PBS Guest Blames GOP, ‘Culture in America Surrounding Guns’ For School Shootings

EXCERPT:

ATKINS STOHR: “I feel like all of it is muted. I think that Americans, who are sending their children to school to start their school year, are hearing about the thoughts and prayers and these ambiguous actions that may or may not be coming, and they are gutted by that, because they know that none of that protects their children. I think that this is not about trying to prevent the last shooting and figuring out what led to that one. It’s about, how do we change the culture in America surrounding guns? Because this does not happen other places. It does not happen in other countries that have much more lax gun laws than we do on the books. This is about a society that believes that the right to carry guns is something like a religion unto itself. And that’s from messaging that comes from Republicans about the Second Amendment and how any measure that is commonsense, that is meant to prevent guns from getting in the hands of people that shouldn’t have them, is somehow not just unconstitutional, but sacrosanct in itself. Until we can change that, until we can loosen the grip of the gun industry, the lobby here in Washington and across states, this will not change and children will continue to die.”

(via NewsBusters)