Seven things Republicans have blamed the Charleston massacre on apart from race

For some reason, Republican politicians, particularly those running for the White House, seem totally unwilling to blame the murder of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, South Carolina, on racism, despite police describing the massacre as a possible hate crime within hours of the shooting.

They have, instead, offered up a variety of other things to blame the shooting, described by some people as a terrorist act, on:

1. Gun control

Apparently it wasn't the fact that suspect Dylann Roof had a gun that was the problem here. According to presidential hopeful and former governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee, the only thing that could have stopped his deadly rampage was more guns.

It sounds crass, but frankly the best way to stop a bad person with a gun is to have a good person with a weapon that is equal or superior to the one that he’s using.