Texas Republican Blames Rap Music & Video Games For Elementary School Shooting To Deflect From Gun Regulation

Source: Bill Clark / Getty

There are a few simple facts that we know about Salvador Ramos, the 18-year-old who shot and killed two adults and 19 children at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde County, Texas. We know that the day he turned 18, he legally purchased an assault rifle from Oasis Outback.

We also know he bought another rifle from the same store a few days later. This was reported by Texas state Sen. John Whitmire, who also said Ramos purchased 375 rounds of 5.56 ammunition. Lastly, we know Ramos used that very weaponry to commit one of the most horrific mass shootings since the one carried out in Buffalo just a few weeks prior.

Then there’s what we don’t know. We don’t know what kind of music Ramos listened to or what kind of video games he played if any. We don’t know his favorite online sites or what his favorite movies or TV shows were.

But none of this matters to Republicans, especially Texas Republicans, who are desperate to scapegoat any and everything that doesn’t include guns for the brutal violence and senseless death in which guns were used. And that’s where Texas Rep. Ronny Jackson (R) comes in.

During a recent Fox News interview, Jackson decided it was more important to defend the Second Amendment than it was to acknowledge that if Ramos didn’t have ready access to dangerous weapons, he wouldn’t have been able to cause so much carnage at an elementary school.

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“There’s going to be all kinds of discussions coming up, unfortunately, you know, in the media regarding Second Amendment rights,” Jackson said. “But I think we really need to ask the question, how could something like this happen?”

First of all, let’s start with how Jackson is playing around in people’s faces and pretending “the media” is where all the pro-gun regulation sentiment begins and ends.

a recent CBS poll shows that 54 percent of Americans are in favor of stricter policies in regard to the sale of firearms. In truth, most recent polls show that anywhere from 54 to 60 percent of Americans are in favor of stricter gun laws in general, and it has been that way for the last several years. So no, it’s not the media that is driving this issue, it’s more than half the nation’s citizens.

If Jackson was being honest about wanting to know “how could something like this happen,” he would at least consider how different things could have turned out if Ramos couldn’t purchase an assault rifle so easily. And yet…

“When I grew up, things were different,” Jackson continued. “And I just think that kids are exposed to all kinds of horrible stuff nowadays too. I look back and I think about the horrible stuff they hear when they listen to rap music, the video games that they watch from a really early age with all of this horrible violence and stuff and I just think that they have this access to the internet on a regular basis, which is just, you know, it’s not good for kids.”

Imagine dismissing all these facts right in front of you in favor of pure speculation. And let’s not ignore the dog-whistling in Jackson going straight for rap music.

This is desperate deflection and nothing more. Sometimes I just really hate it here.