By now, most people are aware that when an act of mass gun violence happens, the US right wing has a well-worn script they always follow:

Was it committed by a Muslim or a person of color?

If yes, it was an obvious act of terrorism and we need to immediately institute policies discriminating against all Muslims.

If no, was it committed by a white man?

If yes, he was obviously mentally ill and we need to refrain from talking about guns and discuss mental health instead.

But now, we’ve found an exception to this script. Because even though Devin Patrick Kelley, who murdered a lot of people in a Texas church yesterday with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle, was a white man with a long history of domestic violence and obvious mental health issues, he also belonged to a group almost as demonized by the right as Muslims and minorities.

He was an atheist. And now they have their hook to attack the left with.

Here’s the item about Kelley at Memeorandum, in which you’ll find all the usual suspects ranting in unison (they always rant in unison) about atheists and leftists and forgetting all about their usual script: Washington Times, Gateway Pundit, The Blaze, The Daily Caller, Walid Shoebat, Breitbart “News” … they’re all at it.

Never mind that right wingers can also be atheists.

But in the darker corners of the right (e.g. Alex Jones, Mike Cernovich, Gateway Pundit, etc.) they’re going even further, concocting out of thin air a theory that Kelley was a member of Antifa.

This is where these people always end up: in twisted phony conspiracy theories.

Anything to distract from and avoid talking about the real issue: the ugly prevalence of gun worship among the right, and the pernicious, evil influence of the NRA among our elected officials.