Yesterday’s violence in the City of Brotherly Love was awful. Police officers were shot in a brutal shootout that looks from here like something ripped out of a John Woo movie.

Yet, as it was going on, we had Democratic candidates for president who wasted no time trying to use this to justify their own gun control measures.

Politicizing shootings while officers are still under fire. Classy, @KamalaHarris. #PhiladelphiaShooting pic.twitter.com/RS3pcIbcv7

— Bradley Brewer 🇺🇸 (@realBradBrewer) August 14, 2019

I’m heartsick for the Philadelphia officers and their loved ones, and grateful for the brave first responders helping people get to safety.

We don’t have to live like this. We must pass gun reform laws to end the gun violence epidemic—now. https://t.co/r0OKa1tVnc

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) August 15, 2019

It is devastating that so many families are suffering, or losing the people they love, while we wait to make the substantial gun reform we need to keep people in our country safe.

Our hearts are with the people of Philadelphia tonight.

— Julián Castro (@JulianCastro) August 14, 2019

These three people all think they’re fit to be President of the United States, yet they’ve wasted absolutely no time to politicize and even that was still going on at the time.

Now, to be sure, they weren’t the only ones. Rep. Val Demings of Florida also used the incident as an opportunity to attack “high capacity rifles,” whatever the hell those are, and call for more gun control.

.@RepValDemings: “I think we can assume that [the Philly shooter] is also heavily armed with high capacity rifles or weapons and also has high capacity magazines.” pic.twitter.com/pBoyHpcOSw

— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) August 14, 2019

Even the mayor of Philadelphia joined in the “fun.” Unsurprisingly, Mayor Jim Kenney is…you guessed it, a Democrat.

Philadelphia Mayor calls for gun control after shooting that injured 6 police officers

pic.twitter.com/FMUIoxknW5

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) August 15, 2019

Now, I apologize for the list of tweets. That’s usually the domain of our friends over at Twitchy, but this was what I was seeing during and immediately after six police officers were injured in the line of duty.

Gun control.

Let’s ignore the fact that, as Cam noted earlier today, the suspect didn’t have a record, he had a whole discography. The man was a career criminal reportedly involved with the illicit drug trade there in Philadelphia. He couldn’t legally buy a firearm as it was. Just what gun control measures are we to put in place?

I mean, he was allegedly a drug dealer, right? Why not advocate for drug control?

Yeah, I know. Drugs are already illegal, but that’s kind of the point. If this individual was able to get his hands on illegal drugs, why in the name of all that is holy would you assume he couldn’t get his hands on illegal guns?

No amount of gun control is going to keep guns out of the hands of people like this. None. We already have laws designed to keep people like this disarmed. How did those work?

Yeah, right. They didn’t.

But we have presidential candidates, people who routinely talk about how the president doesn’t act presidential, pushing their anti-gun agendas while the incident is still going on. We have politicians pushing for gun control before we even really know just what the hell happened.

And they’re the same people who were furious over the SHOT Show being held in Las Vegas months after the mass shooting there. As you can see, timing is only appropriate for us. They can do whatever they want, whenever they want, and we’re supposed to maintain a careful distance out of respect or whatever.

Well, that’s not how it works.

Warren, Harris, Castro, Demings, and Kenney are despicable examples of human beings. They’re using this incident as political fodder while people are being shot or dealing with the immediate aftermath of being shot. What’s worse, however, is how few in the media are willing to call them on it. None of those voices furious at the National Shooting Sports Foundation hosting an event that had been in the planning for almost a year by the time of Las Vegas happening are blinking an eye at this.

It’s why I, personally, gave up trying to give incidents a respectful distance before talking about the politics surrounding it. I won’t fight with both hands and a leg tied behind my back when my opponents seem to be gaining extra appendages every day.

It doesn’t make what they did any less disgusting, though.