Anyone who loses someone they love in a shooting of any kind has my sympathy. I've been there and I pray I never end up there again.

But I've always been disgusted with people who use the bodies of the slain as a soapbox. It's worse when they put words in the deceased's mouth. They can't speak for themselves, and in most cases we don't have definitive proof of where they stood on various issues.

So after they're gone, we're told we need to give up our rights for the sake of this person who was totally into gun control and would totally agree with what those left behind are saying.

It's bad enough when it's just someone making the claim.

With modern technology, it got worse.

Families of gun violence victims are using artificial intelligence to recreate their loved ones' voices and taunt lawmakers who oppose gun control on the sixth anniversary of the Parkland massacre.

The robocall messages are being sent to senators and House members who support the National Rifle Association and Second Amendment rights in a campaign that launched on Valentine's Day, Wednesday, according to the Associated Press. Manuel and Patricia Oliver, whose son Joaquin "Guac" Oliver died in the 2018 high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, said the campaign run through The Shotline website is intended to spur Congress to ban the sale of guns like the AR-15 rifle.

"We come from a place where gun violence is a problem, but you will never see a 19-year-old with an AR-15 getting into a school and shooting people," Manuel Oliver told the Associated Press in an interview. "There’s a reason for the gun violence in a Third World country. There’s no reason for the gun violence and the amount of victims in the United States."

...

"When you keep being traditional ... listening over and over and over to the same people lecturing you with the same stats, nothing changes," Patricia Oliver told the Associated Press.

If there's a terrible idea in gun control, there's bound to be an Oliver involved.

Honestly, this is just downright disgusting.

For one thing, Patricia Oliver admits that this isn't about statistics or studies or anything else. That means this is about emotion. Especially considering the message being used.

A message based on Joaquin's voice identifies him and then says, "Many students and teachers were murdered on Valentine’s Day ... by a person using an AR-15, but you don’t care. You never did. It’s been six years, and you’ve done nothing."

This is pure taunting. 

What's worse is that the Olivers think this will change things? They think this is the way to move the needle in the direction they believe was necessary?

It's not.

They might know that Juaquin would agree with them, that he would totally be part of the David Hogg crowd if he'd survived that day, but the fact is that he can't speak for himself. He has no voice anymore, which means his parents can inject their own thoughts and ideas into his mouth, so to speak, and they expect this to do anything other than make people look at them with disgust?

At the end of the day, they spent money to do this and make these calls, and literally no one is going to change their minds because of it.

Honestly, I've long pitied Manuel Oliver. As bad as he's been, I couldn't say that losing my son wouldn't break me in some way like it clearly broken him.

But I never thought I'd be repulsed by him and his antics like I am right now.