What do you give your ailing three-year-old daughter who was recently hospitalized due to a rare genetic disorder? If you're former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum, you get her a membership to the National Rifle Association. Impractical and exploitative! POLITICO's James Hohmann reports from St. Louis:

Bella Santorum, Rick Santorum's ailing three-year-old daughter, is now a life member of the National Rifle Association.

The ex-candidate announced at the NRA's annual meeting here Friday that he and his wife Karen have long been life members.

"Now Bella is a life member of the NRA," he said. "And I hope it's a long life!"

Santorum went on add that his wife, Karen, owns many more guns than him. She also likes to shoot them more often. Delightful.

"When it comes to gun rights advocates, I have to say I don’t hold a candle to my wife," Santorum said. “I am a hunter and a gun owner, but she owns way more guns than I do. And she has a chance to shoot ‘em more often than I do."

Santorum told the crowd that he went hunting in Iowa before the caucuses and did town halls at target shooting ranges.

This most recent development comes on the heels of such bright ideas as slamming California universities for not teaching U.S. history (side note: they do), and, well, running for president of the Untied States.