Anti-gun politicians desperately want to paint the NRA as the villain in any way imaginable. That generally includes linking them to crimes they had nothing to do with, such as the Parkland massacre.

At least with Parkland, the case is being presented that the NRA is responsible because they have opposed assault weapon bans. While I disagree completely, at least something approaching a legitimate argument is somewhere in the rough vicinity.

Kansas Democrat Brent Welder, however, went completely off the rails when he tried to link his opponent, U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, to the murder of two sheriff’s deputies. The reason Yoder was responsible? He’s supported and supports the National Rifle Association.

Deputies Patrick Rohrer and Theresa King were shot while transporting a suspect near the county courthouse on Friday. The investigation is ongoing, but investigators think the suspect may have obtained one deputy’s gun and used it to kill the two deputies.

Welder noted that his campaign office, which is near the courthouse, went into lockdown after the shooting.

“I’m grateful our staff and volunteers are safe, but two sheriff’s deputies were killed yesterday because someone who shouldn’t have had a gun had one,” Welder, a labor attorney who moved to Kansas last year, said in the Saturday email to supporters.

The email provided a link to a petition to tell Yoder to stop accepting money from the National Rifle Association. People who signed the petition were then taken to a fundraising page for Welder.

The debate over gun control has dominated the campaign for months, and Welder’s email also promoted a Monday gun control rally in Kansas City, Kan., that was intended to put pressure on Yoder, who has been dogged by questions about the issue.

The Kansas State Lodge of the Fraternal Order of Police strongly criticized what it called an effort to raise money off “the cold-blooded murder” of two deputies.

The FOP is completely right. Welder is complete and total scum for even trying to raise money off of this issue.

He’s also an idiot. After all, if investigators think the bad guy got one of the deputy’s guns and used that, just how in the hell is it the NRA or any NRA supporter’s fault? Seriously, I want to hear this logic.

Yes, someone who wasn’t supposed to have a gun got one, yet the thinking is that he got it by stealing it from an on-duty deputy transporting him. What law did the NRA support that even remotely might have contributed to it? What law did it oppose that might potentially have prevented it?

None. Not at all.

While Welder may be able to hit Yoder over gun control, only an idiot can blame him or the NRA for this crime. Yes, the NRA wants to see police armed, but so do the vast majority of Americans. In other words, the NRA is part of the mainstream–even in otherwise anti-gun circles, I might add–on this one.

Again, how is the NRA or Yoder responsible?

But then again, with anti-gunners, none of that matters. In fact, Welder’s apology stemmed around the insensitive nature of using these deaths for his campaign. It had nothing to do with being so factually wrong that even Shannon Watts would cringe. OK, maybe not that. That might be taking things a bit far since Shannon has no shame, but you get the point.

Welder is so pathetically wrong it’s laughable, and he was out of line for trying to capitalize on two deputies deaths. And, somehow, some folks still consider him on the side of the angels.