This past weekend, Canadian basketball legend Steve Nash was announced as a finalist for the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
While the achievement of being named in a potential Hall of Fame class with the likes of Jason Kidd, Ray Allen, Chris Webber and Grant Hill is a pretegious one and should be honoured, the 44-year-old former Phoenix Sun was in no celebrating mood and felt the need to speak out on the horriifc shooting that left 17 dead in Parkland, Florida last week on Valentine's Day.
Many athletes like LeBron James, and most recently, Florida Panthers goaltender Roberto Luongo have spoken out on the shooting and, more specifically the need for stricter gun control.
In an article in the Player’s Tribune article on Thursday, the two-time NBA MVP shared his thoughts on the tragedy, and issues that he’s “heartbroken” for the 17 victims and their familes, and is tired of innocent children dying at an alarming, yet preventable rate.
“Innocent people are dying senselessly in a country that has so much to offer the world. Parents are losing their kids … kids are losing their parents … people are waking up one morning, expecting a normal day — and then never seeing another.”
Amongst the concerns Nash raises are a need for more thorough background checks on gun purchasers and the proper regulation for semiautomatic machine guns like the AR-15, the weapon that was used to carry out the attack in Florida.
“Even though I personally believe we should try to take as many guns out of our society as possible, that is a separate discussion. Right now — can we at least agree on a couple of changes that could save lives immediately? First, we need to enforce and expand background checks for people trying to purchase a gun. We also need to require them to supply proof of proper storage, which they do in other countries with great success.
Second, we need to more strictly regulate semiautomatic weapons, like the AR-15, which are so often used in mass shootings. These weapons make it easy for someone to kill many, many people in a matter of seconds. And seriously — what’s the counterargument here? I’m just not sure what weapons like the AR-15 offer everyday society. But we do know the harm they cause: Without these weapons, deranged individuals such as the killer in Las Vegas wouldn’t have be able to murder and injure so many victims in such a short amount of time. Lives would have been saved. Those people would be here with us now, going to work or school, or packing their kids a lunch.”
You can read more of the article here.
(h/t Player’s Tribune)
