Seventeen people were killed in a mass shooting at a Florida high school, and a lot of think now is the time for frank and reasonable discussions about real-world solutions.

FOX News Radio host Todd Starnes is not one of those people.

Instead of looking at what could actually be causing the problems, Starnes decided to lay the blame on a fictional character, “the Devil,” and on progressive social issues, such as same-sex marriage and reproductive choice for women. It’s the gays and abortion — not unmitigated gun ownership — that led to this tragedy, he said.

You see — I believe there is a God — but I also believe there is a Devil. And I see his hand at work in our country. And I have no doubt that he is smiling at the chaos and the carnage that has scarred the land of the free.

The Devil, who (let’s not forget) was created by God, is nothing more than an excuse. Blaming Satan is a way to absolve yourself of responsibility from the consequences of your beliefs about gun available.

Starnes then picked his next targets: secularism and the separation of church and state. He insisted “the Devil smiled” when we “kicked God out of the public marketplace” (which never happened) and when we “banned Bibles and prayer in school” (which also never happened). His misunderstanding of the Establishment Clause also didn’t prevent him from picking another institution to blame: freedom of choice.

Tens of millions of unborn babies have been slaughtered in the name of choice. And the Devil smiled.

And, like many religious fundamentalists on the far-right, he didn’t forget to blame the gays:

The traditional family has been redefined, broken homes raising broken kids And the Devil smiled.

Starnes also faulted violent music, and video games, and pornography — essentially hitting the Christian Right BINGO blame game that conservatives play after any major tragedy.

Lastly, he insist that it’s not about gun control and mental illness — because that would be too rational — it’s actually about “God.”

The politicians and pundits would have you believe this is not about God — it’s about politics and mental illness and gun control. And the Devil smiled.

Starnes couldn’t have it more wrong. He’s pushing “solutions” that aren’t based in reality, and as a result, he’s putting off real answers and exacerbating the problem.

