Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe Slams Virginia Gun Rights Activists
Lamb of God vocalist Randy Blythe took to social media Saturday (June 1) to lambast gun rights activists present in the rocker's Richmond, Virginia, hometown following Friday's mass shooting in Virginia Beach. On May 31, disgruntled city employee DeWayne Craddock fatally shot twelve people and wounded five others in a municipal building in the coastal resort destination, as recounted in a report from the Washington Post.
Over the ensuing weekend, Blythe snapped a photo of armed gun sympathizers' descent on the locale where Lamb of God began in 1994, over 100 miles away from the site of the shooting. In the pic, the activists are shown amassed at the foot of Richmond's Robert E. Lee monument. Accompanying the image, the musician shared a searing diatribe. In it, he alleged the group's disrespect for lives lost last week by congregating with weapons near the Confederate commander's statue. See Blythe's post down toward the bottom of the page.
"Yesterday 12 innocent people were gunned down & died in Virginia Beach, just 2 hours away from me," Blythe wrote. "People in Va Beach are insane with grief, trying to understand this violence, but today, these people from out of state who somehow don’t realize that the Civil War ended over 150 years ago couldn’t even wait ONE DAY to come parade with their guns by the Lee monument, because that is their goddamned legal right here in Virginia."
He continued, "They had enough firepower to wipe out an entire neighborhood in seconds, & my tax dollars are paying for the cost of the extra police who have to show up & make sure it doesn’t turn into a bloodbath. Forget about whether or not you agree or disagree with their 'cause'- coming here with all those guns shows that they have NO CLASS."
Near the end of Blythe's message, the singer underscores the frequent amount of mass shootings that occur in the United States. According to the Today show, Virginia Beach is the 150th mass shooting in the country in 2019.
"People across America getting blown away at work, at school, at church... but it’s legal for these wanna-be GI Joes to walk around here strapped like Rambo, & nothing fuckin’ changes," Blythe relayed. "I saw a line in an article about yesterday’s shooting that said 'This was the worst mass shooting since... November.' Do y’all realize that that is a completely INSANE sentence? Think about it..."
Last month, Lamb of God premiered rare Ashes of the Wake B-side "Another Nail for Your Coffin" to celebrate the album's 15th anniversary. As of April, the band were "well into the writing process" for a new album.
See Lamb of God in 50 Metal Songs That Defined 2009