To find anti-gun lawmakers in California isn’t very surprising. To find a Democrat making hay out of a tragedy like the Las Vegas shooting isn’t either, apparently. So there’s no real surprise that California Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon did as well.

What is surprising is that the man had the audacity to claim anyone who has ever opposed gun control was, in essence, an accomplice to the murder.

We have to make this stop. #LasVegas pic.twitter.com/ROdYji1zhW

— Anthony Rendon (@Rendon63rd) October 2, 2017

As of right now, we know very little about the shooter’s weapons. We knew even less yesterday when Rendon wrote this. In other words, he’s ready to claim blood is on our hands simply because the shooter was a shooter and not, say, a bomber.

Rendon is hardly the only one. Countless other so-called “tolerant” souls are blaming the National Rifle Association for the shooting, even before we know a thing about how the killer got his guns or even precisely what the guns were. With no information other than it was a shooting, they’re ready to lynch the NRA and everyone who supports them.

And no, that’s not hyperbole.

Ah, tolerance.

Rendon’s claim, that gun lobbyists and the NRA are responsible, coincides with a push by anti-gun Democrats to pretend that the only impediment to further gun control lies in pro-gun lawmakers being terrified of the NRA’s deep pockets. Take Rep. Chris Murphy from Connecticut.

To my colleagues: your cowardice to act cannot be whitewashed by thoughts and prayers.

None of this ends unless we do something to stop it.

— Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) October 2, 2017

Cowardice.

The implication is that the only reason one will not side with him on gun control is fear.

To Speaker Rendon and Rep. Murphy, I tell you this right here and now. It’s not cowardice that makes people stand up for their right to keep and bear arms at a time like this. Cowardice would be to capitulate to demands that we do something, anything, just so it looks like something is being done. Cowardice is bowing to the demands of ghouls such as yourselves who try to use the bodies of the dead as a foundation for your desire to rip apart the bill of rights. Cowardice would be to do what you demand regardless of their own principles.

It’s easy to sit on Twitter and pontificate about how lawmakers should have the courage to do this or that. The thing to remember is that courage doesn’t mean “do what I tell you to do” and it never has.

Right now, pro-gun lawmakers are getting a lot of pressure to change their stance. They’re hearing from a lot of people who will claim failure to enact gun control will result in the lawmaker having to get a new job. They’re having reason to fear negative ramifications for their pro-Second Amendment stands.

Yet their stand remains.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is courage. No, it’s not the courage of those in Las Vegas who drew guns and charged toward danger. It’s not the courage of an off-duty police officer borrowing country singer John Rich’s gun to stand guard at the door of a bar. But it is courage none the less.

The only cowardly acts here are lawmakers trying to use emotion over rational discourse in the wake of such a tragedy.