Conservative provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos on Thursday insisted that he "wasn't being serious" when he recently told two reporters that he "can't wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists."

Yiannopoulos's comments Thursday came shortly after a gunman opened fire in the Capital Gazette newsroom in Annapolis, Md., leaving at least five people dead and several others seriously injured. Authorities have taken a suspect into custody, but have not yet released an identity or motive.

"You're about to see a raft of news stories claiming that I am responsible for inspiring the deaths of journalists," Yiannopoulos wrote in a Facebook post. "The truth, as always, is the opposite of what the media tells you."

"I sent a troll about 'vigilante death squads' as a *private* response to a few hostile journalists who were asking me for comment, basically as a way of saying, 'F---k off.' They then published it," he continued. "Amazed they were pretending to take my joke as a 'threat,' I reposted these stories on Instagram to mock them - and to make it clear that I wasn't being serious."

Yiannopoulos reportedly sent Davis Richardson, a reporter for the Observer, a text message this week, saying: "I can't wait for the vigilante squads to start gunning journalists down on sight."

The right-wing provocateur also sent the message to Daily Beast reporter Will Sommer, according to the Observer.