Tavis Smiley: I'm waiting to hear the NRA say if Trayvon Martin had a gun, he might still be alive

Radio host Tavis Smiley on Tuesday night warned there was an empathy gap between African Americans and white people in the United States.

"I say what's missing in this conversation is the reality... that most whites are killed by other whites, most blacks are killed by other blacks," he said on Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor. "That's the bottom line. I say what is missing in this conversation is the reality that in this country, sadly, the life of a black child does not have the same worth and value as a white child."

Smiley noted the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting resulted an outpouring of sympathy and sadness across the country. BUt the nation did not react in such a manner to the killing of black children, he said.

"African Americans are not seeing that same kind of empathy and appreciation of the humanity of Trayvon that they saw for the children of Sandy Hook," Smiley continued. "I'm waiting to hear, I haven't heard it yet, I'm waiting to hear the NRA say that if Trayvon Martin had a gun, he might still be alive today. The bottom line is that race still the most intractable issue in this country, and when an adult can profile, and stalk and kill a child in America our democracy is threatened."

Watch video, uploaded to YouTube by National Review Online, below: