A Running List of Things the Gun Lobby has Blamed for the Deadly School Shooting in Santa Fe Shannon Watts Follow May 25, 2018 · 2 min read

Santa Fe High School student Dakota Shrader is comforted by her mother following the shooting

On Friday, May 18, 10 people were shot and killed and 13 more were wounded in the mass shooting at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas.

But if you ask the gun lobby, this shooting wasn’t caused by a 17-year-old’s easy access to his father’s guns. Here’s a running list of what the NRA and its allies have blamed for this shooting:

1. A “culture of violence”

2. Godlessness

3. Too many doors in schools

4. Ritalin

5. Abortion

6. Trench coats

7. Violent television and video games(Like Call of Duty, for which incoming NRA President Oliver North was an pitchman and adviser?)

8. “The overmedication of children”

9. Overdiagnosis of ADHD

10. Bullying

11. Smartphones and social media

12. Hollywood

13. Criticizing masculinity

14. Raising girls to act like boys

15. Liberalism and “counter-culture”

16. Unhealthy diets

17. Mainstream media

18. Bad parenting

19. Evil

20. Grocery store porn

Everything but easy access to guns.

According to research by Everytown for Gun Safety, the mass school shooting in Santa Fe, Texas, was at least the 184th mass shooting in America since January 2009, and at least the eighth mass shooting this year. Since January 2009, Texas has experienced at least 20 mass shootings — more than any other state in the country.

There is no one law that will prevent all gun violence. But there are common sense steps that are proven to work — and even are supported by most gun owners and NRA members. If Texas wants to stop its mass shooting crisis, it can start by requiring a criminal background check on every gun sale. The state could do more to disarm domestic abusers. This isn’t rocket science, and it really shouldn’t be controversial. We all agree on this stuff, except for the NRA’s most extreme leaders.

Every developed nation has access to the same violent movies, social media and similar levels of mental health struggles. But it’s our gun homicide rate that is 25 times the average of other high-income nations.

This is about our lax gun laws. And until we fix our laws, our children will continue to pay the price.