Is it fair to ask why the vast majority of the shooters in Newtown-like mass murders are white men? And what would have been the country’s reaction if the shooter had been black?

Those are the questions raised by Salon writer David Sirota, a white male himself, in in an interview on MSNBC and a Salon piece entitled “Time to Profile White Men?” They’re queries that are making him a target of vicious attack by such right-wing media types as Glenn Beck, Fox News and the website of the late Andrew Breitbart. After his piece appeared on Salon, Sirota went on CNN to defend his position.

“I think we should ask the question why is America 30 percent white guys, and 70 percent of the shootings in the last many decades have been at the hands of white guys,” Sirota said on CNN. “I do think it’s interesting to note that had 70 percent of mass shooters been let’s say Arab or African-American men, I think the conversation would be … much uglier.”