After a days-long search, Maine shooting suspect, Robert Card, has been found dead.

Here is what we know. Card was found dead as a result of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound near a dumpster at a recycling plant where he worked at one point point in Lisbon, Maine.

As Deanna reported earlier, the anti-gun lobby (specifically, Shannon Watts), are quick to jump on the appropriate talking points. Take this from Marca.com:

Card liked tweets from high-profile conservative figures such as Donald Trump Jr., Tucker Carlson, Dinesh D’Souza. He also engaged with publications from former house speakers Kevin McCarthy and Jim Jordan…”-Marca.com

And, we see where this is going…

The most “eye-catching”, (according to Marca) of them all that Mr. Card, liked this tweet from Donald Trump Jr.:

Given the incredible rise of trans/non-binary mass shooters in the last few years… by far the largest group committing as a percentage of population… maybe, rather than talking about guns we should be talking about lunatics pushing their gender affirming bullsh*t on our kids?”-Donald Trump Jr.

He also liked this Tweet from Tucker Carlson:

The trans movement, it turns out, is the mirror image of Christianity, and therefore its natural enemy. People who believe they’re God can’t stand to be reminded that they’re not.”-Tucker Carlson

(Gasp.) A right-winger with an assault rifle who was, apparently, not a fan of the trans movement.

What’s more? “Via a tweet from Dinesh D’Souza, Card “also expressed his support for guns”.

Again, we see where this is going. Card liked tweets from Don Jr., Tucker and Dinesh. He was a far-right nut job. The liberal media is about to pounce. A “senseless and tragic” mass shooting. Man, if only we had more gun laws! Right, Joe?

Far too many Americans have now had a family member killed or injured as a result of gun violence. That is not normal, and we cannot accept it.”-Joe Biden

Let us also continue to speak truth about the moment we are in. Gun violence is the leading cause of death for children in our nation. It does not have to be this way.”-Kamala Harris

Now, I am not meaning to take away from the lives lost because Robert Card was crazy and decided to open fire on two public establishments and kill innocent people. This is indeed a tragedy. Robert Card was mentally ill and was institutionalized for a time in Maine. But the Maine Shooter, Robert Card did not just have a mental illness, he had an assault weapon. In comes MSNBC:

Further, scapegoating mental illness is especially ineffective at preventing mass shootings. Less than 5% of mass shooters would have met the qualifications to bar them from owning or purchasing a firearm based on severe mental illness. To the point: The U.S. is not the only country where a significant proportion of the population lives with mental illness, but we are the only country that regularly endures mass shootings — and that is due to our easy access to firearms.”-Christian Heyne, Chief Policy & Programs Officer, Brady

Read: it’s not the mental illness and the person who holds the weapon that is the killer, it is the weapon itself.

While we all want to prevent yet another mass murder like the one in Lewiston from happening again, we must not follow the red herring of mental illness but must instead follow the facts. An overwhelming majority of Americans are demanding meaningful change to prevent not just tragedies like these, but all forms of the gun violence that has defined our country. It is on each of us to ensure solutions are rooted in evidence so we can end this public health crisis and protect future generations from this horrific new normal.”Christian Heyne, Chief Policy & Programs Officer, Brady

Mental illness is not a “red herring”, as they put it. We can look at two instances of mass shootings over the past year. The Tennessee Shooter, Audrey Hale, a self-professed trans activist and a liberal democrat and Robert Card, a former military reservist, who perhaps leaned a bit to the right. They both got a hold of an assault weapon. Different weapons. But what is the one thing they had in common?

Mental illness.

So, liberal media, spin this how you want. But gun violence has not defined our country. Gun violence is not the public health crisis. Mental illness is. And while the left will say that gun violence “defines” our country, they will attempt to redefine America. From our family values to our educational systems and everything else they can get their greasy, grubby little hands on, to include our right to defend ourselves while the criminals and insane run free in the streets and in our neighborhoods because of their failed systems. THIS is the “horrific new normal”

Photo Credit: Aissa Richards, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons