The media loves them some anti-gun shooting survivors. They seem to believe that being in a certain place on a certain day and time somehow conveys a level of expertise that simply can’t be ignored. It’s why we’ve had to put up with the Parkland kids and Gabby Giffords, after all.

Not to say those events aren’t horrible. They were and sure, there probably are things we can learn from them, but not from the hysterical ravings of people reacting more to trauma than reality

When a survivor decides to run for office, the media makes a huge thing of it. Or, they typically do when it’s an anti-gun survivor.

However, a story from the Wall Street Journal notes that not all survivors run as anti-gun.

Stephen Willeford was widely hailed by supporters of the Second Amendment as the model “good guy with a gun” in 2017, when he grabbed an AR-15 rifle and pursued and shot at a gunman killing churchgoers in Sutherland Springs, Texas.

Two and a half years later, the gregarious plumber has embraced the moniker Good Gun Guy Wille in speeches, church security training and now in a campaign for local county commissioner. If he wins, he wants to make Wilson County a “Second Amendment sanctuary” that would defy any restrictions state politicians might put on guns.

“I never had such a voice,” Mr. Willeford said. “Now people are willing to listen to me.”

He is one of three men in Texas touched by shootings at churches who are drawing on their experiences to run for public office in March’s Republican primaries.

Pastor Frank Pomeroy, who lost his teenage daughter and 25 other congregants in the Sutherland Springs church shooting, is challenging a popular Democratic state senator.

In North Texas, firearms instructor Jack Wilson was already a candidate for county commissioner when he took down a gunman Dec. 29 at the West Freeway Church of Christ.

All three men were impacted by gun violence. With Pomeroy, his experience isn’t unlike that of Georgia Rep. Lucy McBath. Yet all three have very different stances on our gun rights.

Of course, they’re running for local offices and not the United States House of Representatives. While that might play a factor, it hasn’t in the past. The media loves to celebrate survivors, after all.

Yet these three men aren’t going to get the coverage they would if their experiences made them anti-gun. They’re not likely to get interviewed on prime time cable news. They’re not likely to get coverage in the national media at every point, either.

They’re going to be mostly ignored.

My issue with that isn’t that the national media isn’t paying attention to local races. No, that makes sense. After all, there are a ton of such races and there’s no way they can cover them all.

No, my issue is that we all know that if David Hogg ran for city council, the media would be all over it, covering it like a presidential election, all because he has the status of “survivor” while they ignore these three men. Yes, I expect hypocrisy from the media. I also expect myself to call it out when I see it.