If porn is what’s behind school shootings, every man between the ages of 13 and 45 should be quarantined.
It’s a silly notion, but posited nonetheless by Rep. Dianne Black (R-TN) who is currently running for governor of Tennessee.
During a meeting with local Christian leaders last week, Black discussed gun violence at schools and what’s behind it. According to her, it’s pornography.
“It’s available on the shelf when you walk in the grocery store,” Black said, although it’s doubtful that any grocery stores in the U.S. sell pornography.
“Yeah, you have to reach up to get it, but there’s pornography there,” she continued. “All of this is available without parental guidance. I think that is a big part of the root cause.”
Black also worked in the tried and true rhetoric about family values, saying that “deterioration of the family” also plays a role.
“I think it’s deterioration of the family,” she says in the audio flagged by HuffPost. “They don’t have that good support system, so they’re looking for something, and where are they looking? They’re looking for areas—what did they say about, idle hands are the devil’s workshop? So they’re looking for something, maybe on the internet, maybe with a small group of friends, and they’re going in the wrong direction.”
As HuffPost’s Jennifer Bendery points out, the experts don’t agree with Black’s assessment.
Contrary to Black’s take, experts say poor social, economic and cultural conditions are primary drivers of gun violence. Enacting policies to improve those conditions for people, along with reducing access to firearms, would go a long way in stemming mass shootings, they say.
These actions are “far more effective than all the police, doctors and hospitals combined, and intervening only after tragedies have struck,” said professors James Gilligan of New York University and Bandy Lee of Yale University, both experts on violence.
You can listen to the audio here.
Featured image via screen grab/YouTube
