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Thirty six people have been killed as a result of mass shooting in America - in May alone.
That number sharply rises to 202 in 2018 so far, according to the Mass Shooting Tracker (MST).
The Santa Fe killer took the lives of ten people, and before that - on 14 February in Florida - 17 students and teachers lost their lives to a shooter.
Parkland survivors are spearheading campaigns for stricter gun control, and students across the country walked out of their schools in order to advocate for it.
In the midst of tragedy, Republicans came out in their droves to blame the spike in mass shootings on a number of issues.
Missing from the narrative, is blaming guns.
Drugs
The new president of the National Gun Association (NRA) told Fox News that a “culture of violence” exists in America, resulting from prescription drugs.
According to the Washington Post, he said:
The disease is youngsters who are steeped in a culture of violence. They’ve been drugged in many cases. Nearly all of these perpetrators are male, and they’re young teenagers in most cases.
And they’ve come through a culture where violence is commonplace. All we need to do is turn on the TV, go to a movie. If you look at what has happened to young people, many of these young boys have been on Ritalin since they were in kindergarten.
Abortion
Following the latest Texas school shooting in Santa Fe, where ten people lost their lives, Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick also claimed that “abortions and broken families” are causing “certain students” to be violent.
We have 50 million abortions. We have families that are broken apart, no fathers at home. We have incredible heinous violence as a [video] game, two hours a day in front of their eyes. And we stand here and we wonder why this happens to certain students.
The media
Dana Loesch, spokeswoman for National Rifle Association appeared on the NRA’s TV station and said:
The media has got to stop creating more of these monsters by oversaturation.
I'm not saying don't responsibly report on things as they happen. Look, I understand it. But constantly showing the image of the murderer, constantly saying their name, is completely unnecessary.
Mental health
President Donald Trump emphasised mental health over gun control when he suggested that the Florida shooter was “mentally disturbed”.
Schools
A Republican state representative in Texas tweeted that children need to be given lots of “different choices” beyond tradition schooling.
Doors
Texas Lt Gov also blamed doors at school - arguing that the problem lies in having too many entrances for shooters to go through.
Backpacks
According to the BBC, following the deadly school shooting in Florida that left 17 people killed, Marjorie Stoneman High School enacted a new rule about backpacks: all bags are banned aside from clear backpacks.
Video games
During a meeting with Florida’s attorney general Pam Bondi on 22 February, Trump blamed video games for the rising violence in America:
We have to look at the internet because a lot of bad things are happening to young kids and young minds, and their minds are being formed. And also video games. I'm hearing more and more people say the level of violence on video games is really shaping young people's thoughts.
And then you go the further step, and that's the movies. You see these movies, they're so violent. And yet a kid is able to see the movie if sex isn't involved, but killing is involved, and maybe they have to put a rating system for that.
The video games, the movies, the internet stuff is so violent. It's so incredible.
But not guns.
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