The Odessa-Midland shooting was a horrific thing. The shooting rampage was just one of a number of high profile mass shootings that took place all around the same time, but it was different in that the killer was mobile pretty much the whole time.

When the dust settled, we learned that the killer obtained his AR-15 from someone in a face-to-face transfer, which sparked called for universal background checks. Then we learned the firearm was built specifically to be sold, which is illegal.

Now, the Texas man who built the gun has pleaded guilty.

A Texas man who frequently sold firearms online pleaded guilty on Wednesday to illegally selling an AR-15-style rifle to <killer’s name redacted>, who used it to kill seven people and wound 25 in a 2019 mass shooting.

The plea agreement, filed in federal court in Lubbock, Texas, is a sign of increased scrutiny of private gun sales, including those conducted online. Such transactions have proven challenging for authorities to regulate in recent years.

[The killer], who was shot and killed by police, had been deemed by a court to be mentally unfit to own firearms before purchasing the weapon from Marcus Braziel.

Mr. Braziel admitted that he sold numerous guns without a firearm dealer’s license online, according to his plea agreement. Several of the people who purchased firearms from him had been barred from buying guns.

Braziel claims he took people at their word. If they said they were good to go, he sold them guns and didn’t bother to dig any further. This despite selling a sufficient number of guns to have needed an FFL, which would have required him to perform background checks.

Meanwhile, now he’s trying to say he now supports universal background checks.

Braziel said his brief encounter with Ator and its horrific and lingering consequences have made him a fervent believer in universal background checks on would-be gun buyers.

“I feel responsible for the role I played in selling him a firearm,” he told CNN. “My primary objective is that this never happen to anyone else.”

I’m calling male bovine excrement on that.

Look, I think rules requiring anyone selling more than X number of guns to obtain a FFL is stupid, but it’s also the law. Braziel seems to have sold more than enough guns himself that he should have obtained a license or gone through a licensed dealer to sell the weapons. He didn’t because he didn’t care.

After all, going through a licensed dealer is an option for anyone selling any number of guns.

Now, he’s trying to cover himself. That’s all any of this is. By saying he supports universal background checks now, he’s trying to signal that he’s remorseful over his actions. That’s it.

He screwed up. Now, he’s trying to screw the rest of us to cover for his own mistakes, and that’s beyond ridiculous.

We all know that Braziel didn’t care what people did with the guns he sold. While he may be remorseful that one of the weapons he sold was used in such a horrific act, I suspect he’s more remorseful that he got caught.