USA TODAY Sports

Speaking to reporters ahead of Monday night’s game, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr voiced his disgust with the country’s current gun laws in the wake of Sunday’s Sutherland Springs church shooting

“Tough question,” Kerr said. “I have my thoughts. First I want to express my condolences to the people involved, the victims, the survivors, the people directly affected. It’s just awful. That’s the prevailing sentiment from all of us today. To solve it, I think we almost have to look at it like a public health issue. Too often we get caught up in political rhetoric, 2nd amendment rights, NRA stuff. We have to look at this as it having nothing to do with partisanship, political parties. It’s got to be a public safety issue, a public health issue.”

After drawing a comparison to automobiles, which got progressively safer over time, Kerr made a plea to the government.

“Let’s do the sensible thing, but our government has to lead the way and they can’t just cave into the NRA just because the NRA wants to make money. They have to put the people’s safety and health over the interest of the gun industry. It doesn’t seem like it would be that far of a stretch, but for whatever reason we’re paralyzed and we’re unable to do anything to protect our citizens. It’s disgusting and it’s a shame.”

San Antonio Spurs forward Pau Gasol made a similar plea on Sunday before coach Gregg Popovich opted not to talk about basketball in the wake of the massacre.

It’s not the first time Kerr has spoken on the topic.

In June of 2016, Kerr said “our government is insane” on a popular Bay Area podcast.

“When 90 percent of our country wants background checks on gun purchases and we’re got our senate and our house not only voting it down but using the Bill of rights as a reason for people to have rights to carry these automatic weapons, and we’re getting people murdered every day at an alarming rate,” he said then.