Just two days after 10 people were killed at Sante Fe High School in Texas, incoming National Rifle Association president Oliver North spoke with Fox News on Sunday about what he perceives to be the root cause of school shootings. Here’s a hint: It’s not guns.
Fox News host Chris Wallace introduced the segment by showing North clips of traumatized Santa Fe High School students and asking how North would respond to students who "have come to expect shootings in their schools."
"They shouldn't have to. They shouldn't be afraid to go to school. They shouldn't worry about the fact that they might not go home that night because some crazed person comes in with a firearm," North responded.
North claimed the problem lies with medication. Specifically the overmedicating of young boys with Ritalin, a drug often used to treat disorders like ADHD. "The problem that we got is we are trying like the Dickens to treat the symptom without treating the disease, and the disease in this case isn't the Second Amendment,” he said. “They have been drugged in many cases. Nearly all of these perpetrators are male and they are young teenagers in most cases."
He went on to add that a culture of violence portrayed by various forms of media is also to blame for these shootings. "And they have come through a culture where violence is commonplace. All you need to do is turn on the TV, go to a movie," North continued. "If you look at what has happened to the young people, many of these young boys have been on Ritalin since they were in kindergarten."
It’s currently unclear if the Santa Fe shooter, suspected to be 17-year-old Dimitros Pagourtzis, was ever prescribed Ritalin or diagnosed with ADD or ADHD. What is clear is that guns were used to kill students and faculty on Friday in one of more than a dozen school shootings that have taken place in 2018. The deadliest of them was the Parkland shooting, which left 17 dead on Feb. 14.
North’s comments echo an earlier sentiment by NRA spokeswoman Dana Loesch, who blamed the media for the shooting on Saturday. “[The media] has got to stop creating more of these monsters by oversaturation,” she said on NRATV.
