Over the Memorial Day weekend, twenty people were murdered in heavily gun-restricted Chicago. Eight more were wounded in gun-restricted Detroit. But those victims are mostly nameless and faceless, unworthy of mention by those who profess compassion for victims of gun crime. The Left stands notorious for their exploitation of the victims of violence, specifically gun violence that results in attention-grabbing headlines, to push their agenda to disarm America. “Never let a good crisis go to waste,” they say. And the reaction to the atrocity committed by an evil, and highly unstable young man (whose name deserves to be forgotten) in Isla Vista last week against innocent, unarmed citizens is no exception.

I won’t stand in judgment of a grieving family, for I cannot begin to fathom the unspeakable pain they are in. My heart breaks for all involved. That said, the knee-jerk rush to blame firearms is wholly misguided. Rather than confront the major role the mental instability of their son played, nor to some extent their own possible neglect in fully recognizing his mental disturbance, the young man’s family is placing responsibility for his actions not on him, but rather on the usual suspect: guns. From Alan Shifman, attorney for Peter Rodger:

“’On behalf of the Rodgers family they want to make sure that the victims and the victims’ families are aware that this is the tragedy of the most extreme,’ Shifman said. ‘They want to send their deepest condolences to all of the victims’ families involved.’

‘My client’s mission in life will be to try to prevent any such tragedies from ever happening again,’ Shifman said. ‘This country, this world, needs to address mental illness and the ramifications from not recognizing these illnesses.’

Shifman also claimed the family is ‘staunchly against guns’ and supports gun control laws. ‘They are extremely, extremely upset that anybody was hurt under these circumstances.’”

Shifman’s statement, while welcome, does not address the fact that the young man’s first three victims were killed with a knife. Nor does it discuss the fact that California has some of the strictest gun laws in the country. Finally, the statement neglects to mention that at least two others, who thankfully survived, were hit with the perpetrator’s car. Should we control knives and cars, too?