As but one example, pro-gun politicians and the NRA go into overdrive after mass shootings in order to fault “mental illness” as the culprit while shifting focus away from guns or gun policies. The approach probably works: a national survey taken in May 2018 after a succession of school shootings at Parkland High School in Florida and Santa Fe High School in Texas found that Americans were more than twice as likely to blame “illegal gun dealers” and “mental illness” than politicians, policies, or the NRA for mass shootings.28
