Tuesday’s mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which claimed the lives of 19 children and several other adults, shook the nation. An 18-year-old named Salvador Ramos carried out the horrific act, eventually being shot and killed by a responding Border Patrol officer who himself took a bullet and/or shrapnel.

Unfortunately, in a time when unity and prayer are needed for those grieving, Democrats saw another political opportunity and decided to ghoulishly seize it. Over and over, members of the left, from politicians to media members, took to social media to blame Republicans for a shooting they had nothing to do with, and while there are many examples, one of the most detestable came from a House Democrat named Ruben Gallego.

You’re a member of Congress? Get a hold of yourself! pic.twitter.com/5YfeJIdMut

— LB (@beyondreasdoubt) May 24, 2022

Those posts were made before the full death toll was even released, with no information on why the shooter did what he did, where he got his guns from, and what possible actions could have prevented him from carrying out the attack. I would suggest that it’s important to identify a specific policy that would have stopped the shooting before trying to place blame on completely unrelated individuals. Pretending that Ted Cruz being against universal background checks, which would have stopped not a single mass shooting in recent memory, somehow makes him pro-child murder is grotesque.

As to the mention of abortion, claiming that Cruz cares about a fetus but not children being slaughtered, a fetus is a child. That Democrats believe now is the time, and Gallego was hardly the only one to use that talking point, to flaunt the fact that they want to kill children up until birth boggles my mind. What am I supposed to take away from that except that they only care about protecting kids when it’s politically convenient and fits into their worldview? On the other hand, I’m certain that Cruz is anti-child murder before and after they exit the womb, which makes him the consistent voice here.

I find this entire thing deeply saddening. Human beings, as much as we want to convince ourselves otherwise, do not have nearly as much control as we’d like. That includes politicians who rush to politicize tragedies by suggesting their chosen policies would have prevented attacks they so obviously wouldn’t have prevented. In this case, there is no reason to believe that universal background checks, the top talking point so far from the left, would have done anything. In fact, current indications are that the shooter passed one. Meanwhile, suggestions of increasing security at schools, an action that could actually have a direct impact, are scoffed at.

Regardless, the rush to vilify one’s political opponents for tragedies they did not perpetrate has gone too far. Ted Cruz had nothing to do with this shooting in Texas. To try to blame him while also demeaning the life of children in the womb is morally repugnant.