New NRA president Oliver North blames the culture of violence for America's mass shootings but forgot he worked on Call of Duty
The incoming National Rifle Association (NRA) president, Oliver North, shortly after the Texas school shooting on Friday commented on the massacre saying the root cause of the United States' mass shooting problem is its "culture of violence" and also pointed out that Ritalin, a medication used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) could be partially responsible.
A high school student in Texas' Santa Fe school opened fire on campus, killing 10 people in the rampage on Friday last week, adding to the dozens of mass school shootings America has witnessed this year. Among these was the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, this year. The shooter, 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz, had a history of ADHD. His psychiatric records as obtained by CNN showed that in 2016, he was on two types of medication that are routinely prescribed for ADHD, but neither was Ritalin.
North, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel, during an appearance on Fox News on Sunday also reportedly implied that the prevalence of prescriptions such as Ritalin for young people could also be a factor resulting in school shootings in the country. North, during a discussion about the rise in school shootings, said: "The problem that we’ve got is that we’re trying like the dickens to treat the symptom without treating the disease. And the disease, in this case, isn’t the Second Amendment. The disease is youngsters who are steeped in a culture of violence. "
"Nearly all of these perpetrators are male and they are young teenagers in most cases. And they have come through a culture where violence is commonplace. All we need to do is turn on the TV, go to a movie. 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," the retired Marine lieutenant colonel said. "They have been drugged in many cases," North continued.
Digging into his background reports state that North, in 2012, worked as a promoter, script consultant and voice actor for popular first-person-shooter game Call of Duty: Black Ops II.
After the release of Black Ops II, which is a very violent war game by definition, one of the reviewers said that it was "about as violent as it could get." "At one point there was so much blood spraying around that I thought I'd stepped into a horror movie," a review on the Wired said.
Reports also state that North received a writing credit for a 2014 episode of FX espionage show 'The Americans'. The particular episode depicts a young man having his throat slit and also shows violent deaths of three other characters, according to wfaa.
Everytown for Gun Safety President John Feinblatt, in response to North's statements, said: "The American people know who bears the most blame for gun violence: the NRA apologists who are always pointing their fingers at everyone else."
North, during the Reagan administration, was one of the key figures in the Iran-Contra affair. He also reportedly assisted in the sale of arms to Iran and the illegal transfer of money to anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua as deputy director of the National Security Council.
He was later found guilty on at least three charges linked to the scandal, however, a federal judge in 1990 overturned his convictions.