Luigi Pulled the Trigger—The GOP Handed Him the Gun

Gen Z is holding the architects of their suffering accountable.

When Luigi Mangione gunned down a healthcare CEO in cold blood, the internet didn’t recoil in horror—it erupted in applause.

The entire right-wing ecosystem clutched their pearls, conveniently ignoring a glaring fact: they created the very circumstances that create this moment.

Overnight, Mangione became a folk hero, a modern-day Robin Hood with a gun. But his actions weren’t just a shocking tragedy—they were the inevitable consequence of a system that lawmakers built and upheld. For decades, they ignored the cries of a generation forced to navigate an unrelenting cycle of gun violence, climate despair, and economic precarity. Now, that generation is turning its rage toward the architects of their suffering.

Gen Z has been begging lawmakers to take their safety seriously for years. Whether it’s about gun violence, climate change, or healthcare, their calls for action have been met with inaction or outright disdain. Nowhere is the hypocrisy of lawmakers more glaring than in their condemnation of Mangione’s act—an act made possible by the very laws they championed.

Luigi Mangione pulled the trigger, but lawmakers built the system that handed him the gun.

Let’s remember that this is a generation shaped by the fallout of Columbine, where over 338,000 of their peers have experienced gun violence at school. Everyone under 25 knows someone who was in a school shooting. They’re so common that many students have now survived more than one. That’s a terrifying reality that conservative politicians have never taken seriously. These kids were handed bulletproof backpacks and subjected to lockdown drills, all while watching lawmakers refuse to pass meaningful gun control. The message was clear: We won’t protect you. Figure it out.

Now, the school shooting generation has grown up, and they’re furious. Mangione’s act—however horrifying—represents the rage of a generation forced to fend for themselves. It’s not just about CEOs or healthcare. It’s about decades of watching their peers die while those in power sat idly by.

Lawmakers ignored calls for reform after Columbine, Sandy Hook, and Parkland. Instead, they prioritized the gun lobby over grieving families and public safety. They chose CEOs over kids—not just on gun violence but in a healthcare system that profits from their injuries. The average medical cost for a gun violence victim is $31,000, amounting to $2.5 billion annually for injuries that could have been prevented. Ashtin Gamblin, a mass shooting survivor, estimates her medical bills alone have surpassed $1 million. Gun violence doesn’t just take lives—it can bankrupt the families of those who survive. Their inaction built this system, and now they’re reaping the consequences of their neglect.

Take Ted Cruz, who wasted no time condemning Mangione as “sick” and afflicted with a "mental disease." Yet Cruz has spent his career blocking measures that could have prevented Mangione from accessing a gun. He even voted against the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in 2022, the first federal gun control legislation in nearly 30 years, which aimed to close the loopholes Mangione exploited to acquire a weapon.

Or Nino Mangione, the alleged shooter’s cousin and a GOP congressman from Maryland, who sent his “thoughts and prayers” to Brian Thompson’s family. As a legislator, he supported laws that weaken gun safety, including HB1178, which allows handgun permit holders to carry weapons in state parks and forests. His performative grief is undercut by his active role in perpetuating the conditions that make such violence inevitable.

Fox News host Laura Ingraham expressed horror at anyone suggesting Mangione’s anger might have been valid. Yet, for years, she amplified Republican lawmakers who oppose gun control, framing reform as a threat to constitutional rights. After the Parkland school shooting in 2018, she even mocked survivor David Hogg—a scandal so egregious it led advertisers to pull their sponsorships. Ingraham’s performative outrage does little to mask her long history of vilifying those who fight for gun safety.

Even Vice President-elect J.D. Vance recently described school shootings as a “fact of life” while continuing to support laws that make them more likely.

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And then there’s billionaire Peter Thiel, who fumbled through a bizarre interview attempting to condemn Mangione’s actions while personally pouring millions of dollars into supporting the lawmakers responsible for making shootings like this more probable. Thiel didn’t just donate $10 million to J.D. Vance’s Senate campaign; he also bankrolled Blake Masters, another staunch opponent of gun reform. Masters didn’t just blame “Black people” for gun violence, he also opposes federal firearms registries and any form of gun safety legislation. Masters even built his own “ghost gun” and shared images of it online—you know, the exact type of weapon Mangione had in his possession and probably used in the shooting.

HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO TAKE THESE GUYS SERIOUSLY??

For Cruz, Nino Mangione, Ingraham, Vance, and Thiel, their condemnation of Mangione’s actions is hypocrisy in its highest form. Each of them actively contributed to the system that made it easier for Mangione to obtain and deploy the weapon they now decry. Cruz and Vance cast the votes. Nino Mangione wrote the laws. Ingraham amplified the propaganda. Thiel funded it all. And now they have the audacity to act like they hold the moral high ground? They’re shocked that the system they created has turned on them, but they shouldn’t be.

The GOP’s public outrage does nothing to absolve them of their complicity. They are the architects of this mess. They allowed gun violence to flourish, leaving Gen Z to grow up in a world where shootings are as common as school assemblies. Now, they’re horrified that some of the children they are traumatized and didn’t protect, are coming for people like them.

Lawmakers can feign horror, but they shouldn’t be surprised. They raised the school shooter generation—and now, that generation is holding them accountable. Whether through protests, movements, or—tragically—violence, Gen Z is making it clear: The system you built is broken, and we won’t let you ignore it anymore.