This year, more people have died from gun violence in schools than have been killed while serving in the US military. Most of them have been students, as was the tragic case again last week at a high school in Santa Fe, Texas, where a gunman murdered eight students and two teachers.

Focused on schools, that depressing statistic doesn’t include other victims of more than 100 mass shootings in 2018, including in a Nashville Waffle House and a Detroit gas station.

With each attack, Republicans dust off their “thoughts and prayers’’ tweets and channel preposterous NRA talking points. Before the next mass shooting — and in America, there is always a next time — let’s purge all of the GOP’s rote excuses and half-baked solutions.

It’s not video games.

Not heavy metal.

Not goths.

Not punks.

Not the media.

Not Quentin Tarantino movies.

Not TV violence.

Not too many entrances and exits in schools.

Not mental illness.

Not Ritalin.

Not Adderall.

Not antidepressants.

Not autism.

Not substance abuse.

Not feminism.

Not women’s reproductive rights.

Not single mothers.

Not “broken homes.’’

Not dating disappointment.

Not the absence of prayer in schools.

Not atheism.

Not LGBT people.

Not kneeling during the National Anthem to protest racism.

Not special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

Not transparent backpacks.

Not Twitter.

Not Facebook.

Not Snapchat.

Not Instagram.

Not Hillary Clinton.

Not Barack Obama.

Not bullying.

Not arming teachers.

Not too few “good guys.’’

Not the victims or survivors.

We’ve heard enough of Republicans’ bogus reasons and responses. There is only one true cause of America’s mass shooting epidemic:

It’s the guns, stupid.

Renée Graham can be reached at renee.graham@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @reneeygraham.