Country music star Eric Church is making his feelings about the NRA very clear—and they aren’t pleasant.
In a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the signer cast blame on the NRA for Congress’ lack of action after the Las Vegas massacre, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history that left 58 people dead and more than 800 injured.
“I blame the lobbyists,” Church told the magazine. "And the biggest in the gun world is the NRA.”
Church was a headliner at the Route 91 Harvest Festival where the shooting took place, performing just two nights earlier. His fans were among the victims, and, understandably, it got to him.
“It got dark for me for a while,” the signer admitted. “I went through a period, a funk, for six months at least. I had anger. I’ve still got anger. Something broke in me that night, and it still hasn’t healed. There’s a part of me that hopes it haunts me forever.”
The shooting also seems to have warped his views on firearms a bit, although Church still claims he’s “a Second Amendment guy" who owns about half a dozen rifles, shotguns and pistols.
“That’s [the right to bear arms] in the Constitution, it’s people’s right, and I don’t believe it’s negotiable.” A “but” soon followed.
“But nobody should have that many guns and that much ammunition and we don’t know about it. Nobody should have 21 AKs and 10,000 rounds of ammunition and we don’t know who they are,” the singer told Rolling Stone. “Something’s gotta be done so that a person can’t have an armory and pin down a Las Vegas SWAT team for six minutes. That’s f*cked up.”
“There are some things we can’t stop,” Church added. “Like the disgruntled kid who takes his dad’s shotgun and walks into a high school. But we could have stopped the guy in Vegas.”
Church seems to have things flipped. If the Parkland school shooting is anything to go by, those tragedies involving “disgruntled” teens are the ones that can be stopped. These kids don’t just wake up one day and decide they’re going to slaughter their fellow classmates. They’re premeditated, well-thought out attacks; there are warning signs, warning signs that are often ignored. Something can be done about that.
But what could have been done to stop the Vegas shooter? Even Democratic Senator Dianne Feinstein admitted the answer is nothing.
Church still had a few suggestions, though, on what lawmakers should be doing; closing the “gun-show loophole," improving background checks and banning bump stocks are a few of the reforms he supports.
But again, which one of these would’ve prevented James Paddock from unloading on a crowd of innocent concertgoers? There’s nothing to be done about the gun-show loophole because, well, it doesn’t exist. While improving the information that goes into our background check system is important —and something that’s already being done—it wouldn’t have stopped Paddock from legally purchasing his firearms, as he had no criminal record. As for a ban on bump stocks, that might be something gun rights advocates can compromise on, but it still wouldn’t have changed the outcome of that night.
Church wrapped up the discussion on firearms by saying he knows his views on firearms might upset some of his fans, but he doesn’t care.
“Right’s right and wrong’s wrong. I don’t understand why we have to fear a group [like the NRA]. It’s asinine,” he concluded.