Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone called on elected officials to enact stricter gun legislation in response to a mass shooting Wednesday in which 22 people, including eight children, were hit by gunfire at the end of the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl championship parade.
Malone, whose Nuggets celebrated their first NBA title in franchise history with a parade in downtown Denver last June, was asked if American championship celebrations will need to change in the aftermath of Wednesday’s shooting. One person was killed, according to reports in Kansas City.
“I think unfortunately, I heard one of the coaches say it gets to the point where you don’t want to go to a movie theater. You don’t want to go celebrate a championship. You don’t want to go out to a night club,” Malone said. “Because this just happens time and time again. And then you’re not living. So that’s where the people that we put in power, in our offices, whether it’s locally or nationally, they’ve gotta do a better job of finding a way to not make all these — I haven’t heard the details, what kind of guns or weapons were used in this case.
“But people just can’t go buy a gun or an assault rifle and go kill people. How many more people have to die before we change that?”
The ninth-year Nuggets coach said that his “heart goes out to the city of Kansas City,” where Malone will be spending this weekend watching his daughter play volleyball during the NBA All-Star break.
“My job is to coach,” he said. “But I do have feelings. I am a parent. And I am a member of this great nation. We have to do a much better job than we have.”
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