LeBron James is fuming that the United States has failed to implement sensible gun control laws in the aftermath of the country’s 630th mass shooting in 2023, this one at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas.
The Los Angeles Lakers icon was asked about the massacre that killed three people and left another critically injured after a man reportedly opened fire on the campus. The Associated Press identified the shooter as a career college professor who recently applied for a job at UNLV and was turned down.
King James and the Lakers are in Las Vegas to play in the semifinals of the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament.
James, 38, the league’s biggest star, has previously been critical on the subject of gun control, calling the easy accessibility of war-type machinery “ridiculous.”
“The ability to get a gun, the ability to do these things over and over and over, and there has been no change is literally ridiculous,” James said at a press conference, according to The Hill. “It makes no sense that we continue to lose innocent lives on campuses, on schools, at shopping markets and movie theaters. All types of stuff. It’s just ridiculous.
James, 38, reiterated his point by adding that “it’s ridiculous and the fact that we haven’t changed anything, it’s actually been a lot easier to be able to own a firearm. It’s stupid.”
Coincidentally, and perhaps terribly ironic, the shooting took place on the same day that Senate Republicans reportedly blocked Democrats’ goal to “pass an assault weapons ban and universal background checks legislation,” The Hill reported.
The publication also noted that the nation broke its record for the most mass shootings over this past weekend.
“For all the action we have taken since I’ve been president, the epidemic of gun violence we face demands that we do even more. But we cannot do more without Congress,” President Biden said.
