Georgia Tech football coach on Nashville school shooting: ‘Something has to change’

Georgia Tech head football coach Brent Key called for change in the aftermath of the shooting at the Nashville, Tenn., private elementary school that killed three children and three adults on Monday.

“There’s nothing political and there’s nothing religious about this, but something has to change,” he said at the start of a press conference on Wednesday.

“And I had a chance to stand up here and be in front of a camera and if one person hears me say that and agrees and does something to help force a change, get something to happen and 1,000 other people say something negative about it, I don’t care. Because it worked,” Key continued.

Key said his mother was a third-grade teacher during her career and he has daughter who is 4 years old who was participating in a school play as the shooting was happening.

“As long as people sit there and bicker and argue, more and more kids are going to die because it hadn’t changed,” he said.

A shooter armed with two assault-style weapons and a handgun opened fire inside a private Christian school called The Covenant School. Police responded quickly after receiving an alert to the shooting on Monday morning and killed the shooter, but six people, including three children, were killed before they stopped the shooting.

Some Republicans have showed hesitancy to taking action in the aftermath of the shooting.

Tennessee Rep. Tim Burchett (R) said no way exists to “fix” gun violence as “criminals are gonna be criminals.” Senate Republicans indicated that passing another firearm-related bill like the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act that passed after the Uvalde, Texas, is unlikely.

Key called on anyone who is listening to try to take some action to improve safety.

“It’s the most heartbreaking thing in the world, to think about your daughter. Going to school, she’s supposed to be safe and protected,” he said.

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr also passionately called for action during a press conference after the Uvalde shooting that killed more than 20 people in May, saying that he is “tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there.”

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