“It’s now a death sentence to fly a rainbow flag in America.” That was one left-wing TikToker ’s reaction to the disturbing death of Laura Ann Carleton, a California woman recently killed in a violent altercation over a pride flag that she flew outside her workplace.

As unhelpful as hyperbolic overreactions may be, the story, as we understand the facts so far, truly is horrifying. Carleton, a (heterosexual) mother of nine, was shot and killed by a man who shouted angry things about the rainbow flag she flew at her store in Lake Arrowhead, California.

However one feels about the debate over LGBT issues, by all reports, this is not just a vicious murder but an attack on free speech and tolerance. Shouldn’t we all be able to agree on that much, at least?

You’d think everyone could just condemn this unhinged crime, and we could mourn and move on. In 2023, you’d be wrong. A social media blame game ensued as progressive political pundits tried to blame this atrocity on Republicans more broadly or specific conservative commentators such as Matt Walsh, whom the shooter reportedly followed.

“This is why we need to stand with our LGBTQ+ friends at all costs,” tweeted The Office star Rainn Wilson. “The atmosphere of hate and violence, fueled by political rhetoric, is literally killing people.”

“Those responsible go beyond the murderer,” liberal actor George Takei similarly said . “Every anti-LGBTQ politician, bigoted pundit, and right-wing hate monger has Laura Carleton’s blood on their hands.”

Of course, not all progressives engaged in this kind of blame-shifting. But many did.

Having an emotional reaction to such a tragedy is completely understandable. But weaponizing a horrific crime to attack people who disagree with you is not — especially when you do so in a way that actually lets the killer off the hook.

An “atmosphere” can’t shoot someone. A man can, and did, shoot someone. That man , whose name I will not write in this article, bears 100% culpability for his actions. Yet when progressives such as Wilson or Takei try to, without any evidence of any concrete connection, tar commentators and politicians they view as “anti-LGBT” as bearing responsibility for this shooting, they are inherently suggesting that the shooter doesn’t bear all the blame.

They’re essentially saying, “Was it really all his fault? I mean, have you seen what Matt Walsh and Ron DeSantis have been tweeting lately?”

This is actually grossly offensive. And it’s deeply depressing that our political atmosphere is so hyperpolarized that prominent figures will make excuses for a killer in order to attack their political opponents.

Of course, they’d never want this twisted “logic” applied to their own side. Don’t forget, there have been many examples of far-left extremists engaging in violence, too. Just a few years ago, a deranged Bernie Sanders supporter tried to assassinate Republican politicians, including Rep. Steve Scalise and Sen. Rand Paul.

Was that the fault of Sanders or his Democrat allies? After all, Sanders has ( falsely ) accused Republicans of “killing people” with their policies, including by simply cutting taxes, a claim as inflammatory and dishonest as anything anti-LGBT politicians say about the gay community.

Nope. Bernie Sanders is not even 0.1% to blame for that attack. Neither is Nancy Pelosi or anyone else on the Left, no matter how inflammatory their rhetoric sometimes is. But, according to the logic progressives are using to weaponize this latest hate crime, they would need to accept blame for this and many other atrocities.

Still want to go down this road, guys?

We live in a country of 330 million people. As sad as it may be, there will always be outlying incidents and horrific crimes in a nation as large and diverse as ours. That’s simply beyond our control. But one thing we can control is how we respond, and we’d all be better off if we could agree to stop weaponizing tragedies to smear our political opponents.

Brad Polumbo ( @Brad_Polumbo ) is an independent journalist, co-founder of BASEDPolitics , and a Washington Examiner contributor.