Steve Kerr talks gun violence and the decrease in Oakland's homicide rate

SAN FRANCISCO - Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr continued his advocacy against gun violence by participating in a panel discussion Wednesday night at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco.

Kerr was joined by other national experts to talk about gun violence prevention. The panelists spoke about the Parkland, Florida shooting two years ago and how it changed the narrative.

“I always learn from the other panelists and it's great to know how much success the city of Oakland is having with their educational and intervention programs,” he said outside the panel. “They've seen a reduction of gun violence of 50 percent over the last four years based on some of the programs they've implemented there."

A Guardian analysis of 100 cities said across the Bay Area, the gun homicide rate has dropped 30 percent in the past decade, and that Oakland and Richmond have invested tens of millions of dollars in public health approaches to gun violence prevention. 

Oakland was even credited in a Giffords Law Center report last year called "A Case Study in Hope: Lessons from Oakland's Remarkable Reduction in Gun Violence." By 2018, Oakland had recorded its lowest number of homicides in almost two decades. 

The citywide effort is called Oakland Ceasefire and since 2012, its leaders have been engaging with "high risk" people in positive ways, such as finding them services, giving them jobs and performing interventions to ward off imminent violence.

Kerr's father was killed by two gunmen outside his office in Beirut in 1984. Another panelist says there are more than 300 million guns in the United States right now, when 20 years ago there was about 1.5 million.

KTVU's Lisa Fernandez contributed to this report.

Warriors Coach Steve Kerr talks about gun violence prevention at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Feb. 19, 2020