Joe Burrow says America needs gun reform from politicians

During a press conference on June 14, Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow said that politicians need to figure out gun reform in America.

Recently, the United States has gone through multiple tragedies that involved gun violence. On May 14, an 18-year-old entered a Buffalo supermarket, shooting and killing 10 Black people in an attack that is being investigated as a hate crime. On May 24 of this year, an 18-year-old entered Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas with an AR-15-style rifle and killed 19 students and two teachers. With these senseless tragedies taking place, there has been pressure placed on politicians to pass gun reform laws.

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow is the most recent athlete to push for gun reform. During a press conference on June 14, Burrow expressed his belief that if everything is not going to be outlawed, then “you’ve gotta at least make it harder to get those crazy guns that everybody’s using.”

You can listen to Burrow’s comments in the tweet below, courtesy of ESPN’s Ben Baby.

Joe Burrow pushes for gun reform in America

In the sports world, athletes have used their platforms to push for gun reform in the United States. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr made an impassioned plea for the Senate to do something to bring in an end to gun violence ahead of his team’s Western Conference Finals game against the Dallas Mavericks. The game was in Texas on the same day as the shooting in Uvalde.

Atlana Hawks star Trae Young backed Kerr’s plea, tweeting out “enough is enough.”

Teams have also taken a stand to push for common sense gun laws. The New York Yankees and Tampa Bay Rays social media teams opted against tweeting out updates of their game on May 26, instead raising awareness about gun violence.

On June 12, a group of 20 U.S. Senators (10 Democrats and 10 Republicans) announced that they had reached a bipartisan agreement on gun safety legislation. The framework includes increased background checks on gun buyers under the age of 21, funding for red-flag laws that would temporarily take away guns from those deemed too dangerous, and funds that would bolster safety and mental health programs at schools. The agreement does not include universal background checks or an assault weapons ban.

Burrow is now the latest member of the sports world to raise awareness and push for gun reform in the United States. He says that although he is a quarterback, he hopes that politicians can figure this issue out.