Warriors Coach Steve Kerr Calls Trump Shooting an Example of US ‘Gun Culture’

After former President Donald Trump was shot by a would-be assassin with an AR-style rifle at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Warriors and Team USA head coach Steve Kerr condemned the US’s “gun culture.”

“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,” he told ESPN’s Brian Windhorst on Sunday in Abu Dhabi, where he was preparing the team for the Paris Olympics. “This is a terrible day.”

Kerr, whose father was assassinated in 1984 while serving as the president of American University in Beirut, has been a longtime advocate for gun violence prevention. He offered an emotional plea to end gun violence following a 2022 shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas and spoke to students about violence prevention with Vice President Kamala Harris earlier this spring.

Trump, who appeared to be shot in the ear, is “fine,” according to his campaign. Two attendees were critically injured, and a third has died. The shooter, a 20-year-old man from Pennsylvania, was also killed.

Kerr, speaking about his and his team’s reactions to the assassination attempt, described it as a “demoralizing day for our country.”

“Yet another example of not only our political division but also our gun culture — a 20-year-old with an AR-15 trying to shoot a former president,” he said.

The shooter’s father legally purchased the weapon used in the attack, FBI officials said, and investigators are looking into how the gunman gained access to it.

Kerr has repeatedly joined calls for Congress to pass a bipartisan bill to strengthen firearm purchase background checks. The bill, introduced by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-St. Helena), was passed by the House in 2021 but was never introduced on the Senate floor. A later iteration of the bill, introduced by Thompson and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pennsylvania), was introduced in 2023.