Texas lt. gov. blames abortion for school shooting in his state

The massacre at Santa Fe High School in Texas this week was the 22nd school shooting this year alone. But rather than address the proliferation of guns, Texas Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wants to blame abortion.

On Sunday’s “This Week,” Patrick initially blamed the shooting on a surplus of entrance and exit doors in the school.

And when host George Stephanopoulos asked him about the disturbing fact that “more students (have been) killed by gun violence in schools than active duty military deaths in 2018,” Patrick’s response was absurd, if all too predictable.

“George, should we be surprised in this nation?” he asked. “We have devalued life, whether it’s through abortion, whether it’s the breakup of families, through violent movies, and particularly violent video games, which now outsell movies and music.”

He went on to blame a host of other things, like “our violent society, our Facebook, our Twitter, the bullying of adults on adults and children on children.”

And he not only failed to blame guns. He specifically absolved them.

“We have to look at ourselves, George,” Patrick said. “It’s not about the guns, it’s about us.”

Other countries have reproductive freedom, video games, and Twitter, of course. Yet the United States alone experiences this epidemic of mass shootings and gun violence. But Patrick is not any more concerned with the facts than he is with actually stopping gun violence.

And he is not alone among Republicans who are desperate to blame anything but guns for gun massacres. Former California Rep. Jason Chaffetz was on TV blaming a “politically correct culture” even as the massacre was unfolding. And blaming abortion for society’s woes is nothing new among the right, either.

But Patrick is not just some Fox News shill. He is an elected representative of the 10 people who were killed in the Santa Fe High shooting, and the 13 more who were wounded.

He and other elected Republicans are now facing a newly energized and massive political movement against gun violence. And they will soon learn that it is indeed about the guns.