After being fooled by the “white supremacist” conspiracy theorists, the Associated Press shifted to note that the NRA gave money to the Stoneman Douglas JROTC program, which, in turn, bought air guns, which, in turn, were used when Nikolas Cruz was part of the JROTC marksmanship program.

And a new conspiracy is born! If you connect enough dots, and are willing to equate casual with causal, then the NRA did something that may have benefited the JROTC at the time when Cruz was in it.

In other news, the National Rifle Association is dedicated to helping the JROTC because members of the group go on to be leaders in their communities and in the U.S. military. Cruz is an exception and was removed from Stoneman Douglas for “disciplinary reasons.”

The Associated Press gave Cruz’s disciplinary issues fleeting coverage then moved on to report how much money the NRA gives JROTC groups.

For example, they state that the NRA gave JROTC groups around the country a total of $2.2 million in 2016. Of that, “more than $400,000 was in cash grants, while nearly $1.8 million came as in-kind donations ranging from equipment for high school air rifle teams to gun safety programs for younger children. ”

Two things need to be noted: 1. The money given by the NRA meets needs that remain after the U.S. Army gives its funding, which means the NRA is literally working hand-in-hand with our military to be sure future military members have the equipment needed to succeed in the course of service they have chosen. 2.  Some of the money is used to teach children “gun safety,” which is hard to comprehend because Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) told Joe Scarborough that the NRA is not concerned with “promoting gun safety” anymore.

The bottom line — the NRA helps future military members by giving millions to the JROTC. And they help keep children safe by giving untold amounts to teach gun safety.

Somewhere along the way, Nikolas Cruz was affiliated with a JROTC that the NRA helped, so everything is the NRA’s fault.

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.