One of those ‘Second Amendment People’ Took Aim at Trump
We condemn gun violence against a select few but ignore it done to others
That karma’s a bitch on steroids.
In a speech on Aug. 9, 2016, presidential candidate Donald Trump had this to say about his first political rival, Hillary Clinton.
“Hillary wants to abolish...essentially abolish the second Amendment. By the way, if she gets to pick her judges…nothing you can do, folks. Although the second amendment people, maybe there is, I don’t know…”
Almost eight years later, one of those second amendment people, Thomas Matthew Crooks, literally took aim at Trump. What goes around comes around, as the saying goes.
Or did he?
Douglas Orr, the Democratic mayor of Aberdeen, Wash., claims that the assassination attempt was staged. Talk about triggering! Trump supporters have gone absolutely ballistic over this suggestion. Do they protest a tad overmuch? Or maybe they squeal so loudly because the shoe pinches so painfully.
Many of these same second amendment people for years claimed that the deadly Sandy Hook elementary school shooting was staged. Some stalked, harassed, and threatened the murdered children’s parents who lived the tragic reality.
What goes around comes around. With all due respect to Martin Luther King Jr., the moral arc of the universe is long, but it bends toward balance. And sometimes balance leads to justice. Other times, not so much.
With strong NRA support, Congress passed legislation in 1996 with an amendment that specifically barred the CDC from tracking gun violence. That was overturned only in 2019, so the United States effectively is more than two decades behind on researching the causes of and possible remedies for gun violence.
It’s tempting to wash one’s hands of both colors of crazy and retire to a tropical beach somewhere extremely remote. But one truth behind this 10th presidential assassination attempt in U.S. history (two more shootings were successful) is too stark to avoid.
Both sides have roundly, loudly, and rightly condemned the violence directed at Trump. Then why aren’t both sides equally incensed about violence directly daily at too many other Americans? Or those outside of this country?
In the United States, three women die at the hands of their intimate partners every day in the United States, according to Sanctuary for Families.
Worldwide, the United Nations estimated that in 2021, 81,100 women and girls were murdered in 2021, primarily by their husbands or other family members.
Where’s the outrage? Where’s the concern when inner city children repeatedly die from gunshot wounds? Where’s the anger when police overstep their authority and shoot and kill those they pursue in the name of law and order? Despite the Black Lives Matter movement, things have changed very little and police still shoot even at unnamed people.
Gun violence hits home for me. In 2002, the 17-year-old son of one of my former editors was at a friend’s house. There also was a loaded pistol. Somehow the young man ended up with a fatal gunshot wound to the head.
I still weep about it decades after the fact. I remember that young man when he was a toddler and his mother brought him to the newsroom. I cannot fathom the nightmare his parents lived and still go through today.
And they share that unending sorrow with everyone in this country and around the world whom gun violence has killed or wounded, physically or emotionally-spiritually.
All victims of gun violence are equal. Some, however, seem to be more equal than others. We will not tolerate gun violence against powerful white men. The rest of us are on our own. Good luck and remember: Duck when those bullets fly your way!