School Shooting
Sarah Wasko / Media Matters

Research/Study Research/Study

Fox News blames everything but guns for Uvalde massacre

Fox blamed anti-police sentiment, kids afraid to snitch, flimsy fences, and psychiatry for America’s most recent school shooting

Yesterday, the nation was once again rocked by another mass shooting, the 212th such event in the United States in just 144 days this year. As the nation reels from the sensation that mass gun violence is now a daily ritual of American life — the racist massacre in Buffalo, New York, was just 10 days ago — Fox News has once again consulted its well-worn mass shooting playbook, which calls for blaming everything but the guns. 

On Monday, a gunman stormed into Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, shooting and killing at least 19 children and two adults before being killed by law enforcement. Reports indicate he also shot his grandmother before attacking the school. 

At Fox News, the network fell back into the approach it’s deployed for nearly a decade since the December 2012 murders of 26 people, including 20 children, at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut: deflecting blame from lax gun restrictions. In the hours following the Uvalde shooting, Fox hosts and guests called for an increase in the number of armed individuals in schools, demanded “accountability” for those responsible for security at Robb Elementary, and blamed a supposed lack of “discipline” at American schools for the recurrence of mass shootings. 

Here is a sample of the things they blamed for continued gun violence:

  • Schools are “soft targets”

  • Fox personalities insisted that the preventive solution to school shootings is increasing funding for campus security at schools, with some declaring that unspent COVID-19 relief funding provided to schools should be repurposed and directed toward fortifying schools against being so-called “soft targets” for mass murderers. 

    Fox guest Maureen O'Connell suggested purchasing “ballistic blankets” for children, instead of toys and games. [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 5/24/22]

  • Fox's Jesse Watters demanded America redirect COVID-19 relief money to “armed security agents” at every elementary school in the country. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 5/24/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 24, 2022, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime

  • Fox’s Sean Hannity suggested “tax breaks” for retired military and police officers who work for free patrolling schools. [Fox News, Hannity, 5/24/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 24, 2022, edition of Fox News' Hannity

  • People being afraid of guns

  • Reacting to the mass shooting, Fox host Jeanine Pirro criticized people who are “triggered” by guns in schools, telling viewers that there’s “this new narrative: When you see a gun, you should be frightened, as opposed to appreciating what they are doing for you.” [Fox News, The Five, 5/24/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 24, 2022, edition of Fox News' The Five

  • Anti-police sentiments

  • Fox guest Maureen O'Connell blamed an “anti-police narrative” for “forcing people not to call police” to share concerns about “red flags.” [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 5/24/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 24, 2022, edition of Fox News' Special Report with Bret Baier 

  • Kids being afraid of being labeled the “school snitch”

  • Fox guest Chad Ayers blamed kids being afraid of being labeled the “school snitch” for a lack of preemptive warning about mass shooters. [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 5/24/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 24, 2022, edition of Fox News' Jesse Watters Primetime 

  • Flimsy fencing around Robb Elementary School

  • Both host Watters and guest Darrin Porcher blamed the security situation at Robb Elementary, with Watters saying, “I mean, I could hop that fence. … What good is to have fence installed if it’s 4 feet tall?” Porcher said, “It’s clear when we look at the flimsy fencing in this particular school that things could have been done differently,” and he said schools often don’t have the “necessary budget to fortify themselves from attacks of this nature.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 5/24/22]

  • A lack of booby traps around schools

  • Fox News guest Pat Brosnan claimed that “man traps” involving “trip wires” should be implemented instead of gun safety measures to stop mass shootings. [Fox News, Hannity, 5/24/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 24, 2022, edition of Fox News' Hannity

  • The decay of “Judeo-Christian” principles

  • On his radio program, Fox host Mark Levin claimed that celebrating “Judeo-Christian principles” could help prevent mass violence. [Westwood One, The Mark Levin Show, 5/24/22]

  • Fox News host Mark Levin says America can stop mass shootings by celebrating “Judeo-Christian principles”

    Fox News host Mark Levin says America can stop mass shootings by celebrating “Judeo-Christian principles”
    Audio file

    Citation From the May 24, 2022, edition of Westwood One's The Mark Levin Show

  • Fox host Rachel Campos-Duffy claimed it is no coincidence that “all of these shootings have happened at the same time that we see religion … and Judeo-Christian values declining in our country.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 5/25/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 25, 2022, edition of Fox & Friends

  • On Fox & Friends, host Ainsley Earhardt said Americans have “asked God to get out of our lives and God has done that, because God is a gentleman,” mentioning removing Bibles and religious education from schools. Campos-Duffy agreed, telling viewers, “We took God out of schools and we wonder how this evil comes in.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 5/25/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 25, 2022, edition of Fox News's Fox & Friends

  • Mental health

  • Pirro claimed a major problem was shooters who were examined for mental health problems and then released prior to the shootings they allegedly committed. [Fox News, The Five, 5/24/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 24, 2022, edition of Fox News' The Five

  • Fox host Tucker Carlson said the U.S. is facing “what’s clearly a metal health crisis” with its record of shootings. [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 5/24/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 24, 2022, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

  • On Fox & Friends, host Will Cain and guest Charlie Hurt blamed mental health for mass shootings, with Cain claiming the U.S. has “lost some sense of community” and Hurt telling people to spend less time on their phones. Hurt insisted that “laws can’t solve everything” and Cain said the solution is on a “individual and a small community basis.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 5/25/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 25, 2022, edition of Fox & Friends

  • Not knowing enough about mass shooters’ psychology

  • Fox contributor Tammy Bruce argued the U.S. should repurpose some unspent pandemic funding to address school shootings and should study shooters’ psychology. [Fox News, Hannity, 5/24/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 24, 2022, edition of Fox News' Hannity

  • Fox host Will Cain cited the FBI’s “behavioral science unit” used to profile serial killers while asking, “Do we study these shooters? How can we stop them in the future?” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 5/24/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 24, 2022, edition of Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight

  • A lack of “discipline” in schools that are attacked

  • Fox host Laura Ingraham and her guest AWR Hawkins deflected from a discussion of “assault rifles” and their connection to school shootings by instead citing supposed changes in the “national psyche” and a lack of “discipline” at some of the schools that had been victims of mass shootings. [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 5/24/22]

  • Video file

    Citation From the May 24, 2022, edition of Fox News's The Ingraham Angle