We saw this coming, yet it is still shocking: Less than 24 hours after Dylann Storm Roof murdered nine people—including South Carolina state senator Clementa Pinckney—inside a Charleston church, NRA board member Charles Cotton blamed the deaths on… South Carolina state senator Clementa Pinckney.

Writing on TexasCHLForum.com, a forum at which he is an administrator, Cotton stated, "[Pinckney] voted against concealed-carry. Eight of his church members who might be alive if he had expressly allowed members to carry handguns in church are dead. Innocent people died because of his position on a political issue."

Since we're dealing in hypotheticals, Mr. Cotton, what if the late Pastor Pinckney wasn't a character from a lazily-written action film? What if he, as most human beings might when suddenly thrown into a disorienting maelstrom of random violence, had missed after pulling out his concealed handgun? And what if he'd hit another innocent church-goer?

Or what if he'd dropped the gun while fumbling for it amid all the chaos? What if a kid or someone in shock from the mayhem had picked it up and tried to be a hero? What if someone walking by had heard the gunfire inside the church and stopped by with their Glock? How would the good guys have known whether this new guy was a good guy or a bad guy?

How many bullets do we need to fire into a hail of bullets before we say enough?

H/T ThinkProgress.

Dave Holmes Editor-at-Large Dave Holmes is Esquire's L.A.-based editor-at-large.

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