Dayton shooting due to family breakdown, gay marriage, video games, state lawmaker says

State Rep. Candice Keller, R-Middletown, said in a post to her Facebook page that blame for the Dayton shootings should be placed on the breakdown of the traditional family, gay marriage, violent video games, professional athletes who protest the American flag, recreational marijuana and “snowflakes, who can’t accept a duly-elected President.”

>>LATEST NEWS: Butler County sheriff: Middletown lawmaker should resign after Facebook post

When reached by phone Sunday, Keller said she posted something to her private, personal Facebook page. When a reporter read the entire statement to her, Keller said it sounded like part of her posting but she couldn’t be sure if it had been altered.

The posting apparently has been removed, but screen grabs of the post were circulated on social media.

Keller said following mass shootings, there is a move to lay blame and attack the 2nd Amendment. “There needs to be a time for healing before we lash out at the Constitution and one another,” she said.

Keller called the Dayton shooting tragic, stunning and alarming.

Butler County Democratic Party Chairman Brian Hester said “She loves to fan the flames and play the role of victim here, not the nine people who were killed….She is fundamentally unfit for office. She is an embarrassment to her party, to conservatives, to Butler County and to the state Legislature.”

In March 2018, Keller made national news with her remarks about teens who survived the Parkland shooting to become advocates for gun control. At a gun rights rally, Keller said a 15-year-old shooting survivor who spoke about gun control on national television “would just as soon be eating Doritos and playing video games.”

During her 8-minute speech on the Statehouse steps, Keller said she believed the government was infringing on the gun rights of people and promoted the “stand your ground” bill she had recently introduced.

In 2017, Keller took to Facebook to criticize efforts to remove Confederate monuments.

“There is a statue of Bill Clinton in Arkansas. A man who obviously glorified adultery and perjury,” she wrote. “Lenin’s statue stands in Fremont, Washington, a man who killed millions through starvation and cruelty. Clinton/Gore 1992 was advertised on Confederate flags throughout the nation during that election. Martin Luther King was against gay marriage. Will those statues remain standing?”

Keller is co-sponsoring a bill with state Rep. Niraj Antani, R-Miamisburg, to force cities and school districts to cooperate with federal immigration authorities or risk losing homeland security funds or local government funds. 

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