behalf of the country:

"This is a time where we feel very proud to represent our country wearing USA on our chest, competing in the Olympics," Kerr told reporters while in Abu Dhabi, UAE. "We've talked to the players about how important it is to show the best version of us as human beings to represent our country in a respectful, dignified manner. It makes you want to do that even more so, because this is really shameful for us to sit here and think about what happened and what's going on in our country."

ESPN noted that Kerr's father was assassinated in 1984 in Beirut, Lebanon, after being targeted by a militant group called Islamic Jihad. Malcolm Kerr served as the president of the American University of Beirut.

"It's such a demoralizing day for our country, and it's yet another example of not only our political division but also gun culture," Kerr continued, then describing the shooter. "A 20-year-old with an AR-15 trying to shoot the former president. It's hard to process everything, and it's scary to think about where this goes because of the issues that already exist in the country. So this is a terrible day."

"Thank God Trump wasn't hit, but it's just so demoralizing in every which way," he added.

'Obviously, gun control first and foremost.'

However, the attempted assassin, Thomas Matthew Crooks, has been widely reported to have taken his father's legally purchased rifle to commit his crimes. The gun was purchased in 2013, ABC News reported.

Curry, an NBA champion and Team USA star, also weighed in from Abu Dhabi. Curry echoed sentiments of sadness but also called for further restrictions on firearms.

"It's obviously a very sad time in general," Curry said. "All the conversations around the election and the state of politics in our country, and then you have a situation like this, which just [evokes] a lot of emotions around things that we need to correct as a people," he said in front of a Team USA backdrop.

"Obviously, gun control first and foremost, because the fact that that's even possible for somebody to have an attack like that. But just more so you want to [see] positivity and hope. It sounds cheesy, but it's real. That's when our country's at its best, and it just adds another blemish to what's going on. So sad is just the word," he concluded.

Curry and Kerr were both guests at the White House in early 2023 to present basketball jerseys to the president. At the same time, Kerr and some of his players participated in a round table on the matter of gun control.

Kerr's anti-gun activism goes back many years, having even made statements blaming Republicans for shootings.

They "refuse to do anything about the violence, the school shootings, the supermarket shootings," Kerr said in 2022. They put their "desire for power ahead of the lives of our children, our elderly, and our churchgoers," he added.

Curry has more broadly spoken out against gun violence but is generally less vehement than Kerr in his calls for stricter laws.

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