As the NBA world descended on Las Vegas for the finals of the In-Season Tournament, a deadly shooting took place on the UNLV campus. Three people were killed by a shooter on campus, who NBC News reports was someone aggrieved because he was not hired for a job at the university, and it forced the entire campus into lockdown for several hours.
LeBron James, who has spoken out on social issues in the past, was asked about this during his post-practice press conference in Las Vegas on Wednesday (before news of the deaths had been made public). Here was his response, via Tim Bontemps of ESPN.
“First of all, my condolences go to the families that lost loved ones, families and friends and everything.
“It just goes back to what I said before about guns in America. I think it’s such a longer conversation, but we keep dealing with the same story, this same conversation every single time it happens, and it just continues to happen. The ability to get a gun, the ability to do these things over and over and over, and there’s been no change is literally ridiculous. It makes no sense that we continue to lose innocent lives, on campuses, schools, at shopping markets and movie theaters and all type of stuff. It’s ridiculous.
“The fact that we haven’t changed anything — it’s actually been easier to be able to own a firearm. … It’s stupid.”
The NBA also released a statement on the shootings:
“The NBA family is heartbroken by today’s senseless shooting at UNLV. We extend our sincerest condolences to the families and friends of the victims, as well as the entire Las Vegas community.”
This shooting was not far from the 2017 concert shooting in Las Vegas, which left 59 people dead.
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