NBA coach Steve Kerr pleads for gun control after Texas school shooting

Following the Texas school shooting that killed at least 18 children on May 24, Steve Kerr, coach of NBA team Golden State Warriors made an impassioned plea for stricter gun control in the U.S.

Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr refused to talk about basketball at a pre-game news conference on Tuesday and instead called for stricter gun control after the killing of at least 18 children and an adult in a Texas school shooting.

Authorities said an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at an elementary school in south Texas, about 130 km west of San Antonio, before he apparently was killed by police officers.

A visibly shaken Kerr, who has been an advocate of tighter gun laws, said he would not discuss the Warriors' Eastern Conference finals game against the Dallas Mavericks.

"Any basketball questions don't matter... ," Kerr told reporters. "In the last 10 days, we've had elderly black people killed in a supermarket in Buffalo, we've had Asian churchgoers killed in Southern California.

"Now we have children murdered at school. When are we going to do something? I'm so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there."

Kerr also criticised lawmakers for blocking efforts to advance gun control measures.

Small, rural, often Republican-led states where gun ownership is widespread have disproportionate influence in the U.S. Senate, where a supermajority of 60 votes is needed to advance most legislation in the 100-seat chamber.