‘Pure nonsense’: Former NFL star Herschel Walker cops backlash for nonsensical gun rant

Former NFL star Herschel Walker is facing heated backlash for nonsensical remarks about United States gun control.

Former NFL star Herschel Walker is facing heated backlash for nonsensical remarks about gun control following the tragic primary school mass shooting in Texas.

On Tuesday morning, 18-year-old local high school student Salvador Ramos opened fire at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, killing 19 children and two teachers.

It was the second-deadliest school shooting in the United States after the 2012 Sandy Hook attack.

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The tragedy reignited debate about gun control in the United States, with President Joe Biden pushing for stricter laws.

“Beautiful innocent, second, third, fourth graders and how many scores of little children who witnessed what happened, see their friends die, as if they’re in a battlefield, for God’s sake?” he said in an address to the nation.

“The idea that an 18-year-old kid can walk into a gun store and buy two assault weapons is mad.

“I am sick and tired. We have to act.”

Mourners visit a memorial for a victims of Tuesday's mass shooting. Photo by Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Georgia Republican Senate nominee Walker, who is considered one of the greatest college football players of all time, was asked about the country’s gun violence problem on Fox News, and his response baffled viewers.

“Cain killed Abel and that’s a problem that we have,” he started.

“What we need to do is look into how we can stop those things. You know, you talked about doing a disinformation – what about getting a department that can look at young men that's looking at women that's looking at their social media. What about doing that? Looking into things like that and we can stop that that way.

“But yet they want to just continue to talk about taking away your constitutional rights. And I think there’s more things we need to look into. This has been happening for years and the way we stop it is putting money into the mental health field, by putting money into other departments rather than departments that want to take away your rights.”

Walker inevitably copped a tsunami of criticism for the bizarre comments, with many questioning whether the 60-year-old senator’s candidacy had been tarnished.

CNN reporter Chris Cillizza wrote: “To have such an uninformed view on such a critical issue is, in that context, unforgivable.”

The clip registered three millions views on Twitter in less than nine hours.

If Herschel Walker's senator candidacy hasn't been stopped before, today is the day.

This is beyond brutal. https://t.co/S4dkQ1MOdj

— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) May 26, 2022

Huh? What?@HerschelWalker is not right in the head.
Whatever he's trying to say here is pure nonsense. https://t.co/wWeZlnSwCK

— Ron Clements (@Ron_Clements) May 26, 2022

Walker played 187 NFL games during his career, representing the Dallas Cowboys, Minnesota Vikings, Philadelphia Eagles and New York Giants.

Less than 72 hours after the Texas primary school shooting, America’s most powerful gun lobby group will hold its annual convention in the same state.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) will hold its Annual Leadership Forum in Houston on Friday, with former president Donald Trump slated to headline.

The convention has drawn national criticism for its insensitivity to the shooting victims and their families. The NRA has billed the event as a “freedom-filled weekend” celebrating “the latest guns and gear”

In the wake of Tuesday’s shooting, the NRA put out a statement extending its “deepest sympathies” to the families and victims, adding that the organisation “will reflect on these events”.

However, the statement fell on deaf ears.

pic.twitter.com/l5msXNjX4l

— NRA (@NRA) May 25, 2022

Originally published as ‘Pure nonsense’: Former NFL star Herschel Walker cops backlash for nonsensical gun rant