Former George W. Bush speechwriter Bill McGurn appeared on Fox & Friends Wednesday morning to discuss his op-ed in the Wall Street Journal responding to those who declare that “thoughts and prayers” are not enough of a response to mass shootings.

For those unfamiliar with the debate, a recap: following mass shootings, politicians often tweet out their “thoughts and prayers for the victims.” As mass shootings became such a frequent occurrence in recent years, and gun control efforts stalled time and time again, many Democrats began to look at those expressions as representative of inaction, and began criticizing them as inadequate if not backed up by policy proposals.

And we’ve now reached the backlash to the backlash stage of the debacle.

McGurn’s write-up in the WSJ takes the holy side of the debate, lamenting that it is “now deplorable to offer ‘thoughts and prayers’ for the First Baptist church families,” following the Texas shooting that claimed 26 lives.

After reading off a few tweets rejecting “thoughts and prayers” after the Texas shooting, Fox News’s Steve Doocy said “it seems to me that perhaps some of those tweet writers don’t quite understand the power of prayer.”

“Prayer is not a magic genie that helps you get out of situations, and it’s a very childish understanding of prayer,” McGurn said.

“These people who are writing these tweets and sending these messages out are essentially mocking how people live their lives,” Doocy added.

And that’s when McGurn decided it was a good idea to compare those calling for policy action in the wake of the mass shooting — to the mass shooter:

“In fact, in this they seem to have more in common with the shooter who, from the reports, sort of a militant atheist on Facebook, and talking about how stupid churchgoers were.”

McGurn went on to say that before the shooting, he thought that “no one could outdo the NFL players in stupidity — just alienating the people who pay their salaries — but watching these tweets, it’s just incredible.”

Watch above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

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