In a National Review Online post, author Charlotte Allen followed the lead of other right-wing media figures by suggesting that the deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut were the result of a “feminized setting” in which “helpless passivity is the norm.”

As The Nation's Jessica Valenti noted, Allen also suggested that “some of the huskier 12-year-old boys” at the school could have attacked the shooter and altered the outcome of the event.

Similarly, Newsweek and Daily Beast special correspondent Megan McArdle wrote that people, even children, should be trained to “gang rush” active shooters, in contradiction to expert opinion on how best to handle such situations.

And Washington Times columnist Ted Nugent wrote that the allegedly “embarrassing, politically correct culture” of the U.S. that “mocks traditional societal values” helped lead to the shooting. Nugent also told Newsmax that “political correctness and the sheep like behavior that goes with it” could be cured by arming teachers.

These reactions echo right-wing media responses to the 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech that killed 32 people: a scapegoating of a "culture of passivity."