Since the Uvalde massacre in Texas, Republicans have been tying themselves into knots to insist that guns aren't a problem in mass shootings.
A gun is involved in every mass shooting. The proliferation of and easy access to dangerous weapons of war is a problem. Republicans are not going to give up their support for these guns and the powerful industry behind them because of the 19 dead children.
They have been blaming everything from liberal teachers to gun control itself as the reason for the shootings. The reason that mass shootings occur in this country and only this country is because access to guns is so open.
Their solution is often more guns.
Some of the things Republicans have said are responsible for the tragedy in Uvalde.
Buildings often need more than one or two doors.
Ted Cruz believes that there are too many doors in buildings and that is one of the reasons for mass shootings. He said that schools would be better protected by having one door that goes in and out of the school and armed police officers at that door.
The one-door theory has been around for a while. It has been a point of contention between the gun industry and Texas Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick.
The situation would be a fire hazard. Not every mass shooting happens in a school. They happen in grocery stores, churches, movie theaters, nightclubs, outdoor concerts, and many other places. It's important that places have more than one or two doors.
Too many doors isn't really the problem.
The congressman spread a rumor that the Uvalde shooter was a woman. Scott Applewhite/ Associated Press
Conservatives spread a rumor on social media that the shooter was a woman. The 18-year-old shooter was male according to the state's own Republican governor, Greg Abbott.
According to Liz Skalka of HuffPost, the push to spread misinformation began on 4chan, an anonymous message board favored by white nationalists, where users spread photos of a random trans woman who bears a resemblance to the actual shooter.
Conservatives continued to spread the lie on social media. One of the most high-profile figures to share the conspiracy theory was Rep. Paul Gosar.
Somehow, teachers are to blame for this shooting.
Republican Heather Anne Sprague is blaming liberals for the Uvalde shooting.
She wrote in a Facebook post that the teachers that molded this kid into a killer should be arrested.
The 18-year-old shooter was "brainwashed" in school by liberal teachers to think he shouldn't be a male.
If this doesn't stop, we will have more shootings because there are more confused, fed up and mentally ill kids out there.
The shooter was not a woman. Her entire post is wrong.
The country needs to return to God, according to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
We don't need more gun control. In the wake of the Uvalde shooting, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said we need to return to God.
Jackson Lahmeyer said that it was time to arm the teachers and bring back prayer in public schools.
Even with prayer in schools, Ramos would still have been able to buy an assault rifle.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is one of the GOP politicians who wants more guns in schools.
One of the biggest talking points after a mass shooting is the idea of more guns in schools. They want to give a gift to the gun industry and increase the number of guns.
Cruz said he wants to make his schools harder to enter with bulletproof doors and glass.
The Texas Attorney General brought back a conservative wish to arm more teachers.
It takes time for law enforcement, no matter how prepared, no matter how good they are. The best hope is to have the right training for these people.
Lauren Boebert added Thursday night that she wanted teachers to protect themselves and their students.
The majority of teachers don't want to have guns.
The measures these conservatives are suggesting have been tried and they haven't worked.
Uvalde had an extensive security plan that included its own police force, threat assessment teams at each school, a threat reporting system, social media monitoring software, fences around schools and a requirement that teachers lock their classroom doors.
40 percent of the school shootings analyzed by the Washington Post had a police officer on the campus, meaning the mere presence of an officer was not enough to deter the shooter. There were only two cases where a school police officer shot and killed a shooter.
Sen. Mike Lee says fatherlessness may be to blame for shootings.
The country needs to look at the root causes of mass shootings, according to Sen. Mike Lee.
It raises questions about why our culture suddenly produces so many young men who want to murder innocent people.
Lee doesn't support making sure troubled young men don't have assault weapons.
The idea that mass shooters hail from fatherless homes has been floated for years by conservatives. There are no studies that show a correlation between being fatherlessness and a tendency toward gun violence. The mass shooting in Buffalo, New York, last week was carried out by another 18-year-old male who had a mother and father.
The senator is worried about young people and their attention deficit medication.
The senator said that mass shootings are happening because of kids and their attention deficit medication.
Kids have changed over the years, the drugs they take for attention deficit are just to focus on what they are doing. He told HuffPost this week that it was mind-blowing.
Republicans blamed the shooting on their favorite cultural boogeyman. The picture was taken by Dusan Stankovic.
Conservatives who are mocking it use a term called "wokeness" which is a term that Republicans love to rail about. Being aware of and concerned about social justice is what it means. Teaching kids about racial inequality and railing against the bogeyman of critical race theory is a favorite.
Sen. Ron Johnson decided that both of them were to blame for the Uvalde shooting. How convenient!
He said that gun control won't solve society-wide sickness.
He said that the solution lies in stronger families and more supportive communities. Values were not taught in many of our schools. We're teaching wokeness now. Some children are not equal to others and they are the cause of other people's problems, which is why we are teaching them.
There have been protests across the nation demanding an end to gun violence.
The senior vice president of Gun Owners of America doesn't believe that guns are the problem.
He said that the killer in Texas was aided by gun control.
Aside from more guns, more fathers and fewer doors, the main thing Republicans have offered in response to these shootings is their hollow thoughts and prayers.
Georgia GOP Senate candidate Herschel Walker has called for a department that can look at young men that are looking at social media and women that are looking at social media.
The article was originally on HuffPost.
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