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Gov. Bevin Says School Shootings Are a 'Cultural Problem'

Nicole Erwin, WKMS

Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin says there needs to be an end to what he called ‘moral decay in America,' but warned against knee-jerk reactions.

Bevin briefly spoke with media after a prayer proclamation in Marshall County on Friday for the shooting victims and the community. An attack at the local high school on Tuesday left two dead, 18 wounded and a close-knit community that will never be the same.

“It's easy to have knee jerk response and think a rule or a regulation or a law or a different move in one particular instance would have made a difference. This is so much deeper than that," Bevin said. In a speech, he called for prayer and chided 'social media trolls' for mocking the sentiment of 'thoughts and prayers.' He said prayer is powerful and referenced his calls to prayer following a shooting death in Louisville last year.

Last June, while praised by some, Bevin drew criticismfrom Louisville pastors and lawmakers for calling for prayer groups as a solution to gun violence following the death of a 7-year-old boy, who was killed in his home by a stray bullet.

Lawmakers in Frankfort are debating how to respond to the threat of gun violence in schools.

Bevin said graphic media and a parental “abdication of responsibility” has children rudderless in a society that celebrates killing. He called on Americans to "wake up" and recognize that school shootings are a "cultural problem."

"We have become desensitized to death, we have become desensitized to killing, we have become desensitized to empathy for our fellow man and it's coming at an extraordinary price and we have got to look at the root causes of this," Bevin told The Associated Press.

"We can't celebrate death in video games, celebrate death in TV shows, celebrate death in movies, celebrate death in musical lyrics and remove any sense of morality and sense of higher authority and then expect that things like this are not going to happen," he added.

Students returned to Marshall County High School on Friday.

Nicole Erwin is a Murray native and started working at WKMS during her time at Murray State University as a Psychology undergraduate student. Nicole left her job as a PTL dispatcher to join the newsroom after she was hired by former News Director Bryan Bartlett. Since, Nicole has completed a Masters in Sustainable Development from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia where she lived for 2 1/2 years.
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