However, it’s also a handy scapegoat for anything that doesn’t work the way some want in any given state.

My favorite example was someone who blamed gerrymandering for Stacey Abrams losing the Georgia governor’s race. Yeah, that one was absolutely hilarious.

Regardless, it’s easy to blame it for anything you want, which is what The Trace has opted to do.

After a 15-year-old student at Oxford High School in Michigan opened fire on his classmates last month with a handgun his parents had bought for him, killing four young people and injuring seven, state Democrats are seeking to enact tougher gun laws. Resistance is certain.

Michigan Republicans — who owe their grip on power in part to heavily gerrymandered voting maps — have thwarted proposals to curb gun violence for a decade. The gun lobby often gets credit for such defeats. Yet, Michigan illustrates how outcomes can also hinge on structures that favor minority control and disadvantage Democrats, who tend to support stricter gun measures.

State Senator Rosemary Bayer, a Democrat whose district includes Oxford High, said the notion that her party faces a fair contest in state races is “absurd.” She said that voting maps have allowed the GOP to ignore gun safety measures that enjoy broad support. Bayer plans to reintroduce a “red flag” bill meant to keep guns from those deemed a danger to themselves or others. Polling suggests that 78 percent of Michigan Democrats and 64 percent of Republicans support such measures.

If they had that much real support, they’d pass. Gun rights groups wouldn’t be able to do a thing about them and we all know it.

The problem is that while people say they support such measures to pollsters, they don’t support them enough to make a difference in who gets elected and who doesn’t. Yeah, they might support them on the surface, but it’s not a hill they’re willing to die on.

But what about the gerrymandering claim? Is Michigan somehow different than every other state with district lines drawn in haphazard ways just to keep something like gun control from passing?

I looked at the Michigan House districts map to take a look. That’s where you’re more likely to see signs of gerrymandering, and the districts do have some odd shapes. However, I’ve seen worse as well, which suggests that they’re not necessarily manipulated.

Plus, if we’re going to claim gerrymandering is keeping gun control from passing in Michigan, we can claim it’s just as responsible for preventing gun rights measures from passing in California.

Besides, districts are divided based on population, so they’re not going to be neat little boxes on a map. They’re going to have to have odd shapes.

As such, this whole argument seems like nothing more than an attempt to attack Republicans over supposed gerrymandering and make them look like some unmitigated evil.

Yes, gerrymandering can and does happen. However, don’t blame it because your anti-Second Amendment proposal is hitting a brick wall. If your bill was any good, you could make the case to your opponents and work with them on making it happen. The fact that these lawmakers can’t and have to resort to whining to The Trace tells you all you need to know.

Gerrymandering is a convenient scapegoat for their own legislative incompetence, as anyone with eyes can see.