The NRA this week rolled out a new strategy to avoid talk of gun control in the wake of yet another tragic school shooting: pin it all on the media.
There’s more to the strategy, of course. In a four minute-long video meant to stir up debate and draw comparisons between restricting the First Amendment and regulating the sale of firearms, NRATV host Colion Noir lamented the media’s coverage of mass shootings, the most recent of which occurred on Friday at Santa Fe High School in Texas, where 10 people were killed after a student opened fire on classmates and teachers.
“These kids aren’t being inspired by an innate hunk of plastic and metal laying on a table, they’re inspired by the infamous glory of past shooters who they relate to,” Noir said. “And no entity on the planet does a better job, whether directly or indirectly, of glorifying these killers, and thereby providing the inspiration for the next one than our mainstream media.”
Noir then suggested facetiously that the media was to blame for inciting mass shootings simply by reporting on them, claiming that journalists were “itching” to “be the first to do a deep sea dive” into the shooter’s background.
“It’s time to put an end to this glorification of carnage in pursuit of ratings, because it is killing our kids,” Noir added. “It’s time for Congress to step up and pass legislation putting common sense limitations on our mainstream media’s ability to report on these school shootings… You can still report on the shootings, we just need reasonable laws that place limitations on the glory and fame you give to these killers and their twisted motivations.”
"It's time to put an end to this glorification of carnage in pursuit of ratings because it's killing our kids. It's time for Congress to step up and pass legislation putting common sense limitations on #MSM's ability to report on these school shootings." –@MrColionNoir #MSMsense pic.twitter.com/0CulOKEPSn
— NRATV (@NRATV) May 24, 2018
Noir later attempted to explain the purpose of the video, saying it was meant to demonstrate that First Amendment infringements were just as bad as “limitations on the Second Amendment.”
“The solution to the problem we all want to solve will only come with a firm commitment to all of our rights — not just the ones you think are important,” he said.
While Noir intended the video to be inflammatory and prompt debate, the NRA has a troubling history of pinning blame on the media following mass shootings.
In another recent video for his NRATV show, Noir claimed that the alleged Santa Fe gunman and others like him were inspired by the media’s portrayal of other mass shooters.
“We’ve known why these kids shoot up schools since Columbine,” he said. “Yet our moronic media in their blind pursuit for ratings will post every picture they can find of the shooter and repeat the shooters’ name habitually, turning the kid into a damn rock star within hours of the damn shooting and they will keep asking why these shootings keep happening in a country obsessed with celebrity culture raising a generation of kids with an inability to cope with anything.”
Following a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida this past February, NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch took things to a new level, claiming that the media actually “loves mass shootings.”
“Many in legacy media love mass shootings. You guys love it,” she said, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. “I’m not saying that you love the tragedy. But I am saying that you love the ratings. Crying white mothers are ratings gold to you […].”
Noir’s recent comments come at a tense moment for the NRA, as deadly mass shootings continue to sprout up across the country, and the gun lobbying group faces increasing criticism for its response to those incidents.
Following the Parkland shooting, several NRA members were criticized for their attacks on the young survivors who were rallying for changes to gun laws and pushing for tighter restrictions on gun purchases, including raising the minimum purchasing age to 21 and banning the sale of assault-style weapons — proposals the NRA has rejected. NRA board member Ted Nugent attacked the Parkland students themselves, claiming they had “no soul[s]” and promoting an unfounded conspiracy theory that the students were “crisis actors” paid by liberal groups to sell an anti-gun agenda. Noir himself tweeted that the Parkland teens were “hypocritical” and claimed they wanted “to burn the Constitution and rewrite the parts that they don’t like in crayon.”
More recently, following the shooting at Santa Fe High School, Retired Lt. Col. Oliver North, the newly appointed NRA president, was condemned for suggesting young perpetrators were “drugged” and had “been on Ritalin since they were in kindergarten.” North also suggested that mass shooters were inspired by video game and media violence.
Earlier in May, in an interview with the Washington Times, North claimed the Parkland students were “civil terrorists,” saying their criticisms of the NRA were worse than “the terrible days of Jim Crow.”