But at least one op-ed writer has decided the real culprit here, besides the shooter--if I'm being charitable to say he blames the shooter at all--is none other than Trump himself. But even then, he doesn't escape the stupidity that's all too common today.

Trump has not merely joined the long list of victims of American political violence, stretching from Andrew Jackson to Abraham Lincoln to James Garfield to William McKinley to gangster Al Capone to John Kennedy to Martin Luther King, Ronald Reagan and Gabby Giffords. Unlike any others, he is in a way a victim of his own policies.

Long an ally of the National Rifle Association’s perpetual campaign to overturn any gun-control law passed anywhere in America, Trump was wounded by what the FBI calls an “AR-15-style” weapon. The shooter nicked the ex-president’s right ear, bloodying his face. That shot missed killing him by only an inch or less.

Meanwhile, the three justices Trump placed on the U.S. Supreme Court have unanimously nixed almost every gun-control law they’ve encountered, a prominent exception coming this past spring when the court refused to take up an anti-assault weapon law in Maryland, not far from the Butler, Pennsylvania, political rally where Trump was shot.

As this summer began, though, the San Francisco-based Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence reported that Pennsylvania has no law prohibiting transfer or possession of assault weapons. This one belonged to the shooter’s father.

...

Republicans immediately after the Trump shooting blamed President Biden for his metaphorical remark the other day suggesting it was time again for Democrats to “put Trump in the bull’s-eye,” rather than merely resisting calls that Biden stand down after his impaired June 27 debate performance with Trump. The GOP can certainly look in any mirror, though, to see who has consistently furthered the legal climate surrounding the attempt on Trump’s life.

Similar shootings are also possible in California under a 2021 decision from San Diego federal Judge Roger Benitez, a George W. Bush appointee whose 79-page opinion ruled this state’s controls on semi-automatic rifle ownership unconstitutional.

So, basically, it boils down to it being Trump's fault that he got shot because he didn't back gun control. Not quite the improvement we might hope, to say the least.

Yet as we've had to point out endlessly since the attempt on Trump's life, gun control wouldn't have prevented that attack. The Secret Service not being afraid of a gently sloping roof might have, but gun control? Not in the least.

The author laments that it's unlikely that the Republican Party will suddenly back gun control. That's a good thing because the issue is not now, nor has it ever been, that people can have guns. Nor is it an issue that people can have guns that folks like the author are terrified of.

Our right to keep and bear arms is a terrifying responsibility in many ways. We have the right to be armed preserved not for hunting or competition shooting at the Olympics. We have that right because our Founding Fathers wanted us ready to defend the Constitution. That means having the weapons necessary to preserve our nation, even from the government if need be.

That shouldn't change.

If that's why he's blaming Trump for his own shooting, then the term "pound sand" comes into play right about now.

But at least he's sort of blaming people for a change. I suppose that's the most we can expect out of an op-ed writer from California. 

Let's remember that victim blaming is supposed to be bad, though. Or does that only apply while convenient?