While the National Rifle Association has not released an official statement on the shooting rampage that left six people dead in Kalamazoo, MI, on February 20, the gun group's media arm is already spinning the facts of the tragedy, suggesting that firearms should not be blamed because there were no “red flags” related to “gun ownership” in the suspect's background.

In fact, according to a widely available report, neighbors say the suspect used firearms in a “troubling manner,” including firing a gun out of his back door and randomly firing a gun into the air.

Jason Dalton is accused of shooting people at random in and near Kalamazoo, MI, on the night of February 20. Eight people were shot, and six of them died. Police apprehended Dalton in the early hours of February 21.

On the February 22 broadcast of the NRA's radio show, Cam & Company, host Cam Edwards attempted to downplay the implications surrounding the use of a firearm in the mass killing. He said that regarding “gun ownership, there have been no indications that the suspect in this case raised any red flags, in fact the opposite -- neighbors talk about what a nice guy he seemed to be. Family man, married, a couple of kids.”

Edwards added, “Here on this program, I got to say, I think the responsibility lies with the individual who committed these acts, and we will simply offer our thoughts and our prayers to the victims, and their families, the people of Kalamazoo, and the state of Michigan.”

In fact, at the time of the NRA's broadcast, it had been reported in national media that neighbors said Dalton “used guns in a troubling manner.” According to The New York Times, one of Dalton's neighbors said that he was a “nice guy” but also, “He periodically shot his gun out the back door,” and, “He would shoot randomly into the air” :

In the rural area outside the city where Mr. Dalton lived, police searched his brown, one-story home on Sunday morning. Sally Pardo, a retired nurse who lived across the street from him and his family, said she and her husband had always thought of Mr. Dalton as a “nice guy” who worked on cars in his spare time. But he used guns in a troubling manner and sometimes sounded a little paranoid, she said. “He periodically shot his gun out the back door,” Ms. Pardo said. “He would shoot randomly into the air.”

Edwards' claim that “the responsibility lies with the individual who committed these acts” is a repetition of the logically fallacious NRA catch phrase “guns don't kill people; people kill people.” As David Kyle Johnson explained in his column on logic in Psychology Today, arguing that it's people, not guns, who kill people doesn't offer a persuasive conclusion about whether guns should be more or less regulated.

It is undeniable, however, that mass killings in the United States are committed most often with a firearm. Of 279 mass killings identified by USA Today between January 2006 and the June 2015 mass shooting at a Charleston, SC, church, 211 were committed with firearms.