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NRATV host blames ‘progressive culture and media’ for school shootings

"A generation of kids with an inability to cope with anything."

Credit: Screengrab
Credit: Screengrab

Days after a school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas claimed the lives of eight students and two teachers, NRATV released a video claiming mass shooters are “a creation of our so-called progressive culture and media.”

In the video, host Colion Noir criticizes media coverage for supposedly turning mass shooters into inspiration for other would-be shooters to turn guns on their classmates.

Noir also claims in the video that progressives have confused children with “safe spaces” and “participation trophies,” and by telling “young boys that their masculinity is toxic.”

The result, Noir says, has created “a generation of kids with an inability to cope with anything.”

Noir’s past videos have shown a similar hostility toward those who call for gun control measures, even shooting survivors themselves. Noir taunted Parkland students in the lead-up to the March for Our Lives, saying “no one would know your names” had their school not been the site of a mass shooting.

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Finding objects of blame that don’t involve guns isn’t a new strategy for the National Rifle Association (NRA). In its steadfast opposition to gun control laws, the NRA has instead blamed mass shootings on things such as video games. And just on Sunday, the NRA’s new president Oliver North offered a new explanation, suggesting mass shootings are the result of too many boys on Ritalin.

Instead of laws to prevent guns from falling into the wrong hands, the NRA instead says that school shootings can be prevented by having more guns in schools. It has long advocated for arming teachers and increasing the presence of armed security officers on school grounds.

These suggestions have not gone unheard. In response to the February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, President Trump suggested arming teachers and other school personnel to stop gun violence in schools.

Many shooting survivors and gun violence experts, however, have rejected the NRA’s claims. Survivors of the Parkland shooting responded by launching a national movement calling for stronger gun control measures. The NRA’s own convention in early May was protested by many survivors of gun violence. And past incidents have shown that bringing more guns into a school has not achieved the peaceful result gun advocates claim.