One of the arguments we routinely use is that the gun is not to blame for a mass shooting. Pro-gun advocates will tell the world that the gun has no mind of its own. It doesn’t make people kill, and it can also stop attacks if used, so let’s stop pretending guns are to blame.

However, in light of the most recent mass shooting, it seems that a large number of Americans disagree.

Americans are closely divided over whether more stringent control of guns could have helped prevent this weekend’s massacre at a Pittsburgh synagogue. But one-third of Americans think access to guns is more at fault than the killers in incidents of this kind.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 46% of American Adults believe stricter gun control laws would help prevent shootings like the one in Pittsburgh. Nearly as many (43%), however, disagree. Ten percent (10%) are undecided. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

A year ago following a mass shooting in Las Vegas, 43% said more gun control would help prevent incidents like this; 46% disagreed.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Americans say that in crimes involving use of a gun, the shooter is more to blame than the availability of guns in America. But 31% disagree, saying the availability of guns is more to blame.

Democrats (51%) are much more likely than Republicans (13%) and those not affiliated with either major party (25%) to blame the availability of guns for mass shootings more than the person who pulls the trigger.

…

The survey of 1,000 American Adults was conducted on October 29-30, 2018 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

So, let’s go and look at that statement in bold type for a moment.

Thirty-one percent of the people surveyed say the availability of guns is more to blame than the person who pulls the trigger. To put it another way, the Rassmussen Poll found that 31 percent of Americans are apparently total morons suffering from some kind of severe mental disability.

We can disagree about whether gun control is the answer to whatever problem, but only an idiot would think that guns are somehow responsible for incidents like the Tree of Life Synagogue shooting. The gun had no volition, no free will to act on its own. Guns aren’t cursed magical items from a fantasy novel that urge their owners to commit atrocities. They have no opinion of their own.

They’re tools which people will sometimes use to carry out heinous acts.

In the last week, we’ve seen the constant push against gun control continue to intensify, but the sad truth is that this constant push is all the anti-gunners know how to do. They can’t imagine addressing anything else in our society that might be a contributing factor. They don’t even want to address that.

It’s because they don’t actually care about mass shootings. They don’t care about mass murder. They’re so hyperfocused on guns that it becomes clear they’re scared of a device that can’t do anything on its own that they forget that the maniacs will resort to other means to slaughter the innocent.

But now we can see just how many idiots we have running around.

Maybe it’s time to support idiot control instead.

Hat tip: NRA-ILA