Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh told his listeners on Monday the true motive behind the recent school shooting in Colorado. The cause? Liberalism.
“The media doesn’t want you to know this,” Limbaugh said on his program. “But practically every one of these young kids shooting up schools is inspired by something to do with leftism, socialism, what have you. Every one of them is.”
Last week, 18-year-old Karl Pierson injured a classmate at Arapohoe High School in Colorado before killing himself. His classmates told the Denver Post that he disliked Republicans and “described him as a very opinionated Socialist.”
After the newspaper labeled the gunman “a socialist,” it later removed that description. The updated copy was changed to, “Thomas Conrad, who had an economics class with Pierson, described him as very opinionated.”
“Another kid admittedly inspired by socialists!” Limbaugh said, arguinig that the media was accordingly biased against conservatives when covering mass shootings.
“When you can’t tie them to the Tea Party, you don’t hear about it any more,” he said. “You hear the mental health explanation.”
Limbaugh dismissed the mental health argument by asking, “Well, what mental health problem?”
“Liberalism, guaran-damn-teed, is what’s causing this,” said the talk show host.
Classmates also told the Denver Post the shooter seemed to have had very strong gun control beliefs. “He had very strong beliefs about gun laws and stuff,” said classmate Abbey Skoda to the Denver Post. “I also heard he was bullied a lot.”
This has not been the first time the radio host has drawn his theory about mass shootings and liberalism. After the Sandy Hook shooting in Newtown, Conn., Limbaugh said mass shooters “all are liberals if they’re mentally disturbed” then took it back after the caller said that was an unfair assessment.
Clare Kim