The White Sox will hold a moment of silence before their game against the Twins on Monday and canceled the Fourth of July fireworks planned for postgame after a mass shooting at a suburban Chicago Independence Day parade left six people dead and at least 24 injured.
Pitcher Liam Hendriks wants to see more being done with regards to gun control, calling for change.
“I think the access to the weaponry that is being kind of used in these things is … Something needs to change,” the 33-year-old Australian told reporters. “Something needs to be done. Something needs to happen because there’s way too many people losing their lives and it’s not only about the people who lose their lives. The families of that, the tragedy they go through, the entire community when people are concerned about leaving the house, concerned about doing the day to day things of going to work or any number of these things.
“We really need to reflect on what’s going on.”
Authorities said a gunman opened fire at the Highland Park festivities around 10:15 a.m. local time, sending parade-goers and participants running. Monday afternoon, police identified 22-year-old Robert E. Crimo III as a person of interest in the shooting.
According to White Sox manager Tony LaRussa, there was talk with MLB of the game being postponed.
Hendriks, no stranger to speaking out about his beliefs, stood in front of a T-shirt in his stall the read “Stars & Stripes & Reproductive Rights.” He has spoken out about LGBTQ rights and the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade last month.
“I don’t think enough is being done,” Hendriks said. “There are two sides and the two sides need to meet somewhere in the middle and figure this out because too many people are dying and it’s no excuse to say ‘I’m on this side or that side.’ It’s no excuse. At some point, things need to get done or else it’s getting to the point where civilization as you know it may be ending just to the fact there’s two drastically different sides.
“Something needs to change, something needs to happen and it needs to happen quick.”
Henriks, born and raised in Perth, said American gun culture is “baffling” to him coming from a country in which firearms are much more legislatively restricted.
“That’s what America is known for,” Hendriks said. “They are known as the superior… there’s are a lot of things that are good over here but you look at the negatives and it’s just the complete… I can walk into a store as a non-American and buy a handgun in certain states. That baffles me. I had to take a driving test when I was over here. I won’t have to take a test if I want to get a gun. That’s stupid. Whoever thought that was a great idea is an idiot.”
LaRussa lamented the tragedy, the latest mass shooting to grab headlines in the country.
“Unfortunately, it’s almost daily,” La Russa said of the shootings. “Way too frequently.
“Even when there’s an explanation, there’s no explanation. It doesn’t make sense.”
