Georgia Tech football coach Brent Key gets emotional speaking on Nashville shooting

For Georgia Tech football coach Brent Key, Monday's school shooting in Nashville hit home.

Speaking with the media on Wednesday, he choked up reflecting on how his mother was a third grade teacher and how his four-year-old daughter, Harper, was at a school play at the time of the shooting.

"It's the most heartbreaking thing in the world to think about your daughter going to school," he said while holding back tears. "She's supposed to be safe and protected. It's (expletive), man, it is." 

Key insisted that he didn't want to make a political or religious statement, but that he hopes his words inspire some sort of change. Six people — three children and three adults — were killed at The Covenant School by a former student. Police killed the shooter on the scene.

The shooting has brought up the continued debate on gun safety laws and school security. President Joe Biden made a statement, calling the event "sick" and calling for a ban on assault weapons. This is the 89th shooting at a K-12 school this year, according to the K-12 School Shooting Database.

"As long as people sit up there and bicker and argue, more and more kids are going to die, 'cause it hasn't changed," Key said. "So something's gotta change. Everybody please, do something."

Elsewhere in the sports world, on Tuesday the Nashville Predators and Boston Bruins honored the victims of the shooting before their NHL game in Boston with a moment of silence and with both teams wearing stickers of The Covenant School crest on their helmets.