A CNN columnist on Wednesday pinned the murder-suicide at a San Bernardino elementary school on “disability, domestic abuse, race and guns”—everything but the murderer.
Columnist David Perry wrote, “Disabled individuals are … more than twice as likely to experience violence than non-disabled individuals … Domestic violence is the leading correlating factor with mass murder … Black women suffer disproportionately high rates of domestic violence … and, especially guns.”
None of those were a cause of this tragedy: Karen Smith’s students were not targeted for their disabilities. Her murder, and that of a student, fits the definition of domestic violence, but certainly not that of a mass murder; the location was incidental, so it doesn’t even count as a school shooting. Her estranged husband was also black, so how is this race-related? Finally, CNN should require contributors to do more than just provide a link to Everytown when blaming guns.
Doesn’t Perry think the murderer—who has a history of domestic violence, restraining orders, and weapons and drug charges—should bear some responsibility?
