Corey Taylor says people who claim heavy metal music and video games are to blame for mass shootings are "idiots".
Corey Taylor
The Slipknot frontman has hit back after some politicians linked the recent spate of mass shootings in the USA to popular culture and he said they are trying to deflect from "gun culture".
In an interview with Rock Feed, Corey said: "I think they're idiots. I think those people subscribe to the 'three Ds of politics,' which is 'deny, detract and deflect.' And it's exactly what it is. As soon as guns came into play again, the first thing that the GOP and the gun lobby did was find anything but the gun itself to deflect... It was the video games; it was the heavy metal music; it was the mental illness -- it was all of these things.
"Now, never mind the fact that one of the first things that Trump did when he got into office was take away those prohibitions against people with mental illness, with a history of mental illness, being able to buy a firearm. But now suddenly that's biting you in the ass."
And he went on to point out that other countries do not have the same problems as America when it comes to guns, despite also having heavy metal music.
He explained: "Well, now it's the video games. There are video games all over the world; people don't have that problem. Well, it's the heavy metal music. Well, there's heavy metal music all over the world as well, in a lot of countries, and a lot of them darker than ours is. They don't have that problem.
"I may bend one way or the other, but I don't subscribe to one party over the next. My problem is the fact that innocent people are dying. And until people can really see that, yes, you can be a responsible gun owner and see that there is a gun problem, until people can admit that, until people on the left can admit that not everyone who owns a gun is a f**king killer, none of us are gonna talk, and that's the problem. The problem is that there are too many guns. If you oversaturate an industry or a culture with something, nine times out of 10, it tends to go away. But that's not the case with guns, because of the way we have deified it. We now have this thing where if you try to get rid of some of the guns, it's instantly a threat. And to me, that smacks of addiction. Think about that. Do you really believe in gun rights or are you just addicted to the way that you feel when you have them?"
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