SALT LAKE CITY — Veteran journalist Tom Brokaw was in Salt lake City Friday as host of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert. But he was able to step away to speak with KSL about the massacre at a Connecticut elementary school.

Brokaw has seen a lot of these tragedies and has a unique insight into how it should be understood.

Brokaw was just like many of us: He said the first thing he did after hearing about the shooting in Newtown was consider if it had been his children or grandchildren in that Connecticut elementary school.

"That could have been my child or my grandchild, or my niece," he said. "Or the kid next door. I thought the president's most eloquent statement was that they had their whole lives before them."

But he also cited what he called a "culture of violence."

"I think you have to start talking about the culture of violence in America," he said. This has been a terrible year. Aurora, Colorado, the shooting at the Sikh temple, we had just another shopping mall shooting very recently, then now this."

He also mentioned gang violence in Chicago that has gotten out of control.

Brokaw questioned why all these things have been left out of the national discussion.

Related:

Child of former Ogden family among those killed in Conn. shooting

As a nation mourns the loss of life in Connecticut the very personal nature of such a public tragedy came clearer into focus.

"And yet, during the entire presidential campaign, there was almost no conversation about it," he said.

The debate about gun control came almost immediately to the forefront in the wake of the shooting, with constant posts to social media and a large day-long protest in front of the White House calling for more regulation. Brokaw weighed on that side of the day's events as well.

"I'm a gun owner," he said. "I've been one since I was 10 years old. There are limits on access to them that can be reasonable in a society."

He called the incident a "scar on our time."

"I don't know whether it's the deepest scar," he said. "I do think it is the one that touches the hearts of most of us. These completely innocent kids."

Brokaw sympathized with the president in coming to tears while trying to speak about the tragedy during a press conference.

"I completely understand the president not being able to keep his emotions in check. When I watched him I teared up."

Earlier in the day, Brokaw got a picture of his own grandchildren dressed up in Groucho Marx outfits that made him laugh. He said that led him to empathize with the families.

"And then of course you project what happened to those kids on to your own children or grandchildren. And we all think, ‘How can this happen, in this society in which we take such great pride in what we understandably believe is our greatness.' But if we can't resolve this, if we can't find our way out of this cycle of violence, that's a terrible commentary on where we are."

Related topics