I was on a flight returning to Philadelphia from Los Angeles when news broke that former President Donald Trump had been injured at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Details are still scarce, but the reaction online and on board has already been enthusiastic – and entirely expected.
This is exactly the kind of thing that provides attractive fodder for the social media disruption machine: taking an event we know very little about and watching the flags unfurl.
“Someone tried to assassinate Trump!” one passenger said as I scrolled through X. (I waited for details.) “Did they get him?” another passenger asked as posters on X already began proclaiming Trump a hero (dead or alive). (Apparently whatever it was hit him in the ear.) “Is he dead?” (Again, he wasn’t.)
” read more: Donald Trump injured in shooting at Pennsylvania rally
Indeed, shortly after the incident, the Trump campaign said in a statement that Trump was “OK” after being rushed off the stage after shots rang out. Subsequent reports said one rally attendee was killed, two others were seriously injured, and the alleged shooter was killed.
Recovered at the scene was an AR-type rifle used in mass murders that included the killing of 19 children and two teachers in Uvalde, Texas, and the murder of 10 black shoppers at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.
But in the aftermath of the shooting, most of the reaction was strictly focused on Trump, and regardless of the poster’s political stance, it wasn’t our finest moment.
Opponents lamented the failure of the effort: “You only had one job…”
Meanwhile, his supporters used the opportunity to declare that their president is invincible and his reelection in November is all but certain.
But there’s no need to rush.
I have been and will continue to be vocal in my opposition to Trump and his vile and continuing violent rhetoric, including that which led to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. But the only response here is not to make Trump a god or the GOAT. It is to declare once and for all that we will finally stop pledging allegiance to our guns over one another.
According to Everytown for Gun Safety, more than 200 people are injured and more than 110 die from guns every day in the United States.
Any other response from someone seeking to lead our nation is not only unacceptable but should be grounds for deeming that person unfit to lead.
As he wrote this, Trump was posting to Truth Social to thank the police officers and express his condolences to those who were killed and injured. “I was shot above my right ear,” he wrote. “I knew immediately something was wrong. I heard a whoosh and a gunshot and felt the bullet break through my skin. I was bleeding heavily and that’s when I knew what was happening. God Bless America!”
It seems foolish to hope that this incident might change the heart and mind of a man who just said last year, when he and other Republican presidential candidates pledged allegiance to the NRA, that mass shootings “are not a gun issue.” Indeed, he vowed to protect and expand the rights of gun owners in his keynote speech at the NRA’s annual convention in May.
“I am proud to be the most pro-gun, pro-Second Amendment president in the history of the White House,” Trump told the crowd, who rose to their feet and chanted “USA” as he was introduced. “And in 2024, with your support, I will once again be your loyal friend and fearless defender as the 47th president of the United States of America.”
In the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s attack, reactions from both parties were, unsurprisingly, condemnation of the shooting.
President Joe Biden said he had tried to reach out to Trump, saying, “There is no place in America for this kind of violence. This is sick … It’s sick. This is one of the reasons we have to unite our country. We can’t allow this to happen. We can’t tolerate this.”
But we do it every day in every part of this country.
Biden’s remarks were brief. largely A perfect pitch in a moment that was still unfolding.
“The idea that this kind of political violence and violence is happening in America is unprecedented and completely inappropriate,” he said. “Everyone, everyone must condemn this.”
Of all the comments made in the aftermath of the shootings, one that caught my eye was that of former Democratic congresswoman Gabby Giffords, whose life was forever changed after a 2011 assassination attempt left six people dead and left her partially paralyzed and unable to speak fluently.
“Political violence is horrific. I know that,” she said. “My heart is with former President Trump and all those affected by today’s inexcusable acts of violence. Political violence is un-American and will never be accepted. Absolutely.”
Up until this moment, this presidential campaign trail has been downright horrific in many ways. And it remains so today. The loss of lives of members of the public exercising their right to support the candidate of their choice is beyond tragic.
But if we are talking about anything other than ending gun violence in this country today, we are simply waiting for the next horror.
