What do you know. Not responsible for his own murder after all.
South Carolina state Rep. William Chumley is upset that people think he suggested that the nine victims of the mass murder at Emanuel AME Church might still be alive if they'd thought to
go to Bible study armed:
“I deeply regret using those words and giving that impression,” he said. “My view, which I was clumsily trying to express, was that it is painfully regrettable that someone was not able to intervene in this demented killer’s life to stop him right up to the moment he squeezed the trigger.
Intervene with a gun, though, right?
“Please let me be clear: The responsibility for the despicable murders in Charleston rests solely on the murderer. If any of my remarks suggested differently, I am deeply sorry.”
If any of your remarks suggested differently?
Let me give you a clue:
These people sat in there and waited their turn to be shot. That's sad. If somebody in there with a means of self-defense could have stopped this and we'd have less funerals than we're having.
That was pretty straightforward. Not a lot of room for confusion.
Points for "The responsibility for the despicable murders in Charleston rests solely on the murderer," but the rest of this apology is going to need a lot of work. Because the thing is, when your apology includes the line "I was clumsily trying to express," it only works if we believe you were actually being clumsy, as opposed to expressing something you really believe (people should take guns to Bible study) that happens to have been a terrible thing to think or say. What Chumley said requires a complete, straightforward, no ifs or buts kind of apology. That's not what he's given.